100 Body Weight Squats per day can change your health

The Miracle Squats

Every morning before leaving the house to walk the dogs I knock out 5-10 deep body weight squats. I find that this helps me feel more confident that I will get around the block without pooping in my pants. There are days that I get done with my squats and head straight to the toilet. My dogs wait patiently as I handle my business.

Living with Inflammatory Bowel Disease has been an amazing journey. I have made more adjustments and lifestyle changes than I can recall. And they keep coming. Adding 5-10 quick body weight squats prior to my morning walk has resulted in no accidents over the last 5 months.

I would like to say that this discovery was based on science, but it was not. This was the result of many shitty morning walks. I noticed that most of my accidents occurred under the following scenario. One of my dogs would poop, I would squat down to pick it up, and then blammo! I had to go! What an awful feeling that is and I was determined to figure out a way to get around the neighborhood every morning. And I did just that.

Having experienced the benefits of the morning squat I was intrigued when I saw the following headline in Newsweek: “100 body weight squats per day can change your health.” The article went on to say that 10 body weight squats every 45 minutes over an 8-and-a-half-hour period can improve glycemic control. As a Health Educator this seemed too good to be true. But that wasn’t all. There were many more similar articles making the following claims:

“I am a scientist and there’s one exercise everyone should do to ward off diabetes.”

“Lose weight with short workouts of 10 squats every 45 minutes”

And yet another: “Frequent, brief exercises like the body weight squat helps improve circulation and reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease.”

“14 seconds to a more efficient metabolism and these squats may even play a role in preventing cancer.”

The final nail in the coffin came from a popular YouTube doctor when he said that these body weight squats are “proof that you don’t need to spend hours in the gym to support your metabolic health.”

I could literally list 75 or more here, but you get my point. What started out as something that made sense to me now was no longer sitting well. In fact, I had even encouraged my wife to try them for 30 days. She is probably in the living room right now squatting her heart out as I type.

Had I got caught up in the hype or is this legit? I had to dig deeper and was prepared to spend the weekend in my office sifting through research studies to learn more about these miracle squats. I gathered some essentials and hunkered down at my desk.

As it turns out, I did not need as much time as I thought I would. Every article led me to the same research. A single study posted in the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports. Here are some highlights from the research paper:

The randomized four-arm crossover study consisted of 18 overweight and obese men.

The four activities included sitting uninterrupted for 8.5 hours, one 30-minute walk, interrupted sitting with 3 minutes of walking or squatting 10 times every 45 minutes.

Effects on glucose were predicted using an Electromyogram.

Results:

The frequent walking or body weights squats resulted in a lower predicted glucose level, both 7.9mmol/L/h versus sitting for 8.5 hours, 10.2 mmol/L/h. One 30-minute walk was 1mmol/L/h higher than the body weight squats and frequent walking. These results were considered statistically significant.

What did we learn from this study:

Absolutely nothing. This very small study consisted of only 18 participants and the results, although statistically significant, are clinically meaningless. The reduction in glucose mentioned above is not considered to be a large drop by any stretch. It is surely not going to ward off diabetes, make you lose weight, or protect you from cancer. The only real takeaway here is that moving around throughout the day is better than sitting on your butt for 8.5 hours. I don’t know if we needed a study to tell us that. My last thought here is that the EMG used to “predict” glucose levels are known to have a high margin of error.

What we have here is a great example as to why we should always use caution when we see a bunch of fancy news headlines making an assortment of claims tied to a specific supplement, exercise or food. It is very easy to get led astray and engage in things that are not what we think they are. Then we get frustrated, say that we have tried everything, nothing works, and then we quit.

I can still remember when I first started getting healthy. What a mess that was, trying to sort through all the information and figure out where to start. I specifically recall reaching out to my nephew and asking him what the best protein supplement on the market was for building muscle. His response shocked me, he told me to get my protein from food.

I remember thinking, what does this kid know about anything? But he was right. There is no single best of anything when it comes to getting healthy. That is reductionism at its finest; the belief that one exercise, one supplement or one food item will restore us to good health. It simply does not work that way.

It is always a combination of many little things that add up to a better health outcome. And that is exactly where the body weight squats come in. I would recommend the body weight squats as a great place to start or as an additional activity to get you to where you need to be to get the results that you seek. The benefits will vary based on a person’s ability to incorporate other lifestyle changes.

If you need help putting together a solid strategy to improve your health, that is what we do. We have a unique ability to meet people where they are and help them get to where they want to be!

If you would like me to research anything specific, please leave a comment. I am always looking at health trends and would like to know what is on your mind!