If ever there was a fountain of youth, I think squats would be it. If you’re young or even young-ish, it’s hard to conceptualize the day coming for you in which an intangible underlying buoyancy is no longer there to boost you up steps and propel your get-up-and-go. You would have no frame of reference for not having this bouncy thing that is simply with you, even if you’re a person who is not especially athletic or agile.

But when it’s fading in yourself you can’t help but see it where it is. I spent Sunday with a couple of my grandkids at the Desert of Maine in Freeport and was witness to the way they automatically exploded into running at the mere sight of a great beckoning expanse of sand and how they bounced up any set of stairs we encountered while I followed behind with no jet pack under my heels.

Strength is power; strength is freedom. Hard stop.

Back in the winter I wrote about how I’d unwittingly and accidentally allowed strength training to dribble out of my life, turning more and more to walking as my primary mode of exercise, telling myself that the hills provided the cardio and the…and the…  In the way of thoughts you don’t want to think, I just never finished that one because I relied so much on walking as the thing I did to work through emotions, find solutions, draft articles and get exercise, all while getting the boost of being in nature. Talk about efficient!

But the reality is that on the menu of exercise, walking is the dessert of exercise for me; at a certain point all those miles upon miles become junk miles. All it takes is only 5 or 10 little minutes of strength training to understand where exactly the power comes from, where the bounce comes from, where the buoyancy comes from and it’s not walking. After that reckoning back in the winter I was reformed.

But like a siren song, the flowers of spring and summer lured me away from strength training. I just wanted to spend all my time outside and I lost strength again. Then I came across this 5-minute video demonstrating the virtues and efficiency of the very humble squat, providing me a way to have my cake and eat it too. The squat is the power building block of everything, including what will literally get us off the toilet. And it takes no time. And the funny thing is I kind of love them. It’s instant gratification as you instantly get a sense of the power they inspire.

My deal with myself these days is to do a set of squats as suggested in the video before getting a drink (or whatever) and picking up some weights for a few bicep curls (or whatever) before heading outside for dessert. It’s honestly not that hard. It’s the easiest gateway to strength training there could be. I just did a quick round of squats and feel the vital juice flowing right this very minute.

Here’s a youthfully powerful thought experiment: what do you think you would feel like next week if this week you threw in one quick set of squats before, during and after work?

To adding a little bounce in our steps,

E

PS: Just now before posting this I did a round of squats, kind of racing because, you know, stuff to do. Then I reminded myself 20 squats (a set of each version in the video) takes all of 20-30 seconds. As an act of defiance against a world that is constantly pushing us to rush, I just slowed down and allowed myself a breath for each one. Delicious.