Diary of a Fit Girl | Why must you squat?

Dear Diary,

To firm up and grow your backside ladies, you must squat. Or, do something that stresses your booty muscles with a load greater than what your muscles had previously adapted to. Let me explain..

Let's bring it back, way back, back to the dictionary..

To Squat is to crouch or sit with one's knees bent

and one's heels close to or touching one's

buttocks or the back of one's thighs.

What muscles do squats engage might you ask? Squats work the entire lower body, more specifically, the quadriceps, hamstrings, glutes, and the muscles that make up the calves.

Now this is very important, so please listen carefully to a little lesson about form..

1. You must keep your weight in your heels,
2. hips back,
3. chest up,
4. core fully extended (engaged),
5. and do not let your knees pass your toes.

If you feel pain in your knees, you're doing it wrong. If you feel pain in your hips, you're doing it wrong. If you feel pain in any joint, you're doing it wrong. So basically, if you feel pain anywhere except in the muscle you are trying to work, you're doing it wrong. Everybody is different, so find your perfect form. I suggest that you take your time and caution while squatting, mind to muscle connection is everything. You get the most when you are fully engaged, concentrated and really working your muscle (blasting your favorite music is a great suggestion, it helps with everything).
Please don't compromise form for reps, and listen to your body.

So anyway...
Let's say you do not have a gym membership (a lot of people don't), who says you need one to squat?

I don't, I say all you need to do is stress your booty more than the norm (that's what he said).
I'll tell you a little bit now about why that stress is making you firm up and grow...

You've just squatted,

You put tension in places that normally don't receive that lovely feeling, and now you are sore. You are sore because you damaged your booty muscle fibers, and now a cellular process can occur. In that cellular process basically your body fuses muscle fibers together to form new muscle protein strands, or myofibrils. BOOM, muscle growth due to protein synthesis.

And just so you know,

This booty firming and growing happens after you exercise,

During rest with a proper diet.

So now, let me give you an example of squatting that you can basically do anywhere...

What if you sit against a wall, any wall, in a squatting position (see definition above).

Try to hold that position for 1 minute, and do that 6 times with short rests in-between.

This is called a "wall sit".

Is that more stress than you normally put your booty through? Probably. Now ladies, when you can do that pretty easily, try putting a stack of books on your thighs while wall sitting. Oh did that get easy now? You're such a boss. What's next? Now you can go to Big 5 or any sporting good store and find a resistance band (ask a salesperson for help, or a "booty band", they will know what you're talking about). Take that band, put it around your thighs and spread 'em (that's what he said), and with a wide stance sit against a wall and hold something heavy (not sharp in case you drop it, don't drop it though) above your head for 1 min. See where I'm going with this? You can do anything with correct form and as long as its more stress than your muscle is used to. With the right nutrition, your booty muscles will grow.

Let me circle back now.. Why must you squat? 3 reasons

1. release endorphins and feel good about yourself
2. so you can be strong incase the zombies take over and you need to climb a mountain ya know?
3. bigger booty is everyone's favorite, ask Kim

Follow me on instagram @fit_humanity for fitness tips and tricks!

Heart,

FitGirl

www.bronzedhumanity.com