July 3 Weekly Challenge: Lots of Squats
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themedalist
Posts: 3,212 Member
Our exercise challenge this week is squats. Bluntly, I know very little about squats, but I do know they’re an important tool in our exercise toolbox. Fortunately, my good friend Jen is a certified personal trainer and health coach and Jen has agreed to help craft our exercise challenges! I greatly appreciate Jen’s willingness to share her expertise with us!
Jen has created this week’s challenge specifically for us. Whether you are a new to squats or have been doing them for quite some time, the exercises below are geared to each proficiency level and will help you maintain the muscle strength needed to do the essential tasks you do every day.
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Jen’s Bio:
JENNIFER STURM is an Integrative Nutrition Health Coach; a certified Life, Health & Fitness Coach; a certified Ageless Grace® Educator and an NASM Certified Personal Trainer with specialties in Orthopedic Exercise, Women’s & Senior Fitness. You can find her at her website: GetWithItForLife.com
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Theme: Exercise and Movement
Challenge: Lots of Squats!
Squats are not just an exercise; the Squat is a basic body movement. Squats work the two biggest muscle groups in your body: the glutes and the quads. Squats also help build lower back strength and develop core strength and stabilization. Squats are a functional exercise in that they aid your ability to live a full, healthy life. Anything from getting out of a chair, to squatting down to pick something off the floor requires squat strength. Especially as we get older, proper squat technique is critical to maintain health and longevity. As a compound movement, Squats build lean muscle mass, increase metabolism and bone density and boost your overall health and fitness.
This Week’s Challenge:
1. Please read Jen’s blog post:
https://getwithitforlife.com/2017/06/19/why-squats-should-be-in-your-life/
(I highly recommend subscribing to Jen’s blog. It’s informative, well-researched, and fun to read! You can subscribe to her “Coffee With Jen” blog series here: https://getwithitforlife.com/ )
2. Then select the squat exercises most appropriate for you:
Beginner Level: Box Squat (See demo video below)
Intermediate Level: Bodyweight Squat (See demo video below)
Advanced Level: Goblet Squat (See demo video below)
Number of Squats:
Aim to do 10 squats three times a day OR 15 squats twice a day. Look for opportunities where squats can fit into your daily routine. Such as:
Squats can work into anyone’s schedule. Let’s make squats a daily habit!
Wednesday Check-in: Look for a new post this Wednesday. Please let us know how it goes for you this week. I'm looking forward to hearing about your progress and I know others are too. We can all learn from each other.
Make it a great week!
Jen has created this week’s challenge specifically for us. Whether you are a new to squats or have been doing them for quite some time, the exercises below are geared to each proficiency level and will help you maintain the muscle strength needed to do the essential tasks you do every day.
________________________________________________________________________________
Jen’s Bio:
JENNIFER STURM is an Integrative Nutrition Health Coach; a certified Life, Health & Fitness Coach; a certified Ageless Grace® Educator and an NASM Certified Personal Trainer with specialties in Orthopedic Exercise, Women’s & Senior Fitness. You can find her at her website: GetWithItForLife.com
_________________________________________________________________________________
Theme: Exercise and Movement
Challenge: Lots of Squats!
Squats are not just an exercise; the Squat is a basic body movement. Squats work the two biggest muscle groups in your body: the glutes and the quads. Squats also help build lower back strength and develop core strength and stabilization. Squats are a functional exercise in that they aid your ability to live a full, healthy life. Anything from getting out of a chair, to squatting down to pick something off the floor requires squat strength. Especially as we get older, proper squat technique is critical to maintain health and longevity. As a compound movement, Squats build lean muscle mass, increase metabolism and bone density and boost your overall health and fitness.
This Week’s Challenge:
1. Please read Jen’s blog post:
https://getwithitforlife.com/2017/06/19/why-squats-should-be-in-your-life/
(I highly recommend subscribing to Jen’s blog. It’s informative, well-researched, and fun to read! You can subscribe to her “Coffee With Jen” blog series here: https://getwithitforlife.com/ )
2. Then select the squat exercises most appropriate for you:
Beginner Level: Box Squat (See demo video below)
Intermediate Level: Bodyweight Squat (See demo video below)
Advanced Level: Goblet Squat (See demo video below)
Number of Squats:
Aim to do 10 squats three times a day OR 15 squats twice a day. Look for opportunities where squats can fit into your daily routine. Such as:
- Brushing your teeth
- Washing dishes
- Getting a drink of water
- Restroom breaks
- Standing in line
- Before getting into bed
- Right after you get up
Squats can work into anyone’s schedule. Let’s make squats a daily habit!
