When it comes to the best exercises to help you build additional muscle mass and increase strength the most significantly, most bodybuilders tend to agree that the squat and deadlift both play key roles in doing so.
These two key compound lifts are extremely intense, allow you to train your legs to their full capacity and have a positive effect on your upper body development as well, due to the testosterone increase they induce.
Although there are probably at least a couple dozen benefits to talk about when it comes to squats, here are 6 major benefits to squatting that come to mind:
6 Major Benefits of Squats
#1. Activates Many Different Muscle Groups
Although your quads and glutes are the two main muscle groups that squats target, they also target many other smaller muscle groups as well, which are important for a balanced physique.
To name a few, your hamstrings, abdominals, hamstrings, calves and even your lower back are all worked anytime you do a squat.
#2. Functionality
Our ancestors have been squatting down for millions of years, so it’s a basic movement that we’ve become accustomed to.
Not only does the strength increase you will experience from squatting have a positive impact on your performance in the gym, but it can also improve your performance in doing day-to-day activities as well.
#3. Improves Athletic Performance
Adding more weight to any lift will improve your athletic performance, but since squats allow you to increase your strength much faster than other lifts, it can help improve your athletic performance at a much faster rate as well.
Another reason squats can improve your athletic performance is due to the fact that they increase strength in your hip extenders, which help you with explosive movements off the ground and can increase your vertical jump.
Squats not only help you improve power and endurance, but they can also help you absorb it as well. Because of this, you’ll be able to jump higher or fall from a higher cliff (not recommended) and decrease your risk of injury when you hit the ground.
There is also some research to suggest that squatting can help increase sprinting speed.
#4. Decreases Chance of Injury
Many sports related injuries occur because of poor ligament function, weak stabilization muscles and weak connective tissues. Squats can increase the strength of all of these smaller bodily systems, which is very important for providing your body with a strong support system that can decrease the risk of injury.
Anybody who is serious about building additional muscle mass should always place these muscle groups as a training priority and incorporating squats into your routine is a sure-fire way to do so.
#5. Increases Overall Flexibility
Not only are squats a great way to increase muscle size and strength, but they can also improve your flexibility as well.
Squats increase the range of motion of your hip flexors and the result is often a decreased risk of injury and less stiffness in the joint.
#6. Develops Core Strength
Anytime you squat, your core is being worked extensively to maintain a proper spinal position for the lift.
This can improve your overall core strength. A few benefits of this are:
- Can increase your overall strength on many major compound exercises.
- Can help protect your lower back from injury.
- Increases muscle size and strength in your abdominals and obliques.
Benefits Of Squats: Putting Everything Together
Unless there is some sort of reason as to why you cannot perform them, squats should be included in any serious lifters workout routine.
Squats can dramatically increase muscle size & strength in your quads and hamstrings, increase functional strength, improve athletic performance, reduce the risk of injury, improve your flexibility and increase the strength of your core.
If that’s not enough for you here is one more. Squatting has been shown in several studies to increase testosterone and growth hormone production, which can help you build more muscle all around your entire body.
Do squats anytime you train your legs in the rep range of anywhere from 5-12. I tend to stick to the lower end of the spectrum, since doing too many reps takes away from developing the most amount of muscle size & strength and primarily focuses on cardiovascular health & for those who wish to tone up.
Although squats are very intense and demanding, for serious bodybuilders they are a fantastic exercise that should be included into their routine, if possible.
These benefits are so worth doing squats.
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