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The 28-Day Squat Exercise Challenge is an adaptation of my popular Squatober challenge. For 28 consecutive days, you will be doing squats! This simple bodyweight challenge requires very little time daily, making it easy to commit to and complete.
Keeping It Simple Stupid, we will perform only a regular bodyweight squat, no fancy lateral, split, or jumps, and there is a good reason for this. Repeating an exercise builds strength and endurance in that movement. This encourages muscles to develop ‘muscle memory’ and builds stabilising muscles to aid with key support during exercise.
The squat is a fundamental exercise that is excellent at building, toning, and defining the muscles of the Legs and bums and all the muscles through the posterior chain. Knowing how to squat correctly is essential, so check out the video below to ensure good technique.
Join the Squatober Challenge.
If it’s October, why not join in with the Squatober Challenge
Anyone can join in
You don’t need to be a gym enthusiast to take on this challenge; complete the reps as you can throughout the day—ideally, in one go. If you are exceptionally fit or want an increased challenge, try to complete the reps in one go. Conversely, if you are not as fit or find it difficult, you can break it down to blocks of 10’s, 20’s, or whatever works for you.
How to join in.
- Commit! Share how you are doing this challenge and share your progress.
- Download the target guide and scoring sheets to track your challenge.
- Recruit a friend to join you and keep each other motivated.
Challenge Levels
The challenge is split into three levels to score your progress; you don’t need to keep to one level; you can mix & match and go up or down a level. Each level has a score associated with it; use the free-scoring sheet available for download below to track your progress and tally your total score for the month
| LEVEL | POINTS |
|---|---|
| Level 1 | 1 point |
| Level 2 | 2 points |
| Level 3 | 3 points |
Download the Scoring Sheet
The 28 Day Scoring Sheet for the 28 Day Squats Challenge
Challenge Design
This squat challenge has been designed as an ascending pyramid programme, adding reps daily; this type of programming makes the challenge progressive, encouraging progression in the squat with increased demand throughout the month.
28-Day Squat Challenge Target Guide
To get started, download & print the SQUAT calendar below and pin it to your fridge (while you are at it, pin it to your challenge board on Pinterest) or somewhere you can reference it daily.
Warm-up
We should always perform a warm-up relative to the workout we will undertake. For this challenge at the start of the month, it’s a good idea to take the first 20-30 nice and steady as your joints warm up and keep the tempo low until joints are lubricated. You might want a quick warm-up to include heel flicks and partial squats as we get into a higher number of squats.
Lightly stretch it out!
Once you’ve finished your daily squats, make sure you stretch out. Focus on the hamstrings, quads, calves and glutes. Hold each stretch for 15-20 seconds. A quick, effective stretching routine for squats should include:
- Quads Stretch (Standing or Laying)
- Hamstring Stretch (Standing or Laying)
- Calf Stretch
This is a simple workout. At the start of the month, with low reps, you’ll only need a quick stretch out. However, if you are performing challenging variations, you will want to spend more time on the stretching.
How to Squat
- Stand with feet at hip-width apart.
- Toes forward or slightly out-turned.
- Squat down, lowering your hips to knee height.
- Keep knees behind and in line with toes.
- Bum should go back as if you were about to sit on a chair.
- Look forward and slightly down.
- Maintain neutral spine alignment.
Progressions
Adding a little weight can intensify this challenge. Which exercises you choose will depend on the type of weight or equipment you have available; it does not matter too much which one.
More Squat Workouts
Why not compliment this squat challenge with one of my leg workouts?
- Work from Home (WFH) anti-sitting Interval Workout
- Bodyweight Leg’s, Bum’s ‘n’ Tum’s (LBT) workout
- 30-Minute Full-Body Tabata Workout
