Along with the excellent fat burning effectiveness of adding squats to your training programme, here are some extra benefits of this great exercise.
High Efficiency:
While the quadriceps are the primary targeted muscle, squats hammer a wide variety of major muscle groups all at the same time: you’ll also be significantly activating your glutes, hamstrings, spinal erectors, abdominals, obliques and even your calves to a degree!
Vertical Jump Boosting:
Squats build significant hip extension strength, which allows you to explode off of the ground more powerfully and improve your vertical leap. Not only do squats improve your ability to produce power, but they also improve your ability to absorb it. This means that you’ll be able to jump higher and you’ll decrease your chances of injury on the way down as well.
If you’re involved in any sport where vertical jumping is of particular importance, such as track and field, basketball, volleyball or even football, then increasing your squatting strength should be given central focus in the gym.
Sprint Speed Enhancing:
Not only does improvement in leg drive allow you to jump higher, but you’ll also be able to run faster as well. Many studies exist showing a direct correlation between maximal squat strength and sprinting performance, and a quick look at the quad, hamstring and glute development of most world-class sprinters should make it obvious as to just how large a role these muscles play.
Mental Resilience Building:
Squats are arguably the single most demanding exercise out there, and if you’ve ever performed a heavy set of squats at maximum intensity then you know exactly what I’m talking about. Squats force you to remain fully active throughout the entire exercise. If you conquer the squat, then you are stood in good stead for any other activity in the gym.
High Versatility and Simplicity:
You don’t need any fancy tools to perform squats; all it takes is your body weight or a barbell, which we provide at the gym, if you so desire. There are a ton of different squat variations available that you can use in place of the traditional barbell squat, such as dumbbell squats, split squats, goblet squats, Zercher squats, single-leg body weight squats or barbell hack squats just to name a few. A trainer in 180 degrees gym will be able to assist you with each.
