Squats for Strength and Independence as We Age | Move for Life (Part 2)

Squats can be hugely beneficial for healthy aging. In this episode, Ageless Workout coaches Shebah Carfagna and Nate Wilkins focus on how squats mirror everyday movements—like standing from a chair or getting out of a car—supporting independence and strength. We discuss safe technique fundamentals, scalable progressions from sit-to-stand to air squats, time under tension, and advanced options like jump squats. 

In conversation with Peter Bowes, Nate and Shebah emphasize tailoring variations of a squat to individual abilities, joint health, and goals, with guidance for adding resistance when appropriate. Integrated routines, such as combining squats with walking, as Peter has discovered, can boost engagement and cardio benefits. 

You should check with your doctor before starting a new exercise program. 

This episode is the second in our 20-part series, Move for Life, exploring the intersection of longevity, strength training and movement. 

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Transcript

Shebah Carfagna: 0:27

It is the largest muscles in your body that you're working. You want to keep them very fluid. It's helpful for overall strength.

Nate Wilkins: 0:35

Activities, daily living, getting up and down, picking something up off the floor, things that some people don't think about but I think that's related to a squat.

Peter Bowes: 0:48

Hello again. Welcome to the Live Long podcast and the second part in our series with Shebah Carfagna and Nate Wilkins exploring lifestyle interventions designed to make us stronger, more agile and vibrant as we grow older. This episode is all about squats as we move for life.

Shebah Carfagna: 1:07

A squat is a movement where you drop the upper body down and you come up, so it's similar to you. You can easily think about this in layman's terms. Is sitting in a chair, you know, getting out of a car. You have to squat any movement that requires you to bend your knees and drop your body down. And so and there's levels of squats that we should talk about as well as we look at this.

Peter Bowes: 1:29

So a key component here is the understanding that really when we're squatting, we are just mimicking everyday activity.

Shebah Carfagna: 1:37

Activities of daily life, activities of daily living which will help lead to independence, strength training, kind of this resilience that you can continue to move by yourself. Very simple activities.

Nate Wilkins: 1:51

What are the best ways to train using the squat? There are different variations on the same theme, aren't they? And there are some ways to squat. There are a little easier than others when you're starting out. So I would suggest that one of the first ways to squat is to get up and down of a chair. So sit to stand is what people call that. And then maybe some air squats would be a way to move to the progression.

Shebah Carfagna: 2:17

I think it's also depending on what your abilities are. So you have to look at it from that perspective. What is the what am I limited by doing because of hips, knees, etc.? And the number one priority is technique so that your knees should be over your ankles at all times. Most times your toes are pointed forward if you need that flexibility where they're externally rotated. That's probably good, but just a little mini squad. I think you have to identify where you are and what you can do, and whoever is guiding you should be able to give you multiple variations of squats. So again, you can do air squats. You can squat with weights. You can squat to press. You can squat squat by doing multiple exercises which we talked about which are beneficial, which will reduce your time of doing. For example the old school three sets of fifteen. You know, you could do three sets of eight and perform a multiple joint exercise and fare better because it's less pounding on your body. You know, for those who are a bit younger or that still can, they can do jump squats where you actually jump and squat down. You know, a lot of times in boxing we do that maybe 30 in a row, but that is not for everyone. That gives you that cardio. But you can also get that cardio with squatting and lunging with weights.

Nate Wilkins: 3:40

Or say for example, if you do that squat and you stay longer and so you put the pressure time under tension, you stay longer. Now that's more advanced. So we want to make sure people understand that.

Shebah Carfagna: 3:52

Right.

Nate Wilkins: 3:52

But the time under tension and then you said the jump squat. So a variation of a jump squat could be squat to calf raisers. So you can get the full effect of of that type of squat as well. Because again with the with the jump squat you got to make sure that the bones can handle that.

Shebah Carfagna: 4:10

And you want to breathe deeply. Inhale exhale. You have to get the oxygen to the muscles.

Peter Bowes: 4:16

And one of the beautiful things about squats is you can do them anywhere. And I prefer to do my squats integrated into my morning walk. So I get to certain landmarks on the walk and say, this is the point that I'm going to do ten squats, so you might walk for another half a mile and do another ten squats. And it relieves. In some senses. It kind of relieves the monotony of doing of the same thing. But that combination of movement must be good for us.

Shebah Carfagna: 4:42

It is. And it seems that you've developed your own workout plan, which is good because the walking and the gait training that you're doing over and over again, and then incorporating the squats has your muscles already warmed up. So your muscles are taking us one, two, three, four shorter step, and then you squat and you're working the same muscles differently. And then you're walking again is a good overall training. And that's an excellent plan. I commend you for that.

Peter Bowes: 5:08

And of course as we get more advanced we can use additional weights. Body weight of course initially, but extra weights just to increase the resistance.

Shebah Carfagna: 5:17

That's true. I'll let you handle that.

Nate Wilkins: 5:19

There is definitely a school of thought about that. Say for example, when you talk about that's the reason why she wanted me to do that, because men have a tendency and it's changed. Men have a tendency to work the upper body. That's why you see big upper bodies. And then you look down below and the legs are like toothpicks. So men, you know, are starting to have been working their legs more. You know, Peter, the working, the legs, the neuromuscular system actually puts a challenge on the body. So you get you get exhausted a lot faster. So but but we see some people who are able to lift heavier weights. And of course when you when you squat with heavy weights, it builds the body, builds a leg stronger. And of course, that allows you to have, you know, those legs that, that you want to have. So now we're getting into esthetics. But the other part to that is being able to move the body, those big muscles the way you want to move them. So of course yeah, using weights is is definitely a way to get more out of the body to get that cardiovascular system fired up as well.

Shebah Carfagna: 6:26

I think it's all about goals, you know, what are your immediate goals? What is your body condition? What are you looking to do? I mean, certainly if you're a bodybuilder, you want to add really heavy weights, but if you're a senior that's 70 years old, that may not be the best thing. You know, just up and down squats may be good and again, it's very dependent on your condition. If you have a hip replacement, knee replacement, all of those factors go into consideration.

Nate Wilkins: 6:54

That's interesting that you bring that up. Again, going back to muscle and strength, you can actually at 70 you can actually you know heavy lift. But you have to be careful. You know so what we're saying is that all 70 year olds are not the same.

Shebah Carfagna: 7:13

Well that's true, but general population. Yes. General population. Again, consult with your doctor first.

Peter Bowes: 7:19

And one final thought on this. We were talking about legs here. You often hear people talking about going to the gym and having an arm day or a leg day, and we've really just talked about combining movements of different parts of the body. What are your thoughts on that in terms of concentrating on just one part of the body on one particular day?

Shebah Carfagna: 7:39

Well, I think it depends on your goals. There's many schools of thought on how to train, you know, split days where you do upper body, lower body. That's more of a kind of a an old school trainer mentality, but I think for optimal aging, which is why we're here to talk about it. I think that total body movement is good. I mean, there's days where I do split training if I'm injured, you know, I work only my upper body, but I think it's important for optimal aging to work the whole body all of the time.

Nate Wilkins: 8:09

I agree with that. But but again, it goes back to, you know what? What are the goals and what are you trying to accomplish?

Peter Bowes: 8:16

The lifelong podcast is a healthspan media production. I'm Peter Bowes. You can contact me through our website, LiveLongPodcast.com where you'll also find show notes for this episode.

DISCLAIMER: 8:30

Peter Bowes: This podcast is for informational. Educational and entertainment purposes only. We do not offer medical advice. If you have health concerns of any kind or you are considering adopting a new diet or exercise regime, you should first consult your doctor.