Squats are king!
As far as bang-for-buck exercises go, squats are the king. When performing squats, the main muscles you will be using are your quadriceps and glutes. But you’ll also be hitting pretty much every other muscle in you whole body, including your hamstrings, calves, abdominals and lower back. This is why squats are an exercise you just can’t skip if you want to make serious progress.
How to squat
- Facing forward, stand with your feet approximately shoulder width apart
- Slowly bend your knees while keeping your back straight
- Stop when your thighs are parallel with the floor, just as if you are about to sit down on a chair
NOTE: Make sure your back is straight throughout the whole exercise. This doesn’t mean ‘vertical’ though, as that would be impossible!
Bodyweight Squats
If you’ve never really performed squats before then I definitely recommend that you start off without actually lifting extra weight. This will ensure that you have good technique by the time you move on to adding weight to the equation. Having a bad technique will not only mean poorer results, but also a greater chance of injury.Have a go with these by starting off with 3 sets of 20 reps (if you can)!
Barbell Squats
This is what most people mean when they talk about ’squats’. It involves holding a barbell on your shoulders and squating just as you would with bodyweight squats. It can be helpful to use a power cage when performing squats as it will make things safer.
Start off with 3 sets of 8 reps at a very light and manageable weight.
Dumbbell Squats
There are 3 main ways to hold the dumbbells as you perform dumbbell squats;
- Hang your arms at your sides
- Hold the dumbbells at chest height
- Raise your arms up overhead
There are also some other creative ways to squat if you get sick of the more traditional methods;
Kettlebell squats
This is essentially no different from a dumbbell squat expect that you use kettlebells. I find kettlebells are more suited than dumbbells for squating.
Pistol squats
If traditional squats are getting too easy for you then why not try this? Squat with just one leg as you hold the other leg out straight (horizontally in front of you). There aren’t many people who can do this (without even thinking about adding extra weight)!
Hindu squats
This is just like a bodyweight squat expect that your heals remain off the ground for the whole exercises. All weight is supported by your toes (and your knees will therefore come forward past your toes to counter balance). Don’t try this one with any extra weight!
Jump squats
Nothing like adding some plyometrics to the mix. Jump squats are the same as normal squats except that you’ll be jumping off the ground at the top of the movement (and landing in the fully squated position). Can be a great way to add some fun to a walk in the local park.
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Workout smarter, not harder!
As a kid I loved to watch cartoons. Not Pokemon or any of that rubbish. I’m talking about Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Bugs Bunny and some of the Disney cartoons like Duck Tales. I’m sure most cartoons are simply a waste of time, but now and again they make you realise something.
I’ll always remember the Duck Tales episode where Scrooge McDuck tells the story of how he became so rich. As a very young duck (hey it is a cartoon) he went out into the world to make his fortune but all the work he could get was cleaning people’s shoes while they had their hair cut. On the first day he worked extremely hard on his client’s shoe until they sparkled clean. All the client gave was a quarter. Scrooge was so angry as he had worked so hard and yet received minuscule returns. He eventually figured out that to get ahead he’d have to work smarter not harder. The next scene we see him cleaning 5 people’s shoes at one time by creating a bicycle-powered contraption so all he had to do was sit and pedal. The rest is (cartoon) history.
What an earth has Scrooge McDuck got to do with fitness?
We need to realise that it’s not just how hard we workout or how strictly we keep to a diet that is going to bring us success. If we aren’t following sound advice then we may not ever reach the goals we are aspiring for. We need to be smart about the exercises we choose and the food we eat, otherwise we are just wasting our time and effort.
No matter how much you want it and no matter how hard you try, you won’t reach your fitness goals unless direct your efforts to exercises/diets/lifestyle changes that really work.
For so long I wasted my time working out by just doing what I thought was going to help me get leaner and musclier. In hindsight a lot of what I did was never going to get me where I wanted to be. First of all I needed to find out how I was going to lose flab, how I was going to gain muscle and how I would keep my body that way.
So just how do we workout smarter instead of harder?
Take a step back and see what you’re doing. What is your diet like? What kind of exercises are you doing and how often? Are you making progress and are you measuring/tracking this progress? These are all questions that you have to be able to answer decisively. “I think so” is not a good answer. You need to be sure that the time you are investing is actually going to produce the output you are looking for.
I talk about ‘bang for buck’ exercises in an earlier article published on Take Fit. This article explains that before we focus on isolation exercises such as crunches or dumbbell curls, we need to make sure we are doing exercises which involve our whole body. That way we are maximising output (causing muscle growth throughout our whole body) while minimising input (if you are doing nothing but ‘bang for buck’ exercises you’ll probably decrease the time it takes to workout while seeing increased results)!
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Bang-For-Buck: How To Get The Most Out Of Your Workouts
Go in to any mainstream gym today and the place will be filled with machines of all shapes and sizes. Apparently they are all needed for effectively engaging a specific muscle or muscle group which in turn will give you that complete full body workout.
If one was to purchase all of the different objects in most gyms today they would probably be lucky to see any change on $30,000.
You don’t need to spend this kind of money in order to lose weight or get bigger muscles.
Face the facts, people have been getting in shape for centuries without the aid of specialized equipment. And to be honest, I think obesity is at it’s worst these days which kind of proves it’s not the equipment that you need to get fit.
Instead of incorporated specialised equipment that targets each and every muscle in your body, just focus on a few key exercises that focus on multiple muscles at the same time.
There are certain exercises which have lasted the test of time. Squats, lunges, sit ups, dips, press ups, pull ups – these exercises are not new, and have helped millions of people keep to a high level of fitness. These exercises work multiples muscles in your body at the same time and give your body a much better workout than any isolation type movement could ever do.
Bang-for-buck exercises as I call them, are ones which require your whole body in order to complete the movements . Squats are probably the absolute best for doing this. You see, not only are squats great for your thigh muscles, they are also great for your abs, arms, shoulders, calves, hands – pretty much your whole body!
Squats are so effective that I’m going to be bold enough to say, that if all you did were squats, that would be all the workout you needed to shed flab and get a six pack. I’m serious, they are that effective.
Isolation exercises are not bang-for-buck exercises.
Dumbbell curls, tricep kickbacks, any exercise which is isolating a single muscle cannot be considered a bang-for-buck exercise. They can be helpful if you want to get that extra ripped and toned look, but only in conjunction with a other exercises which work your entire body.
Bang-for-buck exercises mean you are working out multiple muscles at the same time.
I call chin ups/pull ups bang-for-buck exercises because (although they don’t work out the whole body) they target multiple muscles at the same time – your shoulders, biceps and back are all being worked as you pull your body up and down.
Sit ups have received a bad rep in recent years due to improper form causing back problems. A lot of experts recommended that it be replaced with the easier stomach crunch which leaves your lower back pinned to the ground. As effective as crunches can be, they shouldn’t replace the sit up which is another bang-for-buck exercise in my opinion. One sit up requires each and every muscle in your core to contract as you bring your whole upper body off the ground.
Press ups are also a bang-for-buck exercise. If done with proper form they will directly hit your triceps, chest and abs, and indirectly work out your biceps and shoulders. Throw a Swiss ball in the mix and you’ll be getting one hefty workout by just doing good ol’ push ups!
Bang-For-Buck exercises mean you waste less time an effort while achieving better results.
When you fill your workouts with bang-for-buck exercises you’ll accomplish more in 25 minutes than you could in 1 hour with all the ’specialized equipment’. Not only will it save you time (and money) but you’ll achieve much better results.
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