The Benefits of Squatting With Weights

As you design your workout program to help build strength and improve your fitness level, you can’t overlook the health benefits of squatting. Squats are always going to be a must-have in your fitness plan because they’ll not only help to improve your strength level but also offer numerous other benefits as well.

Remember that you can include any variations of squats as well, which will help ensure that your workout stays interesting and that you never hit a progress plateau.

Let’s quickly go through the top benefits squats offer so you can clearly see why this is a must-have in your approach.

The Muscles Worked When Squatting

First things first, when looking at the health benefits of squatting you need to learn what muscles are being stimulated.

The squat is primarily going to target the quads and hamstring muscles, but in addition to that, you’re also going to work the glutes, the calves, as well as all the muscles in the core as they contract to keep you balanced.

Since squats do require you to (in most cases) hold some form of weight, you’ll also get a small degree of upper body stimulation as well.

The Benefits Gained From Squatting

So what are health benefits you’ll receive from doing squats?

The first is the obvious – increased strength gains.

But beyond that, you’re also going to help to increase your muscular endurance, decrease you risk of injuries, improve your total calorie burn throughout the workout, and help to boost your metabolic rate for hours after the session is completed.

Because this exercise does work so many muscle fibers total while you do it and is so intense in nature, it’s this combination that really makes it top-notch in terms of fat burning.

Do this and you’ll burn fat faster all day long.

In addition to those health benefits of squats, you’ll also help to improve your cardiovascular condition as most people will find their heart rat does increase while doing them and can help to improve your glucose sensitivity due to the fact that you’re building more lean muscle mass and using up muscle glycogen while carrying out the exercise.

Similar Exercises Like Squatting

If for whatever reason you can’t perform your squats, either because you’re injured, don’t know correct form (which could easily be fixed by booking a session with a trainer) or you just dislike them entirely and really do not want to do them, then there are some other exercises that will offer the similar health benefits of squatting that you can do instead.

Some great suggestions would include:

1. The leg press

2. Lunges

3. Step-ups or split squats

Each of these will work the same muscle groups that the squats did and will still help to burn massive calories while you do them and keep your metabolism elevated for the rest of the day.

So there you have the top things to note about the benefits you’ll receive from squatting. If you aren’t including squats in your workout program, make sure you do so at your next session.