Exercise Challenge: How Many Squats can you do?

We’ve been taking it easy for a few weeks, but it’s time to get on the ball again. One of my favorite exercises for the booty and thighs is the squat. I always say you can’t go wrong with the basics; that’s why they are the basics. The squat is one of the most popular exercises for good reason. 

So here’s what we are going to do this week: spend some time shaping up our bums! Pick whatever variation of the squat you like, and do as many of them as you can. Again, this is a basic exercise, and so everyone should be able to handle it. (Quit moaning. I thought about doing the burpee as a challenge. In fact, I challenged myself to more than a few burpees last week, so you should be grateful.)

Just to give you an idea of how the basic squat should look like, see the picture below. I love this picture because I believe that is truly the perfect squat right there.

Three tips I like to follow when doing a squat: 

1. Your knees should be over your ankles, and should not go beyond your toes. So basically, you should be squatting down, not forward. 
2. Your upper body should be up. Keep your chest out, and tighten your abs. Look forward, not down. 
3. Squeeze your butt as you do the exercise. You’d be putting in extra work that way.

So that is the basic squat. If you would like to make this challenge a little harder, try other variations of the squat. See below: 

Pistol squat (or one-legged squat) 

Wall squat (or wall sit)

Sumo squat

For more Eights & Weights posts on squats, check these out: 
Getting the Perfect Booty  
Summer Series: Tone Your Behind  
Four Basic Exercises you Should Know  
Build Your Endurance: Difficult Exercises You Must Try 
Improvised Circuit Training: Diversifying your Workout
 
Don’t forget to log how many you do, and post your numbers up here, or share it with us on Twitter or Facebook! Challenge your friends to join as well. If we get enough people on this challenge, the winner just might get something ;)
 
Cheers Eights & Weights!

Photo credit: Howstuffworks.com, WomensHealth.com, FitnessMagazine.com, MensHealth.com