Squats

Light warmup before, light stretching after.

Yes always stretch!

arditarose wrote: »

What kind of squats are you doing?

I usually have my short walk to the gym, some dynamic warm ups like leg kicks, mild stretching of hip flexors between sets. I have at least 3 warm up sets of light weight.

If things are really tight I will foam roll first, but always after. I never just stretch a muscle cold. A dynamic warm-up is much better.

This is pretty much perfect.

You can test and retest to see if you're warming up effectively.

If you're getting better range, more control and stability in the movement then your warm-up is working.

amynis1 wrote: »

What is a dinamic warm up?

I believe he means dynamic, as in active warm up. Instead of old school static stretching you do movements that activate the muscles in a dynamic fashion, through moving.

There are tons of different things you can do this picture is just to give you a visual of what is meant.

If available, I like to do stretches with a resistance band prior to squatting and place it on both legs an under the knees; then I like to stand on one leg and move the other forward, backwards, and to the side. I repeat this for a couple times and then switch legs. Iron crosses are also good as are hip bridges. Pretty much anything to warm up and mobilize involving your hips, glutes and hamstrings will be good :].

There are 3 types of squats; low back squats, high back squats, and front squats when using an Olympic bar. Each has a slightly different form in the squat motion and works different muscles harder. Front squats hit quads better and back squats your hamstrings and glutes. Overall best total body strength exercise you can do but form is CRITICAL! Don't hurt yourself squatting with just body weight or a dumbbell or kettle bell (goblet squat) can help develop stabilizing muscles so you can squat more weight deeper and increase your gains on the bar.

amynis1 wrote: »

I'm not really sure which ones I do it's an app on my phone. I'm obviously not very clued up on anything because I don't even know what an Olympic bar is? I've not been using weights, just stretching my arms out.

Air squats.

You should get blood flowing into your tissues prior to doing anything you find personally strenuous. Something that gets you heartrate slightly elevated and maybe a light sheen of sweat is enough.

You'll want to progress to weighted squats (or a more challenging unweighted variation) when you can bang out reps and it's turning into an endurance based exercise.

If you are planning on sticking to bodyweight exercises, then a decent bodyweight program with built in progressions would be the best way to go. YAYOG (app or book) or Convict Conditioning (book) or Start Bodyweight (http://www.startbodyweight.com/p/start-bodyweight-basic-routine.html) would be the resources to start with.

Stretch before AND after! Keeps the muscles good and not stiff, I love squats! I do the ones on the machine and they have totally changed the shape of my legs!

amynis1 wrote: »

I did the 30 day squat challenge. Did my see one bit of difference and it was still hard by the end of it?? Don't know what else to do lol

I'm not sure exactly what your goal was in doing that challenge. I don't know exactly what it is but I am guessing it was a bodyweight squat program. Something like that can help you with flexibility and bodyweight squats are good for beginners but if you're looking for added strength and/or muscle, you'll need to add some form of progressive resistance (weights, more difficult squat varieties, etc.) If you are specifically looking for more muscle, your nutrition may be an issue as well--you'll need to eat at maintenance or above. If you were looking to get leaner, you'd have to eat below maintenance.