Why you should incorporate Wall Sit exercise in your workout

If you don’t love squats or are not able to do them due to weak muscles or mobility issues, try wall sits for 5 minutes daily.

It doesn’t take long to feel the benefits of a wall sit. Nor does it take any equipment. It uses body weight hence its suitable for anyone and can be done anywhere as long as there is a wall.

Wall sits are an excellent, joint-friendly functional movement exercise that can improve your strength, joint stability, and flexibility.

While this isometric movement might look easy, performing a wall sit can actually be a serious challenge for your body depending on how long you do it. A static wall sit doesn’t just benefit your legs and thighs, it strengthens your back, quads, and core.

In daily life, strong quads are used for getting out of a chair and walking downhill or down stairs, which is why wall sits are good exercise for everybody.

Plugging a wall sit into your fitness routine is a sound way to build strength and endurance.

What are the Benefits of Wall Sit ?

Wall sits are simple, accessible, effective, and easy to adapt and vary. Here are the top reasons to add them to your or your workout routine.

1. Wall Sits Build Lower Body Muscle Strength

This is the most obvious benefit of doing wall sits. It’s a strength training move that recruits many muscles of the lower body and helps them get stronger over time. Lower body strength supports everything you do, from daily functional movements to sports and athletics.

The main lower body muscles worked in a wall sit include your quads, glutes, and calves.

2. Improve Core Strength

While the lower body is the focus of this move, holding a wall sit also requires you to balance in a slightly unstable position. This means you need to recruit core muscles to hold you in position, and that builds strength in them. And because your core is engaged throughout the wall sit, it is a great way to develop abdominal muscles and you’ll notice your abs starting to tighten.

3. Improves Balance and Flexibility

The focus of this movement is also to improve balance and flexibility by doing it regularly. Since the entirety of your leg will take the brunt during exercise, you can expect your balance to improve. And because it improves posture, your body will feel lighter and more flexible.

4. Wall Sits Are Simple

You don’t need any equipment beyond a wall to do this exercise. It uses the body weight. The simplicity makes this exercises accessible to more anyone though it’s very challenging depending on the duration.

5. Boosts Overall Stamina and Muscle Endurance

As an isometric exercise (static- they require you to tense and hold your muscles in a single position), a wall sit not only build muscle strength but also increases muscular endurance. The longer you can hold a wall sit, the greater the endurance you have in the muscles involved.

The muscular endurance delays fatigue and allows athletes to perform optimally for longer periods of time.

6. Burns Calories

This is primarily a strength exercise, but it also elevates your heart rate and burns calories. As you sit for a few seconds, your heart rate will increase, and the burn will be felt throughout the entire lower body. This will cause a spike in calories burned as your cardiovascular system begins to work.

7. Wall Sits Are Not Bad for Your Knees 

They strengthen all the muscles that support the knee joint. A wall sit can also improve mobility in the joint and increase flexibility.

8. Build Mental Strength and Focus

Wall sits are simple but can be intense. Concentrating on holding your leg and abdominal tension in excellent form while feeling intense physical sensations helps you to build focus and mental fortitude. It builds mental toughness for sports and other activities that require you to persevere in the face of discomfort.

9. An Alternative to Squats

If you can’t do squats because they hurt your knees, a wall sit might be an alternative your joints can handle until you gain the strength and balance you need to safely perform squats. There is less movement through the joint and you have your back against the wall to support and take some load off the knees.

If you have any type of knee injury or knee pain, talk to your doctor before doing any new kind of exercise. If a wall sit causes your knee to hurt, stop doing it right away. It could be a form issue, or you could have an injury that the sitting position exacerbates.

How to Do a Wall Sit Exercise

A wall sit is simple, but as with any exercise, you have to get the form right. Proper form allows you to hit the targeted muscles and avoid pain and injury.

• Stand with your back against a sturdy wall
• Walk your feet forward about two feet
• Keeping your feet approximately shoulder or hip-width apart, engage your abdominal muscles and slowly slide your back down the wall until your thighs are parallel to the ground as you bend at the hips, knees, and ankles
• In the correct position, you should have a 90-degree bend at the hip, knee, and ankle joints
• