Must we squat?

Jthanmyfitnesspal

Do we all gotta do so many squats or are there other ways to gain leg strength?

claireychn074

Yes you have to squat - but so that you can get off the loo by yourself when you’re old, so that you greatly reduce your falling risk when old. But are squats as a younger person the only way to build leg strength? No there are tonnes of other ways, including sprint cycling, leg presses, plyos. I used to work with an orthopaedic surgeon and the people with strong leg muscles recover from falls in their 80s. The ones who are weaker have a much higher chance of dying from a broken hip.

AnnPT77

Squat the movement? Yes, we must. Essential for long-term independent life. We need to get up off the toilet, pick up boxes without over-much straining our backs, get down on the floor without toppling sideways like a falling tree . . . let alone get back up again.

Squat the exercise? Not essential, IMO. There are other ways to train and support the squat-the-movement muscular and flexibility requirements, and not all of them involve spending hundreds to thousands of dollars on a bike. (That's not a diss. Even low-end decent rowing shells cost more than low-end decent bikes. I only own one bike, but two shells. )

I suspect that for a lot of people, the most time efficient and convenient way to maintain squat-the-activity ability is to do squat-the-exercise, if only something like squats to chair level or below while watching TV or something. If they're not biking, rowing, or doing some other exercise that has benefits for maintaining daily life squatting capability, I'd encourage them to do squat-the-exercise.

Even when regularly doing a sport that involves oh, 800-1000 squat-like movements per hour against resistance (though horizontal rather than vertical), I still occasionally do some exercise-type-squats, with or without resistance beyond bodyweight.

Alatariel75

This thread reminded me that I've been meaning to start doing a few sets of squats a day. I did them yesterday, goblet squats, 3x15 and was like "eh, I'll need to add some weight" and then this morning I'm sore haha. Thanks for the reminder!!

Jthanmyfitnesspal

No, hit the bike and ride up some hills.

Alatariel75 wrote: »

This thread reminded me that I've been meaning to start doing a few sets of squats a day. I did them yesterday, goblet squats, 3x15 and was like "eh, I'll need to add some weight" and then this morning I'm sore haha. Thanks for the reminder!!

I know what you mean! I do them and think “no big deal,” but, yep, I’m sore!

Jthanmyfitnesspal

No, hit the bike and ride up some hills.

I thought this question was going to generate a lot more discussion. I suspect that a lot of people don't like doing squats. They're kind of like burpees-- one is easy, 20 is really hard!

nossmf

Didn't realize you wanted discussion, thought you were simply asking a yes/no question, which was adequately answered earlier.

I love squats...didn't always, learned to love them based upon how much they impacted both my legs and everything else...believe it or not, my bench press improved when my squat improved, because there's a lot of synergy going on.

And if you think 20 squats is hard, you can imagine the day I did a 100-rep squat challenge. This was years ago, but I sure do remember it as if it were yesterday...

AnnPT77

My knees don't like them (osteoarthritis, torn meniscus), and I don't like them. Upthread, I said I do them occasionally. Occasional is the key word. I'd probably be better off if I did them - cautiously - more often, even though my legs are pretty strong from frequent rowing/biking. (Last time I did physical therapy for knee issues, the PT agreed that neither leg strength generally nor quad strength specifically were a significant factor in my problems. We worked on other things.)

But I'd never tell people not to do squats, assuming they're able.

Just because I do dumb stuff doesn't mean I should claim it's the correct course of action, and urge other people to do dumb stuff.

ythannah

Yes, gotta squat.

Yes you need to squat, for the reasons outlined by both Claireychn and Ann. It doesn't have to be a weighted gym-based squat but you need to preserve that mobility and function.

I'm a natural squatter, it's always been my position of choice for doing lower level things like getting something from a bottom shelf or gardening. Or kissing one of the dogs. So I add weight and do some variations to challenge my muscles because I want to live independently for as long as possible into old age.