It’s not often that you can determine a clear cut winner when it relates to
boosting your metabolism, but when it comes right down to it NOTHING beats
the “squat.”
The reason it’s so metabolic is that it forces every muscle fiber in your lower
body (and most in your upper body) to work. Plus, the intensity of the
movement causes your heart rate to spike which further boosts the metabolic
effect.
This one exercise will literally tone and tighten your entire body!
Although it’s a controversial statement, I believe that everyone should include
some variation of squats in their weekly exercise program. We all need to squat
in daily life so my philosophy is why not train the muscles you need to squat to
make them stronger and more balanced.
And, if you don’t believe you squat during every day activities try sitting or
standing up without flexing (bending) your hips or knees…
I also want to be clear that I’m not recommending you need to step under a 225
pound barbell for heavy sets of 5… However, there’s no reason why you
can’t start out with a simple body weight box squat which is essentially
just sitting down on a box, chair, or step, and then standing back up again.
If you’re new to squatting you can try this box squat exercise for just one set of
8 repetitions and see how you feel.
After you start to feel more comfortable with your balance, strength, and
technique you can begin to add weight or increase the difficulty of the
movement.
Although I’ve spoken about this in the past, let’s cover why you may get knee
pain when you squat and “the simple fix to get rid of knee pain.”
Besides alignment issues concerning tight hips, thigh muscles, and calves
the primary cause of knee pain when most people squat is due to improper
knee flexion (it’s the same issue with lunges, etc).
This improper knee flexion occurs when your knees go over toes as you’re
squatting down.
Typically, it happens when you shift your weight off your heels and hips and
instead onto the balls of your feet. This creates greater sheering forces on
your knee joints which is one of the reasons why you feel pain.
I see this breakdown in technique in almost every new client who comes to our
studio, but luckily there’s a quick fix in the biomechanics of this squatting
movement to immediately correct the form.
Try using these 3 quick tips to perfect your squat:
1. Start the exercise by sitting back with your hips
2. Keep the weight on your heels as your knees bend
3. Look straight ahead and keep your chest up as you squat as deep as you
can with proper form
You can also try this fantastic quick fix technique:
Stand two inches away from a wall and squat down as deep as you can without
your knees or chest touching the wall (you may hold onto the wall if needed).
Continue to keep practicing this body weight squat until you can get your hips
close to parallel to the floor.
By using this technique, not only will your leg strength improve, but
your core will be much stronger as well!
Lastly, if you correct your form through wall squatting and you still feel pain in
your knees while completing the movement I would highly recommend static
stretching your leg muscles directly after using a foam roller on your hips and
legs.
This flexibility technique will help to realign your joints (by returning your
tight muscles to their original form) which in turn will help to decrease knee pain.
I hope these tips help you take full advantage of the #1 metabolic leg
exercise in the world (and all its variations) so that you can maximize your
results through performing proper movements! (check out the video below)
Committed to your success,
Stephen Cabral,CSCS
Please Note: I DO NOT promote, endorse, recommend, or have ANY affiliation
with any of the advertised products in this video or my YouTube videos in
general. I partner with a company to shoot the videos and they place ads (along
with YouTube) in the videos…
#1 Metabolic Leg Exercise Video!
Pleasel feel free to forward this page to anyone it could help!
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