Squats Are Healthy

Give me a second and think about movements you do during your everyday living activities that mimic the squat. 

Did you come up with, sitting down and standing up? Or how about picking something up off of the ground or low shelf? These are just some of the movements that mimic the squat, of course when done properly. The unfortunate thing that is happening is that we are seeing more people with lower back pain and shoulder issues due to prolonged sitting at desk or cars and always typing on their computers or phones, and people are picking things off of the floor by hinging instead of squatting. 

Since I like to keep things short I am just going to give you three reasons why squatting is beneficial to your health. 

1. By incorporating squats into your workout you are strengthening the muscles that help hold our spine straight and you are promoting bone growth. This will help improve your posture, increase flexibility, help with eliminating pain and give you a fighting chance against osteoporosis. Believe me, when I say you can fight low back pain with squatting. I have dealt with low back issues since 2007 and can feel the difference when I don’t keep up with my strength training routine which incorporates different forms of squatting. 
2. Squatting will increase collagen, which will help give us that toned look, and release natural HGH (human growth hormones) from our pituitary glands. HGH helps us mend after a lift day and will help increase energy, stimulate bone growth, improve our mood, and fat loss. 
3. Let’s go over that fat loss that I just mentioned. Our body uses mostly our larger muscles to perform the squat, especially when we put heavier loads on them. Since larger muscles burn more calories than our smaller ones you can expect your calorie burn to be higher, plus the calorie burn is longer afterward than what you would get with cardio. Most studies show we can burn fat up to two hours after cardio is performed and we can burn fat up to 18 hours after strength training. 

Squatting is a great movement to add to your workout routine and there are so many different variations of the movement. Start off light, find one that you are comfortable with and use that as your main squat, use proper form, and play with the other variations once in a while. The most important thing is to be comfortable with the movement and give it your best effort!

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