If you don’t squat regularly, then you’re not going to be able to go straight into a 100 squats a day challenge. You’ll need to build up to doing 100 squats every day. This challenge goes from 10 squats to 100 in 30 days. Challenge yourself a little more each day to work up to being able to do 100 squats. Then, if you want to, you’ll be ready to do 100 squats every day.
How to squat
Before you start the challenge each day, do a few warm up squats. For these, only go halfway down. Once your muscles and joints are used to the movement, you can go down into the full squat. Please also read these general guidelines on exercise safety.
The 100 squats a day challenge
This is the number of squats for each day of the challenge
Squatting with good technique
Performing squats with proper form is important in order to enjoy maximum benefits of the exercise and minimize the risk of injury. Here’s why having good technique when doing squats is essential:
Enhanced Muscle Engagement: Proper squat form ensures that the target muscles, including the quadriceps, hamstrings, glutes, and core, are engaged effectively. This leads to improved muscle strength, tone, and endurance.
Injury Prevention: Improper squat form can strain the lower back, knees, and ankles, increasing the risk of injury. Maintaining a neutral spine, keeping the knees aligned over the toes, and avoiding excessive weight bearing on the toes are key to injury prevention.
Effective Movement Patterns: Squats are a fundamental movement pattern that translates into everyday activities, such as climbing stairs, getting up from a chair, and lifting objects. Proper squat technique helps develop these movement patterns correctly, enhancing overall functional movement.
Optimal Weight Distribution: Proper squat form ensures that weight is evenly distributed throughout the feet, preventing strain on specific areas. This promotes stability, balance, and alignment.
Increased Range of Motion: Proper squat form allows for a full range of motion, promoting flexibility and mobility in the hips, knees, and ankles. This can help prevent stiffness and reduce pain in these joints.
Related to 100 squats a day challenge
Challenge FAQs
The first day of the challenge should feel like it needs a bit of effort, but not too much. If you really struggle with day 1, then you probably won’t get through the challenge. The idea with the challenges on this site is that the first few days get you used to the exercises and the daily habit. Usually about halfway through the challenge the effort levels start to increase more quickly.
Avoid challenges that increase effort levels very quickly – they’re simply not realistic. It’s unlikely that, for example, you would be able to increase how many squats you are able to do by 10 a day for 30 days, or increase your plank hold time by 10 seconds a day for 30 days.
In general, allowing muscles 48 hours between workouts is good because it gives our bodies time to recover and adapt. Challenges are generally short workouts and for a limited period of time (usually 30 days), so not having many rest days won’t be a problem. With challenges that alternate exercises each day, it’s not an issue, because you’re using different muscles.
Fitness improvements don’t always happen in a predictable way. Sometimes we’re just not as strong or energetic for no apparent reason, or we hit a plateau. If you get to a point where you’re struggling to complete the day’s challenge, you can try one of the following:
- Take a couple of days off and start again where you left off
- Do the challenge on alternate days rather than every day
- Instead of increasing the effort every day, stay at the same level for 2 or 3 days and then go onto the next day of the challenge
Obviously these solutions mean the challenge will last longer, but you’ll still benefit from doing it.