If you do not exercise your legs during fitness, you will regret it sooner or later. This is a well-recognized sentence in the fitness industry. In daily life, many of us are obsessed with full chest muscles, or well-organized abs, but few people seem to be interested in leg exercises.
After all, compared with the upper body, the muscles of the lower body are indeed not valued by many people, and many people even feel that if the lower body is trained, it may feel ugly, but in fact, leg training is particularly important, not only for fitness people. We ordinary people also need to strengthen exercise.
Why is it often said that if you don't exercise your legs during fitness, you will regret it sooner or later?
Leg training has always been a topic that many people often talk about. Why do fitness people pay so much attention to leg training? We often see many muscular men with strong upper body and waist, and the two legs of the lower body look much thinner. People look very unbalanced and seriously affect their appearance. This is the consequence of not training legs during fitness.
Fitness people practice legs in order to make their body look more beautiful, so as not to appear in a state of great contrast between the upper and lower body. And because of long-term exercise, the body muscles increase and the body weight increases, and stronger leg muscles are also needed to help support the body and reduce the pressure on the joints. This is also the reason why many bodybuilders must practice legs.
In this way, it seems that it is necessary for fitness people to practice legs. Then we ordinary people's upper limb muscles are not well developed. Except for obese patients, the weight generally does not cause great pressure on the knees. Is there no need to exercise the legs? Of course not. Compared with fitness people, ordinary people like us office workers are on the contrary. It is better to exercise your legs. Due to long-term sitting or lack of exercise, our lower limbs have poor blood circulation, which can easily lead to a variety of diseases, and also lead to pear-shaped obesity, that is, excessive fat accumulation in the lower limbs, which will lead to insulin resistance. To increase the risk of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, it is necessary for ordinary people to practice legs.
Usually, we ordinary people exercise the leg muscles, and the main choice is the squat.
Reasons to do squats
1. Improve lower body muscle strength
Squatting is a compound movement, which mainly relies on the legs and feet to support the body. During the process of repeatedly squatting and standing up, it can quickly improve the muscle strength of the lower limbs.
When you squat until your thighs are parallel to the ground, you can strengthen the front thigh muscles.
When you squat down until your hips are below your knees, you can strengthen your glutes and hamstrings.
During the whole process, the calf is always in a stable position. When you squat to the bottom, you can stretch the calf muscles and improve the strength of the calf.
At the beginning, you can perform bare-hand movements. After the body adapts later, use a 7ft Olympic barbell to train. The weight gradually increases, and the explosive power of the lower limb muscles is gradually strengthened.
2. Increase the circumference of the thigh muscles
When the squat moves from top to bottom, it is a process of eccentric contraction, and the bottom of the action can fully stimulate the quadriceps on the front of the thigh.
The quadriceps is the largest muscle in the human body and is directly involved in the movement of the knee and hip. It also forms an antagonistic muscle group with the hamstrings on the back of the thigh, and the two oppose each other to maintain the standing and walking posture of the body.
Through repeated squat training, the quadriceps can be continuously contracted and stretched. The more sets and repetitions, the better the pumping effect. After an interval of 24 hours, the soreness of the quadriceps femoris is very obvious, and the muscle circumference of the thigh can be rapidly increased by frequent stimulation and recovery.
3. Speed up calorie consumption
Usually, to lose weight, you will choose aerobic exercise such as jogging, cycling, and skipping rope. You need to train for at least 20 minutes each time, and you must maintain a high frequency of training to be effective.
Squats are originally a strength training exercise, but when you speed up, you can quickly raise your heart rate and turn it into a fat-loss exercise.
For example, do 100 freehand squats in a row without any pause time in between, so you will feel short of breath after the practice, and then do 3 sets of 100 movements, which can generate calorie consumption and achieve the effect of reducing fat.
When choosing a barbell squat, you can use light weights, also increase the speed and shorten the rest time.
For example, with a weight of 50 kg, do 10 sets * 15 times, resting for 15 seconds between each set, so the body will sweat a lot, and it can also help lose weight.
4. Strengthen the core strength of waist and abdomen
In addition to mobilizing the muscles of the legs and buttocks, squats also need to rely on the core muscles of the waist and abdomen to stabilize the body.
Whether it's freehand squats or barbell squats, you need to tighten the core muscles of the waist and abdomen, so as to ensure a neutral back position.
If you are completely relaxed or the waist and abdomen strength is poor, you will form a hunched back and bend over when you squat, and it is difficult to achieve the standard position.
Squat training is also to exercise the core strength of the waist and abdomen. From the bare-handed squat to the use of barbell training, when using abdominal breathing, the abdomen will continue to tighten, which can avoid the problem of arching and bending of the lower back.
When your squat weight is heavier and the movement is very stable, the core strength of the waist and abdomen is also strengthened, which minimizes the risk of being overwhelmed by the barbell.
People who are not suitable for squats.
Squats are not recommended for heavy people
Squats themselves can help with weight loss, but they are not recommended for heavy weight people. Usually, people with a BMI over 30 are obese people. Squats are generally not recommended for such people, mainly because squatting also puts a certain amount of pressure on the legs. Large-weight people may cause knee problems because of their excessive weight. Severe wear and tear, so it is usually recommended to take aerobic exercise such as walking to reduce the weight, and squat after the leg muscles have been exercised to a certain extent.
People with severe hypertension or other cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases
Because squatting and squatting will lead to increased blood pressure and increased heart rate, patients with high blood pressure and other diseases may cause blood pressure fluctuations and sudden cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. Therefore, such people are recommended to try soothing exercises and walk around daily. Just go for a walk, there's no need to pursue a squat workout specifically.
People with severe knee wear or arthritis of the lumbar spine and lower extremities
The squat itself has certain requirements for the strength of the lower limbs, waist, back and abdomen. When such people squat, it is likely to aggravate the disease. But for people who have no problems with their knee joints, the correct squat can exercise the support ability of the leg muscles, which can better protect the knee joint and will not cause serious knee joint injury.
The bottom line
Squats are a good strength training exercise. Regular training of squats can quickly improve the strength of the leg muscles and the circumference of the thigh muscles. It can also help burn more calories and make your waist and abdominal core stronger.
If you just want to strengthen your body or your basic strength is weak, you can choose to squat with bare hands, do 60 squats a day, and divide it into 5 sets of 12.
If you want to thicken your thigh muscles and improve your overall lower body muscle strength, you can choose barbell squats, train once a week, start with 5 sets of 8 times, and then transition to 8 sets of 8 times or 10 sets of 10. Second-rate.
Pay attention to the correct way when doing the action. You need to squat after standing with your feet completely on the ground, try not to exceed your toes with your knees, and press your butt down to find the feeling of sitting down. In addition, the speed of squatting and standing up cannot be fast, and the slow rise and slow up can produce the exercise effect without causing damage to our body.
