Keino Rutherford MD's September 2021 Blogs

The Many Benefits of Squats

It’s almost impossible to find a workout routine that doesn’t include some form of squats. From powerlifters and world-class athletes to the casual gym-goers and those new to the weight room, it seems that everyone is doing squats. Why? Simply put, squats work wonders for the lower body.

Read on to discover the benefits of squats and learn how they’re an important component of a holistic fitness regimen.

Squats Strengthen More Than Just the Legs Squats are a compound exercise, meaning they engage many muscles at once rather than targeting a specific muscle. A squat performed with proper form works the glutes, calves, and quadriceps and strengthens core muscles like the abdominals and lower back.

They Lead to Better Posture

The benefits of doing squats to engage the core muscles aren’t limited to the gym. Core muscles are responsible for posture, and improved posture is linked to numerous health improvements like reducing back pain.

There Are Many Different Variations A common misconception about squats is that they’re reserved for weight training, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. In fact, it’s actually best to start out by squatting one’s own body weight. This article outlines the different kinds of squats and details their ideal form.

Squats Improve Joint Health A properly performed squat strengthens the knees, one of the most important joints. Knee structures like cartilage and tendons gradually get stronger with repeated use. Over time, squatting will drastically improve knee strength and reduce the risk of knee-related injuries.

They’re Great for Losing Weight Squats’ weight loss benefits are multifaceted: they develop muscles, burn calories, and increase anabolic hormone production.

Obviously, the act of doing squats burns calories by itself, and squats are surprisingly efficient.

One minute of squat exercise burns eight calories. That number only goes up when more resistance is applied.

However, the calorie-burning benefits don’t end there. The increased muscle mass from squatting burns calories even at rest.

Finally, squats cause the body to produce anabolic hormones. These hormones contribute to the muscle-building and fat-burning processes. Compound exercises like squats cause the body to produce more anabolic hormones than other, more targeted exercises.

How Frequently Should You Exercise?

Every year, exercising is becoming part of our culture more and more. People want to be healthy, look good, and be as physically able as they can be to compete in any sport or activity they may partake in. And throughout the last few decades, society has begun to perfect the best possible ways to achieve health and fitness goals. While those goals may vary from a wide variety of possibilities from individual to individual, it's always possible to exercise too much or too little.

So how frequently should people exercise? This question has many different answers. It's a common notion that people should exercise 30 minutes to an hour every day. It's something that kids hear in school, but that's just a general suggestion in order to stay healthy. For those that have bigger fitness goals, be it losing weight or adding muscle mass, it's going to take more than that. But to address how much someone should exercise, they need to figure out what exercises they’re actually going to do.

For example, if someone wants to do some running to lose weight or just stay in good shape, they could do some steady-state cardio about three times a week or do sprint intervals and cut it to two times a week and have much shorter workouts. But that doesn’t account for the other few days of the week or remaining hours that someone would want to get in.

It’s suggested that people should aim to do 30 minutes of moderate-intensity cardio activity at least five times a week and at least 25 minutes of vigorous aerobic activity three days per week.

But that would be for people who want to work out their entire body, and not everyone does. Not to mention this also wouldn’t suit those who focus more on lifting weights and are much more advanced in that area. For people more into bodybuilding, while the types of workouts they will get in over the years will change drastically and the workouts they do from day to day will focus on different areas of the body, most lifters work out around five times a week.

Recovery is a very important part of that process, so it’s vital they get one day of rest per week, but they also need to push themselves because if they don’t, they could lose their gains.

Before people can figure out what exercises they want to do and how often they do them, they need to figure out their health and fitness goals and what level they’re at, be it beginner, experienced, or anything in between. That is the key to figuring out how often to exercise.