How Many Calories Do Squats Burn?

Whether you’ve recently discovered the wonders of the gym and you’re keen to get stuck into a variety of different workouts, or you’re ready to graduate from the treadmill to the floor – then exercise movements such as the squat is a great way to improve your overall body strength while helping to tone your lower body area.

Sure, even though squatting might not always be the most fun of strength training exercises, they’re an awesome way to improve your overall balancing and flexibility abilities, while also helping you to tone your lower body area and make it appear more shapely. But, how many calories can you expect to burn from them?

How Many Calories Do Squats Burn?

If you’re currently wondering how many calories you can expect to burn from incorporating them into your daily workout routine – then you’ve clicked on the right article!

Below, we are going to be talking you through how many calories you can expect to burn from squatting, as well as additional information that will help you to enrich your workouts. Read on!

What Are Squats? 

If you’re not overly sure of what squatting is, then we’ll first take a moment to talk you through what a squat is, as this will help you to better understand how many calories you can expect to burn from doing one!

To break it down, a squat is a type of “dynamic” strength exercise that will require you to engage a variety of different muscles throughout your body, including muscles that are located in both the lower and upper areas – such as your glutes.

Here’s a quick summary of what muscles are used for squats:

  • Your calf muscles
  • Hip flexors
  • Adductor
  • Hamstrings
  • Quadriceps
  • Buttocks
  • Abdominal muscles
  • Obliques

When done regularly and with the proper technique, incorporating squatting into your workout routines will be able to help increase your flexibility levels and strength, while also helping to make your lower body area appear more toned and shapely.

Not just that, but thanks to the numerous squat variations there are, it means that you will also have the freedom to tailor the squats that you decide to do in order to ensure that you meet all of your fitness goals.

For example, if you wanted to enhance your fitness routine and help to provide yourself with a full-body workout, you could opt to incorporate a barbell or weight that can be used overhead while you squat.

Besides helping to work various areas of the body, these types of squat variation exercises will engage a variety of additional muscles to the ones that we have already listed above, such as the upper back muscles, neck, and arms.

How Many Calories Do Squats Burn?

So, now that you know what squats are, as well as what types of muscle groups a squat is able to target when performed correctly and with the proper technique – you’re now probably asking yourself how many calories you can expect to burn from incorporating squats into your weekly workout!

To give you an idea of how many calories you might be able to burn – it is generally considered that an average person that has a healthy weight will be able to burn around 50 calories after squatting for a period of 5-10 minutes.

Generally speaking, squatting is considered to be one of the most effective strength training exercises for calorie burning, as the intensity of this exercise will naturally cause your metabolism to speed up due to the pressure placed on your muscles.

Not only that, but the squat is an extremely versatile exercise and can be customized to suit your own fitness preferences, which means that you also have the option of increasing the intensity of your squats by incorporating a weight (such as a barbell or medicine ball) into the movement, too.

Nevertheless, it’s important to note that the number of calories burned by performing a squat will vary from person to person, and depend on a variety of different factors such as body weight.

What Are The Benefits Of Squatting?

What Are The Benefits Of Squatting?

It Can Help To Strengthen Your Core Muscles

One of the biggest benefits of regular squatting is that it has the ability to strengthen your core muscles, which will not only enhance your balance but will also help to make your ab and stomach area look more toned and shaped.

Alongside all of that, the strengthening of your core muscles could also encourage you to naturally maintain a better posture, which will help to prevent you from experiencing backaches, strains, and achiness.

Helps To Strengthen And Tone Your Lower Body

We’re sure that you’ll agree with us when we say that one of the biggest benefits of squatting is helping to strengthen and tone the lower body area!

So much so, that if you’re looking to tone and shape your calves, glutes, hamstrings, and quadriceps – it can be argued that squatting is one of the most effective ways to do so.

Besides helping to make your legs, thighs and buttocks appear more toned and defined, the increase in strength of your lower body muscles will benefit you in everyday life, and help to ensure that you are able to move more freely and without restriction, while also increasing your ability to bend down.

Helps To Burn Fat

Last but certainly not least, another huge benefit that you can expect to get from incorporating regular squatting into your workout routines is that they will help you to lose weight.

When you squat, you will be placing intensity onto specific muscle groups in your body, and this will, in turn, cause an acceleration of your metabolism as your body will be encouraged to burn more calories during the repair process of the muscles that you have targeted.

It’s no wonder that it’s one of the best strength training exercises for calorie burning!

Kevin Harris