I like exercises that hit different muscle groups at once. More bang for your buck. Plus I feel that muscles were meant to work together to accomplish things, rather than just be bulked up in isolation. Squats are a great compound exercise that hit your quads, glutes and calves. For added difficulty and some shoulder and back activation, at the gym you would grab a dumbbell for extra weight and hold it like it you just found the holy grail, and call it a “goblet squat”. Honestly though, at home you can use a gallon of water or anything at all (even two smaller exercise weights together) for the added weight that you want. To perform the exercise, stand with feet shoulder width apart and toes pointed out slightly, weight grasped firmly with both hands and then lower into a squat keeping your back straight. To do this correctly, imagine that you are facing a wall and you are trying to sit onto a kiddie chair just behind you. You don’t lean forward because your face and knees will meet the wall. You don’t lean back too far or you fall backwards. It is almost a balancing act and you should feel all the weight going down through your heels. Once you are down as far as you can go, use your strength to stand up straight again. Again, all the force should drive through the heels. That’s one. Try to do eight of them, before taking a 1 minute break. Aim for 4 sets. Also, if you are wondering how far to squat down, I would say go until your thighs are parallel to the ground, but really squat down as deep as your flexibility and strength permit, noting that your tailbone (and thus your spine) should not curve under you at all and your strength should permit you to stand back up.
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