Can You Do Barbell Squats Every Day? [What You Need To Know]

Squats are a compound exercise that targets the lower body. This means that multiple muscles get to work when you perform squats, and they work together in order to complete the movement.

Woman facing forward and doing barbell squats.

Powerlifters and weightlifters tend to utilize squats, whether that be a narrow squat, Bulgarian method, or other squat alternatives, to build strength and conditioning for their targeted muscle group.

When you perform squats, your quads are activated, as are your glutes and hamstrings. Aside from these, you’re also working your core muscles, calves, and back and shoulders, primarily if you use a barbell. 

Why Should You Consider Squatting Every Day

There are many benefits of squatting. One of these benefits is that the squat movements transcend into movements you perform in your everyday life.

If you can squat with quite a heavy weight on your barbell, you’ll be able to use that strength to squat and pick things up off the ground, climb more stairs, etc. 

Aside from the above, compound exercises like squats burn more calories, as they target several muscles. They also improve strength, flexibility, and coordination and increase muscle mass. 

Can You Do Barbell Squats Every Day? 

While squatting every day should be mixed in with other forms of exercise, such as cardiovascular activity and strength training to improve your general fitness, it is generally considered safe to squat every day.

However, this depends on how your body reacts to them, whether you’re doing them at a high intensity, and what your fitness goals are. 

Benefits Of Squatting Every Day

1. Squatting Every Day Will Build Lower Body Muscles 

A high frequency of this exercise targets many of your muscles. Squatting daily may activate all three of your gluteus muscles, hamstrings, quadriceps, and calves.

They also use your hip muscles and your core. If you squat every day using the proper form, you’ll definitely increase your muscular strength and endurance in these muscles.

If you are squatting every day, it would be a good idea to change it up with some different squat methods.

You can perform a back squat, using a barbell across your shoulders and some overhead squats, holding weights above your head.

By adding squat variations, you target different muscle groups in your body, such as the ones in your upper back. Ask your personal trainer for recommendations for training frequency and alternate workouts for your muscle goals.

As a result, training with this exercise each day can lead to some changes in your body physically. You may begin to notice that your legs and glutes appear firmer and bigger, adding more volume to this area.

Man doing barbell squats.

2. Daily Squats Can Strengthen Your Core

While they mainly target the legs and glutes, to perform the entire movement and keep the form together, you will be engaging your core, such as the abdomen and lower back.

If you squat every day, you will strengthen your core as you perfect your form. While doing them is a significant benefit, you should still pay attention to other forms of training aimed at your core.

This is because your core is made up of different muscles, and specific exercises will target other areas.

3. Daily Squats Can Reduce Your Risk Of Getting Injured

Many believe that this exercise can actually cause harm to your knees, joints, and muscles.

While this is indeed the case if you perform them wrong, or lift more weight than you can handle, as long as you are doing them correctly, the increase in strength you will develop from them can actually help you prevent injury in the future.

Research into sports medicine has shown that those with more muscle strength are less susceptible to injury than those with less strength.

4. Daily Squats Can Improve Your Athletic Performance And Resistance Training

Performing this exercise daily may improve your athletic performance when using the muscles that squats target.

While they won’t make much of a difference to your performance regarding hand-eye coordination, for example, they will really help any other training sessions that require core or lower body strength.

Man flexing strong leg muscles.

5. Daily Squats Can Improve Your Posture

As mentioned earlier, you can improve your core strength if you squat daily. They do so by targeting your spinal erectors; working these out can improve your posture over time.

Aside from regular squats, some variations, such as overhead or front squats, can target other muscle groups, such as your upper back and shoulders. Working on these muscle groups can further improve your posture.

If improving posture is a goal of yours, then performing overhead squats, which involves holding weights on both hands over your head, is the way forward.

This is because this exercise strengthens the shoulders, arms, and upper back, as well as the legs and lower back.

This will result in better posture as you continue to perform this exercise accordingly.

Tips On How To Squat Every Day

While squatting every day won’t cause you any harm, if you are adamant about performing this exercise daily, there are a few things you need to factor in.

Add Variety

If you’re performing basic bodyweight exercises every day, you’ll grow bored with that rather quickly. Aside from this, you won’t see results if you keep doing the same sets and reps.

If you’re determined to squat daily, you’ll need to add variety to the exercises. One of the best things about this exercise is that there are so many different variations to make them more interesting.

You can add weights to your exercises, such as barbells, kettlebells, and dumbbells. You can also perform sidekick variations with or without extra weight. This last variation is excellent for practicing balance and coordination.

There are also plenty of different squat workouts, such as the front squat, back squat, Bulgarian variations, and more.

Man doing squats with kettlebell.

Increase Weights And Add More Reps

When it comes to resistance training, which this exercise falls under, you’ll need to keep increasing the resistance as you get stronger.

Therefore, if you perform these exercises daily, you’ll need to add more variety and weights to notice results.

Experts suggest keeping track of how easily you can perform sets. If you can complete the same sets and repetitions without any trouble for around two weeks, then it is time to increase the weights by approximately 5 to 10 percent.

It is also important to note that adding more resistance to your exercise is possible without actually increasing the weight. You can do this by changing the kind of squat you are doing and changing it to a single-leg squat.

You can also simply increase the number of reps you are doing in each set. As long as you are pushing yourself every so often, you’ll be able to notice results within a few weeks.

The main tip here is the minute a set and rep cycle starts to feel less challenging; it is time to change it up.

Final Thoughts 

To conclude, you can perform these exercises every day without the risk of injuring yourself as long as you have perfected the form and completed them correctly.

There are many benefits of squatting daily, such as increased strength in the lower body, better posture, and reduced risk of injury when it comes to other forms of physical activity.

That being said, it is essential to acknowledge when it is time to change things up. If you constantly repeat the same exercises, you won’t see results.

Therefore, the minute your exercise begins to feel easy, you should increase the number of weights or the number of reps per set.

TJ Daniels, Certified Personal Trainer
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