What is a squat?

Squats are a great exercise if you’re looking to improve your general fitness, tone your lower body, or build strength. Performing the squat requires using multiple muscle groups at the same time, making it an effective muscle-building compound movement to include into your workout routine. The main muscles groups used when doing a squat are the quadriceps, glutes and hamstrings.

Although the squat is widely acknowledged as the ‘king of leg exercises’, other muscles groups are also involved, such as your back, abs and arms so it’s still beneficial to incorporate this exercise to help tone your whole body.

Whether you’re a complete beginner or a pro, this is a staple exercise to include into your gym routine. The squat can easily be adapted to suit your fitness level and abilities.

For beginners, the body weight squat, which is the most widely-known exercise would be a good one to start with. As you get more comfortable with the basic squat and your legs get stronger, you can make the squat more challenging by adding a variation that includes weights such as the barbell squat which used in Olympic weightlifting.