Wednesday Check-in: Look for a new post this Wednesday. Please let us know how it goes for you this week. I'm looking forward to hearing about your progress and I know others are too. We can all learn from each other.
Make it a great week!
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Replies
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Beginner Level: Box Squat:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRmghGLu2ZQ
Intermediate Level: Bodyweight Squat
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3joOwL4cvg
Advanced Level: Goblet Squat
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3b0lvMH0gk 0 -
Count me in, Goblet Squats for me. I love the kettlebell.3
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These are great videos. I've always done body weight squats but will start with box squats tomorrow and focus on perfecting form before moving on. BTW.... Jen's blog series at getwithitforlife.com is an awesome site that provides well researched and common sense information on a variety of health topics.2
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Most of the YouTube exercise routines I do include squats, the body weight type. Some include using dumbbells, although I have not increased that past 2 pounds yet. But I don't tend to go too deep.
As I do my routines this week I will count the squats, and make sure I get in at least 30 a day as per challenge. I will work on trying to get lower (if my knees don't act up).
Jen's article was very informative. I didn't realize all of the benefits.1 -
I just read another article on Jen's site related to collagen, as it's linked to tendons and I'm a long-time tendonitis-prone person. Wow, what great info! She is a wealth of knowledge. I have subscribed.1
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Ill definitely be doing this challenge!1
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hollyhock1009 wrote: »I just read another article on Jen's site related to collagen, as it's linked to tendons and I'm a long-time tendonitis-prone person. Wow, what great info! She is a wealth of knowledge. I have subscribed.
@hollyhock1009, Jen is indeed a wealth of information. One of my favorite bloggers!0 -
Hey all! Jen here. I'm so pleased that Denise asked me to partner with her on this (& future) fitness challenges. I joined MFP back in 2011 around the same time Denise did. My nick was HarlanJEN. I left MFP about a year ago, but rejoined specifically to take part in this group. July looks AWESOME! Denise is hitting it out of the ballpark.
Back to Squats! They are a tremendous functional exercise. My core and squat strength came in handy after my 2 recent orthopedic surgeries. I'm a HUGE advocate of strength training and functional movement. If you are experienced with squats and feel that you have your form nailed, a way to progress the exercise is with PAUSED SQUATS. You can do a paused squat with any of these variations. How to do that? Hold the squat position for 20 seconds; engage your core (do the drawing in maneuver; hold tight form. Return to starting position. With a paused squat, you are emphasizing the Isometric phase of the movement and we get tremendous muscle activation and strength gains with Isometrics. ALWAYS focus on technique/form over the # of repetitions. More isn't always better - it's just more.
Glad you are enjoying my blog - Coffee With Jen. Read all you want, but I especially recommend "Why Women Should Strength Train" and Parts I and II of Functional Aging.
I'd love to hear from you about what you'd like to read out. I take requests!
Stay Healthy. Be STRONG. Get After It.
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Great challenge. I generally do squats in my workouts, but I'll have think a bit more to include them in my day 3 times.
Got them done for today. 2 -
Very informative videos. I must say though the squats they have had me doing at PT are very modified, lol first I was holding the bar but I can now without. And my squat is not nearly as low as those in the video, but I did it. They have had me do 20 in two sets of 10. I haven't been good at doing them at home but thanks to the challenge, yesterday I did my 20, I will try again today.2
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Very informative videos. I must say though the squats they have had me doing at PT are very modified, lol first I was holding the bar but I can now without. And my squat is not nearly as low as those in the video, but I did it. They have had me do 20 in two sets of 10. I haven't been good at doing them at home but thanks to the challenge, yesterday I did my 20, I will try again today.
@Ming1951 you raise an excellent point. Some people are going to need to modify the squats or repetitions to suit their particular needs or situation. I'm in that category as well. As always, it's best to follow the advice of your health professional.
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I am 3 weeks out from knee arthroscopy and am still doing PT twice a week. I'm not sure if my therapist would be okay with me doing these. So, I'm not sure if I can be part of this challenge, although this is something I really am interested in learning and adding to my daily regimen. I'll have to save this post so I can come back to it!
This week, I will continue with my twice daily knee exercises and add my "good" knee/leg to them so get both sides. That will be my modification while I'm healing...
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I just joined but look forward to the challenges. This looks like it's doable.2
