Move Of The Month

What's the big deal about the squat?
Well we squat a lot in daily life for instance when we sit down or go to the toilet and the legs need to stay strong as they carry lots of our body weight. The action of the squat strengthens our bottom and the muscles at the front and the back of the leg it will give a nice curved shape particularly to muscles at the front of our legs.

Correct exercise action
Bend at the knees and hips ensuring that the back remains flat only lowering to a position where the thighs are roughly parallel to the ground. To return to standing extend at the knees and hips this whole action is one squat. Always push down through your heels, stick your bottom out, face forward and keep your stomach tight. There should be no excessive curvature in the spine and our knees should always travel in line with our feet the correct foot alignment being about hip width. The knees don't like it if you squat beyond a position where the thighs are roughly parallel to the floor so don't. Lastly try and keep the movement smooth and continuous. In a class structure such as legs bums and tums or a body pump class squats feature heavily and you can do in excess of 100 squats per class.

Variations, adaptations and progressions of squats
We can add weight to make the move more challenging using dumbbells or barbells where we clean the bar onto the back of the shoulder. If we slow the movement down it will become more of a challenge and if we reduce the range of the movement as in partial squats this will also create more challenge and a burning or aching sensation. A yoga squat is very similar the main difference is that you lower your hips to where your legs are bent 90 degrees and hold, your feet knees and hands are together but your hands are extended towards the sky. Named chair pose because you push down through your heels and sit down as if you're sitting in a chair that is not there. Jump squats involve squatting down and jumping up to the starting position.

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