Don’t have much time for exercise? Don’t worry, because some fitness experts say that just by doing squats, you can get the maximum benefits of exercise. In order to keep your body in shape, all you need to do is to squat 50 times per day.
Unlike benefits of cycling, squat is a simple sport, you can do it anywhere and anytime without requiring additional equipment. How to do it is quite easy, you only need to open your legs width apart, then position your body as if you are sitting in a chair at a 90 degree angle. Hold this position for a few seconds, and do the reps.
The lower body muscles are very often forgotten by some people. You see a lot of people in the gym who have big shoulders, muscular arms, and broad chests, but their legs are somewhat crooked. Yes, it’s that hard to add a lower body muscle training menu when you’re around barbells, kettlebells, and bench press machines all the times.
Strengthening the lower body muscles is also important. The easiest lower body exercises to do are lunges and you should always do them during muscle training, whether in the gym or at home. By doing it regularly, at least your legs will be stronger when carrying a body that is getting more muscular or excess with fat.
Unlike the calming health benefits of yoga, lunges is more active, effectively burning excess calories. For those of you who aren’t very familiar with this, lunges is basically a movement that stands low with a distance between the right and left legs.
While doing this, try to keep your upper body straight while holding it to return to a normal position. You can do lunges with body weights or add dumbbells with the correct weight.
Lunges target many muscles, starting from the thighs and buttocks. The part that feels the most when doing it right is the quadriceps. However, other thighs will also work well together, including the back side of legs. For those of you who want to get a better legs proportion, please do lunges regularly.
To be more optimal, you have to add the load that is the right weight. 3 – 5 kg dumbbells in the initial training are enough to take your training to a higher level. All you have to do is hold the dumbbells in two hands and make a step forward until the body is lower. Better, do 10-12 reps in 3 sets for the initial exercise.
If you’ve done three sets with a sufficient number of reps, it’s best not to do it again the next day. You could say, lunges make the muscles of the lower body feel very sore. So, rest at least 24 hours before you do the number of sets with the same reps.
However, some people do squats and lunges since they can provide real benefits to the body such as :
1. Effectively Burns Fat in the Stomach and Waist Area
Just like benefits of brisk walking, these simple activities could effectively reduce fats. Even though it seems monotonous, you can make squats a mandatory exercise that you can do if you want to lose weight.
By doing squats, the fat that has accumulated in the abdomen and waist can be burned quickly. You can do this movement for just 10 to 15 minutes every morning and evening to get maximum results.
2. Firms Buttocks and Thighs
Many women want to get toned and beautiful buttocks and thighs. Well, only by doing squats regularly, you can get it. The reason is, the fat that accumulates there will be burned when doing squats and makes it tighter.
However, to get beautiful buttocks and thighs, you also have to compensate by adopting a healthy diet and getting enough rest time. Consult your doctor for diet advice and appropriate sport schedule.
3. Increases Muscle’s Flexibility
Just like the benefits of exercise for kids squats may help to increase flexibility. If you do squats regularly, you can train the muscles of your legs, waist and stomach to become stronger and more flexible.
These strong and flexible muscles allow you to perform various activities well and reduce the risk of injury when doing other, more strenuous sports. Therefore, the squat movement is also often used as a warm-up movement, before doing various types of sports.
The focus of the movement when squats is to train the lower body muscles. If you are diligent in doing this movement, your balance will also improve. Especially when you are in a half-squat position, if you do squats a lot, your lower body muscles are trained to support your body weight more evenly.
By doing the lunges technique, you are forced to pull the hip flexors, which are the muscles that bend the legs at the hips. This muscle is often tense in those whose daily activities force it to sit for long periods. Lunges can reactivate this muscle and reduce soreness in the hips and waist.
4. Increases Metabolism
Health benefits of gardening would be pretty beneficial for mental health, while squats and lunges would be appropriate types of sport for increasing metabolism. Yes, you may get healthier even doing these simpler non-demanding kinds of sport.
Metabolism is useful for protecting the body from various diseases. If you do squats regularly, it is believed that this can make your body’s metabolism increased.
In addition, squats also trigger the release of growth hormone to increase muscle mass and make insulin sensitivity smoother. As a result, the body can be protected from cardiovascular diseases and obesity.
5. Makes Body More Balanced
Lunges is a unilateral exercise, which is to train one side of the body independently. Exercising one side of the body at a time is very good for balance and body coordination.
Bilateral exercises such as squats do increase leg and glute muscle strength, but they cannot provide the balance and stabilization benefits that lunges offer.
In contrast to squats which put weight on the spine, by doing lunges, you release the tension caused by the squat exercise. It’s not a bad thing to put a strain on the spine, but by resting the spine, we give it time to relax during exercise.