When I'm at the gym I like to ask people if they ever do squats... usually the answer is "no."
Often, it's because they believe that squatting is bad for their knees.
I'd like to submit to you that it is not only NOT bad for your knees, but on the contrary, they're extremely healthy for them! In fact, if you're not squatting regularly, you and your knees are not as healthy as they should be.
Our knees were designed to move like this:
When you were this age you could do this too!
Now you may be thinking, "Oh that's just a little kid... people can't do that once they get older.
Well, check this guy out:
He's in exactly the same position as that kid, and I bet he's been squatting like this every day of his life. He's probably never thought anything about it either. Can you do this?
The human body was designed to squat like this. Like the people in these pictures, YOU are made in the "image of God." Your body is a masterpiece of flawless design and engineering, far exceeding anything that man has ever been able to build...and you were designed with the capacity to do this.
Here in the U.S. we often lose the hip and knee flexibility to do this because we've been sitting in chairs all our lives. This causes us to lose the ability to move in ways that the Creator designed us to be able to do. He even designed our joints toself-lubricate upon movement...which means that the more active and the more flexible you are, the healthier your joints stand to be.
I encourage you to do 3 things if you're not already doing them:
#1: Sit like this for 60 seconds every day... if you can't do it yet, don't worry!! Just keep working at it until you can. Your knees and hips will thank you.
#2: Do a Squat Tabata interval this week. Using only your body weight, do as many squats as you can in 20 seconds...rest for 10...do as many as you can for 20...rest for 10, etc, etc for 4 minutes. If you're truly going all out, this will be a fantastic cardio session no matter what your level of conditioning.
#3: Back Squat your body weight. If you can't do it yet...that's ok! But you should start aiming for this goal no matter what your age, gender, or athletic ability.
All this squatting will help the flexibility, strength, endurance, and stability of your legs, knees, and hips, while working your back and abdominals in a big way as well.
Bad squatting is bad for your knees....good squatting is FANTASTIC!!
