Stay Strong - Squats
In these times when we're so limited in what we can and can't do - how can we keep moving, stay strong and even build some inner strength at the same time?
Stay strong is a series of simple things you can practice to come through this even stronger. This time: squats!
Hi, I'm Caroline, I'm a fitness Pilate's trainer and this is Staying Strong. We're looking in this time of isolation at how we can keep moving, how we can stay sane and how we can just build some inner strength at the same time.
So today's session, we're looking at squats. I'd always start with a quick warm up. So let's just have a quick march on the spot. So I'm marching on the spot. Particularly if you've been sitting watching TV or you've been at a desk or whatever you've been up to, just get the body moving a little bit before you start doing any sort of strength work.
So squats, there's loads of options with squats. And I love them because they work loads of muscles at the same time, different muscles. So I generally like to start with a ski squat, feet hip width, we're gonna stick the bottom backwards into a squat and then stand back up. So when you squat, you just wanna check that your knees are not coming over your toes. That you've got a good position. Imagine there's a little chair behind you that you're sitting on. That will keep you in the right position as you squat down. We're gonna do another four, three, two and one.
And then sometimes it's good to change the leg position slightly, take our legs a little bit wider, knees and toes turned out, we're squatting wider. So we'll just use slightly different muscles in the legs, in the hips. Good, if for some reason your body's not liking that, if that's hurting, just go back to the previous squats. Doing another four, three, two and one.
Good, back to the march just for a little release there.
Another way to challenge yourself in strength exercise is change the speed. So you can slow those down a little bit. So back into the ski squats slowly down. Hold it and then slowly back up. So sometimes taking it a bit slower will strengthen the muscles a little bit more.
So we're kind of being forced to slow down at the moment, we're in self isolation and that's not always bad. Sometimes just slowing it down makes you stronger. Good. Let's do one more slow one like this and then come back up, a quick march.
Good, just some quick ideas now for you to do some strength work when you got a minute or two, just to keep the body moving.
Thanks, take care, bye.
