30 Day Squat Challenge - Take Your Butt from Flat to Full

Why Squat?

Squat is a fantastic multi-muscle exercise that tones your glutes, thighs and hamstrings while strengthening the core and improving your strength. In fact, Scott Carrell, certified personal trainer, calls on his University of Washington post "Squat is about as close to a miracle as anything I know".

 ACSM, American College of Sports Medicine also grants this highly popular, widely performed exercise as one with excellent potential for adding lean muscle mass.

While it's an excellent choice as an everyday workout, when you squat the wrong ways, it can hurt your knees, lower back and ankles.

In the recent years, "30 day squat challenge" has become insanely popular.

While I love that more people are squatting today, I cannot help but to notice the danger of beginners who never performed squats before performing 50 to 250 squats a day. Kathleen Trotter, personal trainer and Huffington Post writer shares the same concern.

She writes the mainstream "30 day challenge" expectations are not SAFE. She adds most newbie lifters can barely do ten (10) squats with perfect form, let alone fifty (50) squats, and "doing 250 squats will almost certainly contribute to an injury".

It's not only important to help challengers get acquainted with squats with more elementary, warm-up move like wall squat before advancing them to standard squats with higher repetitions.

Performing squats for 7 days a week for 30 days, non-stop is also not good for your body.

Without sufficient recovery period or a rest day in between vigorous squat sessions, the famed and popular 30 day squat challenge can be disastrous and outright dangerous.

Jonathan Ross, Health and Fitness Expert named 2010 IDEA Personal Trainer of the Year explains on his ACE article, How Much Rest You Actually Need, "proper recovery is as important as proper training." and that you make progress not when you work out, but when you recover from the workout.

Not taking a day off can also bring negative effects on your performance. Jay Cardiello, a globally-recognized fitness trainer warns how insufficient rest can make you become more susceptible to muscle soreness, improper sleep, a decrease in strength, and injury. He also suggest how rest days can renew your motivation and helps you jump back into your program.

30 Day Squat Challenge - Take Your Butt from Flat to Full