Doesn't every woman have a fear that if they do squats, their legs will get huge? I hear it all the time. Yes, squats DO take more muscle fibers than any other exercise out there, BUT they will not make your legs huge. What they will do is add more toned muscle and actually help you burn fat and get lean. Why? Because the more muscle you have the more it will drive up your metabolic rate. The more muscle you have, the more calories you burn! Isn't that what we're all after? If I only have time to work out one portion of my body, I always go for my legs. Biggest muscle group-most calories burned. When I do them, I hold onto 15 lbs weights.
Bathing suit season is upon us! Are you ready? I'm not but my booty is really burning! If my booty could only look as good as how much it burns....
*Update: We're thanking Julia, a lovely Sister Skinny reader for (very respectfully) giving us this link. And, being that we aren't trainers or certified teachers, or anything of the sort, (unless gymrat counts), we will maybe not act like we are. So, from now on, we will still share our awesomely favorite moves that are fantastic for building muscle but send you to the pros for the instruction.
June 11, 2007
To Squat Or Not To Squat?
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15 comments:
Looking good Robina!
xo
I removed the above post. I noticed that you mentioned you have to keep your back straight, which is good.
I was going to respectfully disagree with you about sticking your bum out. I read a blog by Dr. Jolie Bookspan, PhD in Exercise Physiology and also a Harvard lecturer. She says not to stick out the bum: http://www.healthline.com/blogs/exercise_fitness/2007/03/arent-you-supposed-to-stick-your.html
However, you did mention not rounding the back, so I give you kudos.
Dr. Bookspan's blog has changed my life. I very respectfully disagree with the bum-out!
Julia, thanks for the comment, we really appreciate your feedback!
I think the reason I really stressed sticking the bum out is because sometimes in class you see people that are not familiar with this move. Either they are rounding their back and throwing all of their body weight to their back or trying to bend just at the knees. When they do this, they cannot go down anymore than 6 inches because that's all their bodies will go. Once again, I'm not a professional but I do know what makes things burn! I have a bad back so doing things correctly that correlate with my back is a must.
Go ahead and respectfully disagree - I'm just so happy to see people reading and putting their opinions in! Any comments are greatly appreciated - I need to learn just as much as the next person.
OMgosh, yes, thank you,I'm so flattered!
Jessica1002@gmail.com...whatever you wanna know!
~JS
Sister Skinny,
I'm happy not to have offended anybody! Trust me, I'm no expert but I treat this Dr. Jolie's word like it's the gospel. She's a major researcher in mechanically-induced pain, that is the pain that we inflict on ourselves all the time through faulty posture, etc.
Please point anybody with chronic pain to her site.
Not to beat a dead horse, but she did mention that the bum-out technique is taught everywhere across the fitness industry, but slowly is changing. How are we supposed to keep up? Also, the most important thing is exactly what you recommended, keeping the back straight.
Okay, love your blog. I shut up now!
Oh NO! I just noticed you pulled your picture of squatting. I am dying of embarassment now.
:-(
Julia. Don't die! You will bring our number of readers down from 5 to 4!
If anybody should be embarassed about the picture, don't you think it should of been me???!! Did you see my contorted looking face?! Kate confirmed my worst fears when she just started laughing when she looked at it. "What happened to your face?" HaHa-very funny. I think it just gave Kate a reason to pull it off and not make the blog look like "that".
Don't worry Julia-I am just coming off of 10 months of pulled hips, stress fractures, you name it, it has been happening to me. You can't stress enough to me about doing things correctly, stretching out properly and just plain old stretching out.
And Melonie-
Good to see you finally posting. That's what a best friend is for right? Kate was like, "who is Robina?" I might just refer to you randomly in my blogs as "Jean" though.
Whenever I think of doing squats I think it will help me lose the cottage cheese not make me bulky. Hahaha.
Those pictures are kinda gross compared to the ad. How funny. Of course I never think it looks gross when I eat it.
When I was driving home from Trader Joes today, another one of my fav workout songs came on, and I thought "Why didn't I mention that one", so here's another.
Yeah Yeah Yeahs -Y Control
:)
I did my very first squats last Friday (with a 15 kgs bar, but no added weights), and that was very different from working on the machines, as well as very interesting and almost... pleasant, should I say. You bet I'm going to do some again this week. It's not easy, it's not evident to get the right posture at first, but it really makes the whole body work.
And I very much doubt it can make me bulkier than all the layers of fat I've managed to put on my hips and knees aaaall by myself. :P
These may help some.
http://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/SquatTherapy.wmv
http://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/CrossFit_AirSquats.wmv
http://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/CrossFit_TabataSquats.wmv
http://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/CrossFit_FrontSquats.wmv
http://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/CrossFit_OHSGoingHeavy.wmv
http://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/CrossFit_OHSBasics.wmv
http://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/CrossFit_OHSElements.wmv
squats hurt so good :) hehe. did i really just say that? my food overdose has driven me insane i think.
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