The squat is considered a functional exercise. Also, for anyone looking to get started on a diet, including this simple physical exercise is a definite must.
If you can practice it correctly in your workout routine, then you are less likely to get injured as you age, mainly because many muscles work at the same time, not just your legs.
For instance, your lower back muscles and abs stabilize your trunk while your legs move.
However, the key to the squat is to perform it consistently with flawless technique. But, if you strive to have perfect technique all the time, you will reduce your chances of injury and increase your physical resistance.
How Many Calories Do Squats Burn?
During any type of exercise, everyone burns a slightly different amount of calories, even while performing the same exercise. Therefore, using average numbers here is a simple answer:
- a 100-pound person doing squats for 10 minutes can burn 38 calories;
- a 125-pound person doing squats for 10 minutes can burn 47 calories;
- a 150-pound person doing squats for 10 minutes can burn 57 calories;
- a 175-pound person doing squats for 10 minutes can burn 66 calories;
- a 200-pound person doing squats for 10 minutes can burn 76 calories.
Practicing squats for half an hour every day, you will burn about 5,000 calories per month. This is more than 1,5 pounds a month or almost 20 pounds a year!
Note
How many calories you burn will pretty much depend on how much muscle you already have, your hormonal profile, how much brown fat versus white fat you have, your age as well as the intensity of the workout.
Moreover, the number of calories you burn will differ depending on the amount of weight you have to lift. For instance, if you use heavy weights while doing this type of exercise, your calorie burn will increase considerably.
Tip – beginners should start squatting with no added weight and up the ante only after an excellent form is nailed down.
There is also the afterburn effect, also known as excess post-exercise oxygen consumption (EPOC). This means that the human body uses more oxygen after physical exercise than before exercise, and uses more calories during recovery from physical activity than it does before exercise.
Benefits
Boosts Testosterone Levels
When done correctly, they are so energetic that they trigger the release of human growth hormone and testosterone in the body, which are important for muscle growth. Moreover, these two hormones will help to improve muscle mass when you train other areas of the body aside from the legs.
Improves Posture and Mobility
They enhance musculature on the legs that can give you added flexibility and mobility not to mention a much better posture. This improvement in mobility and flexibility will carry over to many regular day-to-day activities and other types of physical exercises that further improves overall performance and lowers your risk of injury.
Promotes Digestion
They help you to remove waste from the body since this exercise eases the passing of waste through your bowels and improves the flow of fluids in the human body, therefore, it helps to keep you regular too.
Makes You More Energetic
One of the reasons why men and women are more energetic is not just because they have enough energy in the physical body but because their body is fit enough so they could do whatever they want.
Weight Loss
Because one of the most time-efficient methods to burn more calories regularly is by developing more muscle mass, this exercise can help you to burn more fat and lose unnecessary fat.
Tips
The most important thing to remember (when doing this exercise) is to keep your knees behind your toes and move slowly.
Stand with hips stacked over knees, feet a little wider than shoulder-width apart, and knees over ankles.
One big mistake many individuals make when they squat is looking down at the ground, or rounding their necks. By doing this, the spinal alignment is thrown off, which makes this physical exercise a very dangerous activity.
A full squat is considered one that is done all the way down until the thighbone is parallel to the floor. But, if you don’t do this correctly, you won’t fully engage the upper part of your hamstring and your glutes.
Squatting to full depth does not strain ligaments or make knees looser. Actually, doing a full-depth squatting increases knee joint ligament stability.
Image credit – Shutterstock
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