SQUATS....Help???

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lirirod
lirirod Posts: 107 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
hello everyone!
I was wondering if squats help with lifting the booty when you don't use weight. I do squats at home because I don't have a gym membership.Is it a waste of time of doing them. I have a non-existent booty and hope to shape it some what. Can you give some suggestions on what exercise I can do???

Replies

  • ndj1979
    ndj1979 Posts: 29,136 Member
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    I think that goblet squats and regular dumbbell squats will help initially…but - and this is just my opinion - you are going to need to progress to barbell squats at some point because this will allow you to squat with greater and greater weight…

    but I would be interested to hear what others have to say...
  • snowangeljo
    snowangeljo Posts: 11 Member
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    in theory you can achieve the same effect without weights, just increase reps as what you are doing gets easier. As long as your pushing your body I think your good :) but i am not an expert by any means
  • jeffh3c
    jeffh3c Posts: 2
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    I agree. You gotta do barbell squats. Not only do they work your glutes and quads; they work your whole body as you start lifting more and are very much tied to growth hormone release (think more muscle/less fat).

    But, if you need to do something NOW maybe try single leg.
  • ndj1979
    ndj1979 Posts: 29,136 Member
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    in theory you can achieve the same effect without weights, just increase reps as what you are doing gets easier. As long as your pushing your body I think your good :) but i am not an expert by any means

    I disagree ..at some point you are going to need to increase the weight so that you are overloading your muscles...
  • ashleearoha
    ashleearoha Posts: 165 Member
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    I think body weight squats are good to perfect initial form but if you want to see results you'll have to move on to weighted squats at some point. There are many variations of body weight squats you can perform at home though, like jump squats, which will give you a huge burn. Go on Fitness Blender.com Its an awesome website with lots of at home exercises :) Hope that helps
  • Will_Thrust_For_Candy
    Will_Thrust_For_Candy Posts: 6,109 Member
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    There are some great books out there on body weight training. Strength Training Anatomy by Bret Contreras, Convict Conditioning (not sure of the author) and You Are Your Own Gym (again I don't know the name of the author, sorry). You will have limited results with doing squats alone though. I would thrown in some glute bridges, single leg glute bridges, hip thrusts (use your couch), single leg hip thrusts, lunges, and some single leg squats and if you have a ball you can do things like back extensions and reverse hypers.

    Hope this helps!
  • DrWhoodles
    DrWhoodles Posts: 145 Member
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    When I do squats now it's a routine with the actual squat followed by tricep extension. My trainer set me up doing them that way because I was cheating too much on squats without weight, lol.
  • meshashesha2012
    meshashesha2012 Posts: 8,326 Member
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    you dont need a barbell (although that's the easiest way to add weight) but if you dont have a gym you can do things like one legged squats, pistol sqauts, squatting with sandbag, etc

    also just remember that the only squats that will help with becoming bootylicious are the ones where your upper thighs are at least parallel with the ground, even better if you can get post parallel. i think for most people that's the first obstacle in squats, so maybe first work on getting the flexibility/mobility needed to do a proper squat (if you have issues with that) before even worrying about making the move harder/heavier
  • Will_Thrust_For_Candy
    Will_Thrust_For_Candy Posts: 6,109 Member
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    in theory you can achieve the same effect without weights, just increase reps as what you are doing gets easier. As long as your pushing your body I think your good :) but i am not an expert by any means

    I disagree ..at some point you are going to need to increase the weight so that you are overloading your muscles...

    You can still most certainly achieve progressive overload with body weight workouts. Buying and reading Body Weight Strength Training Anatomy really opened my eyes to this.

    I do, however, think that progressing to DB/BB training at some point would be best case, but for some people it's not possible :)
  • quellybelly
    quellybelly Posts: 827 Member
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    Squatting with heavier weights will probably help the most.
  • kristarablue2
    kristarablue2 Posts: 386 Member
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    YES do squats and no they are not a waste of your time.

    Fitness blender had a cool squat workout that makes me happy

    10 regular squats
    10 plie squats
    10 squat leg side lift
    10 round about squat
    10 squat reverse leg lift
    10 triple dip squat
    10 sumo squat high kick
    10 double dip ski squat
    10 jump squat
    Wash, rinse repeat 3X

    I also really like glute bridges, there are many ways to do them to make them more difficult without weights

    Now I do squats with weight as well and I do the glute bridges with weight. I think to start other posters are correct do what you can, doing them without weight is way better then not doing them at all....also there is a 30 day squat challenge that people have had luck with, you can google it, its a very common program. Lunges help as well. Make sure your squat form is correct as well...good luck and learn to love the squat:)

    If you really want to add weight you can make a sandbag and use that, or the other day I squatted my daughter which was fun for the entire family:)
  • RaggedyPond
    RaggedyPond Posts: 1,487 Member
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    Body weight only gets you so far. You eventually need to add increasing amounts of weight. I started at home but eventually had to start using barbell at the gym because I can't keep heaving 40 lb dumbbells onto my shoulders.
  • lirirod
    lirirod Posts: 107 Member
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    thanks everyone, I will continue increasing reps while i get my membership some time next month
  • rjmelton
    rjmelton Posts: 37 Member
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    I personally like db lifts as opposed to bb lifts for several reasons...
    1. You can actually reach failure on presses without risk of crushing yourself when alone.
    2. You engage more muscle groups and fibers just to stabilize the weight.
    3. On squats you can more easily incorporate shoulder press or curls depending on how the weight is held.
    4. You can move from one exercise to another in a hurry (chest press to chest fly, squat to shoulder raise, lunge to curl)

    Many others may disagree but just my $.02.
  • ndj1979
    ndj1979 Posts: 29,136 Member
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    in theory you can achieve the same effect without weights, just increase reps as what you are doing gets easier. As long as your pushing your body I think your good :) but i am not an expert by any means

    I disagree ..at some point you are going to need to increase the weight so that you are overloading your muscles...

    You can still most certainly achieve progressive overload with body weight workouts. Buying and reading Body Weight Strength Training Anatomy really opened my eyes to this.

    I do, however, think that progressing to DB/BB training at some point would be best case, but for some people it's not possible :)

    I see your point …but at some point, you be doing ALOT of reps….which I think would eventually bore/burn someone out…

    but for some people BB squat may not be an option ...

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