Back to basics: squat

In our weekly blog we’re gonna strip down one exercise and explain everything you need to know! How to do it, why you should do it and where you can do it! This week’s exercise will be: the famous squat.

Although it is a widely known exercise, many people do not execute it correctly. I was one of those persons as well. The most important part about executing a squat correctly is keeping your legs parallel and that your knees do not pass over your toes. To learn how to do a squat correctly we've set up a little plan to help you in performing the perfect squat!

1. Straighten you back
2. Keep your shoulders down
3. Stand with your feet slightly wider than hip-width apart
4. Make sure your toes are slightly pointing out
5. Lower your body down and back as if you are sitting down into a chair
6. Keep going until your thighs are parallel to the ground (or as close to parallel as possible)
7. Make sure your knees do not pass over your toes
8. Keep your abs tightly activated to ensure a straight spine
9. Rise back up slowly
10. Repeat!

Now that we’ve discussed the basics, let’s move on to the part why you should do squats. Doing squats has some nice advantages. I think almost everybody knows that doing squats is really good for your butt (and the lifting thereof). However, doing squats has some nice other benefits as well. For example, did you know that doing a lot of squats will tone your legs? Your legs will eventually get stronger and even more when you’re slowly doing your squats (it also gets a lot more difficult to hold on, at least in my case ;)). Another advantage of doing squats is that it will strengthen your core muscles which is good for creating more balance in your life (in a physical way, not mentally of course hehe).

An additional advantage is that you can do squats in a lot of different ways. For example, one of the many variations on squats is the barbell squat. This exercise will also help you to tone your upper body. You’re not only focusing on one thing of your body, you’re actually getting a full body work out when doing this squat. Sounds good right?

So are you going to do squats? Are you convinced? Then you can always try out the 30 day squat challenge! If not, there will be a new Back to Basic next week with a new exercise!