Ladies, if you’re not squatting, it’s time to start! There is an amazing number of benefits of squats for women and it’s not hard to get started to reap these benefits.
Squats are a compound exercise meaning they work multiple muscle groups at the same time. Almost anyone can do a squat! Bodyweight squats are great and you can hold almost anything to add weight to your squat.
As we’ll point out below, squats have an insane number of benefits for women. In my personal experience (read more about my strength training story), I have seen my legs get much stronger and firmed and my backside get much firmer, rounded, and lifted from squats. Check out my YouTube channel for a few videos of me banging out some squats in my home gym!
Quick Guide
All About Squats for Women
Squats a compound exercise that uses almost every muscle in your lower body and even a number of muscles in your core and upper body.
A squat is one of the most basic movement patterns. If you think about it, you probably squat or semi-squat a number of times per day — especially if you’re a parent and squatting down to tend to your kids. (If you’re a mama, you be interested in our postpartum weight lifting guide.)
Squats are an excellent all-around exercise to improve strength and mobility in your body. As we will discuss below, there are a number of health benefits to squatting.
The below video is one of me doing back squats in my basement home gym. I love squats of all variations and aim to do them 1-3 times per week.
11 Benefits of Squats for Women
Below are 11 amazing benefits of squatting for women. Be sure to check out our guides for the best weightlifting shoes for women and the best workout shoes for women before you get started so your feet are well-supported when you squat!
Tighten and Firm Your Entire Thigh
Squats will build the muscles in your entire thigh, including your hamstring, quadriceps, inner thigh, outer thigh, and your glutes.
Over time, your legs will become stronger and leaner if you squat regularly. For many women, tightening and toning our legs is one of our top fitness goals. This is one of the best benefits of squats for us ladies!
Strengthen Your Abs
Who doesn’t want rockhard abs? All forms of strength training can contribute to strong abs due to the inherent stabilization that you’ll practice during a weight training session.
But squats take it up a notch and require that you contract your abs during the entire movement, which makes it a great ab and core exercise.
Strength Your Pelvic Floor
As women, our pelvic floors must be strong for a number of reasons! As we age, incontinence is a serious problem that affects many women. In addition, in our childbearing years, a strong pelvic floor is vital for a healthy pregnancy and for labor and delivery.
New research is showing that squats are more effective at strengthening our pelvic floor than Kegels! Time to start squatting!
If you’re aiming to lose weight after having a baby, read my 50 tips from my postpartum weight loss journey, including the exact strength training program I used to lose 30-pounds of baby weight.
Improve Your Posture
It takes a lot of focus and concentration to set your body up for good squat form. Shoulders back, chest up, core tight, strong legs. All of these cues translate to better posture. And because we are strengthening our core and legs, these muscle groups help us maintain great posture throughout the day.
Improved Mobility and Flexibility
Mobility is the ability to move through different planes of motion. For example, bending, reaching, and jumping are forms of mobility. Flexibility is the ability to bend, stretch, and lengthen our muscles.
All types of weight lifting — but, especially the king of weight lifting exercises, the squat — greatly improve our mobility and flexibility. This translates to greater quality of life as we age. What’s not to love about that?
Strengthen Your Joints and Bones
We all know that our bones get weaker as we age and, as women, we are at a higher risk of osteoporosis. However, by practicing strength training — especially through major compound moves like squats — we can lower our chances of weakening bones and osteoporosis.
Prevent Injuries
Because squats improve your mobility and flexibility, strengthen your joints, and strengthen almost every muscle in your body, they are great for injury prevention. This is especially important for women as we age!
Squat Anywhere!
The best part about squats is that you can literally stand up and do a squat right now. Try it! You don’t need any equipment. You can even squat barefoot!
And if you think bodyweight squats are too easy for you, try changing them up with pulses at the bottom of the move, slowing down the speed of the move, or trying different variations like sumo squats or split squats.
My husband and I love to try to spend some time every day in the squat position. For example, we usually work on a puzzle at night and we try to spend 5 minutes or so working our puzzle from a squat! Give it a try!
Once you get more advanced in your squatting practice, check out our recommendations for the best squatting shoes for women.
Improved Running Speed and Endurance
Many women love to run and squats will only improve their running skills. Squats can strengthen both the slow-twitch and fast-twitch muscles in your legs, depending on the tempo with which you complete your squats.
By performing both slow squats or explosive squats like jump squats or explosively coming out of the bottom portion of your squat, you can strengthen those fast-twitch muscles, which will translate to faster and easier runs.
Strengthen and Lift Your Booty
Squats are ideal for strengthening, tightening, and lifting your glute muscles. Outside of hip thrusts and glute bridges, squats hit your glutes more than almost any other exercise. Plus, they’re much easier to complete and set up for than hip thrusts, which you usually need a barbell and a gym for.
No one wants a mom butt!
Daily Activity Carryover
Are you a mom? How many times per day do you squat down to tend to your young children? In my experience, the number is countless.
Squats are quite possibly the number one strength training exercise that carries over perfectly to daily life. Even more so, it carries over to mom life, and it is extremely important for us to be able to physically keep up with our little ones.
Frequently Asked Questions About the Benefits of Squats for Women
Below are some frequently asked questions about squats for women.
What do squats do for a woman’s body?
As mentioned above, there are so many benefits of doing squats for women!
Squats will build muscle in your butt (glutes) and thighs (quads, hamstrings, and abductors). By building these muscles, your legs will become firmer and leaner. Your backside will become rounded, tighter, and more lifted.
Are there any benefits of squats for weight loss? Squats in and of themselves will not cause weight loss. However, a well-rounded strength-training program that includes squats (like this one) couple with a proper diet regime with a calorie deficit will help with weight loss.
Do squats help lose belly fat?
Squats can build muscle in your lower body. Having more muscle on your body can boost your metabolism over time, which can burn fat on your body, including belly fat.
However, consistency is key. Squats won’t burn belly fat if you do 100 squats every day for a week. However, if you do weighted squats 1-3 times per week for many months and years, your body will change and you will likely lose belly fat.
How many squats a day will make a difference?
It depends on your strength and bodyweight when you start squatting. If you stick with daily squats, your body will adapt to your bodyweight and you’ll need to start adding weight to your daily squats to continue seeing any changes. If you’re unsure of how to add weight to your workouts, check out our dumbbells for women guide.
Are there benefits to doing 100 squats a day over just 3 sets of 10? That all depends on consistency. Can you consistently do 100 squats a day, every day, long-term?
A better way to squat is to squat 1-3 times per week with progressively overloaded resistance. That can be in the form of weight, reps, rest time between sets, and the depth of the squat.
How long will it take to see results from squats?
If you squat 1-3 times per week with progressively overloaded resistance as described above, you will notice the results in your legs in 4-6 weeks if your body fat is not extremely high. You’ll notice stronger and firmer legs.
If you carry a very large amount of body fat, you’ll need to shed the layer of body fat covering your leg muscles before you see better results. You can achieve this through a calorie deficit (read more about my weight loss tips).
Do squats really give you a bigger butt?
Squats will give you a more shapely, firm, round, and higher booty.
The alternative is a flat, jiggly, sagging backside, so the choice is yours!
Final Thoughts on the Benefits of Squats for Women
Strength training has a number of crazy benefits for women, but squats are king!
Not only can they strengthen nearly every muscle in your body — including that all-important pelvic floor — they can slow or reverse the aging process in our bodies.
Time to start squatting!
Related:
Postpartum Weight Loss: 50 Tips From My 30-Pound Weight Loss Journey