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Article by Kathleen Trotter, Personal Trainer, for the Huffington Post [Original article]

One of the most important things to remember when you are trying to adopt a healthier lifestyle is that your age, gender, activity level, nutritional habits, genetics, and fitness and health history will affect how you respond to exercise. No two individuals react to an exercise regime in the same way — everyone’s fitness and health journey will be unique. No one exercise, workout regime or diet can make you look like Megan Fox if you don’t have her genetics.

The trick to successfully adopting a healthier lifestyle long-term is to find a ‘recipe for success’ that works for your individual body.

I get frustrated by fitness advice that is written in a way that makes it seem like every ‘body’ reacts to exercise in the same way. A perfect example of a post that frustrated me is the “30 day squat challenge”, which is currently circulating on facebook. (https://www.facebook.com/pages/30-Day-squat-Challenge/109536482550422
http://www.aprilathena7.com/life/30-day-squat-challenge-30-day-crunch-challenge/)

You are probably wondering why a trainer would think a ‘squat challenge,’ or any challenge that is attempting to get people moving, could be a bad idea. I love functional exercises like squats. In fact, I am sure many of my clients feel I like squats far too much!!

What I don’t love are posts (like the squat challenge) that contain an element of truth, but don’t contextualize the information given. The element of truth means that people are more likely to accept the information given without realizing that it needs to be understood in relation to other fitness variables such as age and genetics.

As much as I hate to say this, unless you are monitoring your food, doing additional forms of exercise and/or have excellent genetics, simply doing squats will not aggressively change your body or make you look like the model in the ad.

An individual’s age, gender, activity level, genetics, nutrition habits and fitness and health history effect how they will respond to any exercise program.

Another problem with the ‘squat challenge’ is that, if your goal is to lose weight and tone up, doing 250 squats is not the best method of achieving your goal. To lose weight you need to increase your lean muscle so that your metabolism improves. Hundreds of squats (probably done with poor form) are not the best way to increase your amount of lean muscle. To complete 250 squats properly you would need to hold little to no weight, but to increase lean muscle you need a strong enough stimulus. As your fitness level improves, you need to hold dumbbells. A better way would be to do 3-5 sets of squats with a weight you could lift for 12-20 reps.

Plus, you don’t become fit by doing any one single exercise. Sure, squats are great, but only when done in conjunction with other exercises.

Another problem with the challenge? The expectations are not SAFE!! On the first day of the challenge you are expected to do fifty squats. Most newbie lifters can barely do ten squats with perfect form, let alone fifty. The challenge builds up to 250 squats. Almost no one can do 250 squats with good form. Doing 250 squats will almost certainly contribute to an injury. You are better off doing less squats, properly.

Lastly, the advertisements for the challenge feature a woman posing in a bikini and connect the desire to be active with the desire to look a certain way. I truly believe that fitness should be just as much about how you feel — increasing your energy, sleeping better, decreasing anxiety — as how you look.

So, in short, when reading any fitness information, remember that adopting a healthier lifestyle is not just about making one change, such as doing daily squats. Think big picture. You need to sit less, become more mindful of your daily health habits, improve your nutrition and move more.

Also, always remember that how your body responds to any exercise will be influenced by your age, gender, genetics, fitness history, nutritional habits, and current activity level.

Don’t misinterpret my advice. I am not suggesting you throw in the towel and decide you are simply a product of your genes, and therefore all exercise is futile. I am simply suggesting that you shouldn’t compare yourself to others — especially those with completely different genetics. Learn to appreciate and love your body. Appreciate your genetic window. Work to be the best possible version of YOU!! Become more fit because you want to become healthier, not simply out of a desire to look like your favourite actress or model.

 

This!!!! If you are to do a “squat” challenge, do 25 squats for 25 days, 50 squats for another 25 days, 75 squats for another 25 days, 100 squats for the last 25 days! And take rest days!!!

If you’re goal is to build up endurance - then maybe that will help. But most people do squat challenges to build muscle - and then that’s not the way.

Some of the problems with this and other squat challenges are

1. The volume is way off. The high amount of reps helps you build endurance, not volume. Research shows that the optimal rep and set range for hypertrophy is 8-12 reps for up to 3-4 sets - no more. You should give you muscles 24-48 hours to recover after every workout.
2. There’s too few rest days. During training you stress and break your muscles down, and they need time to recover, rebuild and thereby grow.
3. There’s no mentioning how important your diet are. To build muscle, a calorie surplus is needed (remember calories are not equal)
4. The most important part: it’s bodyweight squats. If you can do +15 bodyweight squats, you are not challenging yourself enough, and you won’t benefit from it. You don’t need dumbbells or a barbell to do weighted squats, be creative with books, jugs and similar.

Here’s a better version of a “butt challenge" made by Robert from Fitabled, who is a certified person trainer.

Finally

Thank god thank god thank god. The “squat challenge” is probably my least favorite thing to see on here. Doing hundreds of bodyweight squats for a month isn’t going to drastically change your body in any way, sorry. Please do some research into real fitness and exercise plans and PLEASE be safe!! 

Do fitabled butt challenge. It has a SHIT ton of rest days and you don’t just do squats. And its fucking certified. Yes God.