The Edmonton Muse October 2017 | Page 11

What Are Squats?

This exercise requires your whole body to work together and targets mainly your hips, glutes, quads and hamstrings. Ladies if you are looking to perk up those butt muscles, this is one of the main exercises to have in your workouts.

The Breakdown

Stand with your feet shoulder width apart from each other and your arms outstretched in front of you for balance. Pull your body down towards the ground into a chair position keeping your back as straight as possible and sticking your butt out behind you as far as possible. Make sure the weight of your body is felt mainly on the heels of your feet keeping in mind not to let your knees bend over the front of your toes. Sit back in your squat as if you were getting ready to sit down into a chair. As you push out of the squat, engage your quads, your hams and push through the heels of your feet back to an upright position.

Functionality

Squats encourages your upper and your lower body to work together where by improving both mobility and balance.

Variations

These are just a few different types of squats that you can alternate between whenever squats are added into your workout.

Regular Squats

Sumo Squats

Side Squats

Close Stance Squats

Single Leg Squats

Pop Squats

Workout Corner - Squats