Powerful Legs With Squats

Doing squats will give you strong and powerful legs. They help you build all of the muscles in your thighs, hips and buttocks. Squats also help strengthen the bones and ligaments in your lower body.

Squats must be done carefully and with correct form as to not hurt your knees and lower back. People with knee injuries or back problems might want to avoid doing squats, or seek the advice of a medical professional or trainer.

To do squats safely, start out standing up with your feet shoulder-width apart. Slowly bend down at the knees until your thighs are parallel to the floor. Don’t lower yourself any further than that.

Now raise yourself up and return to the starting position. If at any point during the exercise you feel discomfort in your knees, try adjusting your stance by either slightly widening it or making the distance in between your feet a little smaller.

When you first start out and are getting the basic motion that works for you, you should do squats without any weight. As you progress, you can add weight to the exercise by holding a dumbbell in each hand as pictured above.

Squats should be done in long sets to failure. Try doing 20 reps per set.