Saturday, June 30, 2007

Exercise tip # 4 Legs, Legs, Legs! Part 1 Squats

Ah legs. I don't know about you but legs are very important to me, aesthetically and problematically etc. My genealogy is such that if I'm gaining weight it seeks my thighs out first and choses to stay long after the party should be over, in other words in terms of losing fat it's the last to go. A lot of women have this problem more so than men. Although many of us have different areas our bodies prefer to store fat i.e. arms, back, stomach, one of the areas women complain most about are their hips and thighs. So what to do?

Well as I've said before and will again their is no such thing as spot reduction. In order to reduce fat in an area we have to reduce our overall body fat. It does however tend to make us feel good if we have problems with back fat for example to do back exercises. And by all means if something makes you happy and makes you feel good about yourself by all means that is really just as important as losing the weight/fat itself. However there's more to it, for example if you tend to carry fat in your arms, yes doing weight training exercises that build your biceps and triceps will increase muscle mass in that area, but if you don't reduce overall body fat you won't see it, or your arms may even look bigger than ever. The other key is the muscles of your arms are small muscle groups which is important in terms of caloric burn. When wanting to reduce overall body fat the important thing to do in terms of weight training is increase your caloric burn while exercising and after, as well as building muscle. The key is to work the entire body while giving particular attention to large muscle groups i.e. quadriceps, hamstrings, calves, glutes, back(latissimus dorsi, trapezius etc) and pectorals. From there you can sculpt particular areas, smaller muscle groups etc.

Squats are great because they work your legs, your quadriceps and glutes in the concentric (upward) phase but also your hamstrings in the eccentric (downward) phase. The other thing about squats, although I've heard 100's of excuses to not do them is almost everyone can do them. Unless there is a serious medical issue, if you can sit in a chair you can do a squat. In fact that is almost exactly what a squat is. Now I said sit in a chair not fall into a chair or plop. I mean a conscious lowering of the body into a chair. So how does one do a proper squat? Details below:

1) First stand with your feet hip to shoulder length apart. Make sure your feet are not rotated inward nor outward, pigeon toed or duck splayed. Both of these stance are indicative of tightness and/or weakness in either your gluteal abductors or you adductors (inner thighs). If you are used to standing in either extreme this will feel weird at first but do it for alignment purposes it will eventually become easier.
2) Lower your butt as though you were going to sit in a chair. his means your hips move first not your knees. If your knees are moving first you are loading your knees with all the weight of your body not a good idea.As your hips/ butt goes back and you start lowering yourself then your knees should be bending.
3) Your torso should go forward as your butt lowers, almost resembling a Z . Your body wants to be in balance so if your butt goes back, your torso should come forward. If you try to keep your torso upright i.e. the same position as standing, you will push through your knees or feel as though you're about to fall over.
4) As you are keeping your torso up, not as in a flat back but do not bring your chest to your knees, bring your arms up so they're parallel to the floor this should help with balance and keeping your chest up.
5) Your abdominals should be engaged while doing this and all exercises. If you are not you may feel this in your lower back. If you do it is an indication that you are not using your abs and could be tensing your back rather than letting your legs take the load of your weight as there are designed to do.
6) When you are coming up from the eccentric (downward) phase, the sitting in the chair position, squeeze your glutes for stability and strength.
7) Very important to remember do not allow your knees to go past your toes. If your knees are past your toes you are not squatting properly, your butt is not far back enough.
8) Be aware of your knees abducting or adducting, externally rotating or internally rotating. Keep them in alignment with your toes. Try to think about those smaller stabilizing muscles and your glutes abs.
9) Keep your toes on the ground!

Once you have this movement down you can add weights, either at the gym in terms of the smith machine, squat machine or free weights i.e. a bar or dumbbells. It could be a barbell or a body bar held behind your neck. You can also use dumbbells held in each hand. To add to the exercise you can always add bicep curl or hammer curls at the end of the movement (when you are upright again), this make sit a compound movement and you're on your way to burning more calories. Add in an overhead press at the top of that and you've added yet another muscle group, more calories. I will be giving a list of exercises to do with one another at a later date, right now we want to focus on making sure you're doing your squats.

If you feel very unstable doing your squats, you keep feeling it your knees, your back hurts excessively or you just don't have the strength to bring yourself back up another option is to use a stability ball. Place the ball against a wall, door or other flat surface and place it on the small of your back. It should be against the natural curve of your back, the lumbar region, and you want your feet hips to shoulder width apart and follow the ball. This will again look like you're sitting in a chair. Still follow all the other steps other than 2 and 3.

The beauty of the squat is that you can do it anywhere. At your computer, in between writing emails or during commercials if you're watching TV. It engages large muscle groups increasing caloric burn, which mean burning more calories....you get the picture

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