This 200 squat challenge starts with 30 squats on day 1 and gradually increases the number each day, reaching 200 squats on day 30. It comes with a free printable which is designed to be used as stickers for each day. If you don’t want to make stickers though, you can just print it off onto an ordinary sheet of paper.
Benefits of squats
Squats work all the major leg muscles and can be done anywhere. You don’t need any equipment, they are effective as a bodyweight exercise. But if you want to increase intensity, you can do so with any type of resistance equipment, such as kettlebells, dumbbells or exercise bands.
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. Read more about warm ups here. Please also read these general guidelines on exercise safety.
- Have your feet a little more than hip distance apart, parallel or slightly turned out.
- Bend at your knees and hips as you lower into squat position. Aim to get your thighs parallel with the floor and then come up again.
- Straighten up gently, don’t jerk your knees backwards.
- Avoid arching your back or rounding your shoulders.
- Keep your neck in line with your spine.
The 200 squat challenge
These are the reps for each day to get you to 200. If you’re a beginner and starting with 30 squats is too much, then try the 100 squat challenge, which starts with 10 squats and ends with 100. You can then pick the 200 squat challenge up at day 17.
Get the 200 squats free printable
To use the printable as stickers, print onto a full sheet shipping label and then cut the stickers out with craft scissors or a craft knife. If you have a cutting machine, then there’s also a blackout PNG for easy tracing.
Enter your e-mail address to get the free printable download link e-mailed to you:
After you sign up, you’ll get 2 e-mails, one will have a link to your printable download and the other will be a welcome e-mail.
If the e-mails haven’t turned up within a few minutes, please check your junk folder, as some service providers have very strict filters.
Related to 200 squat 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.
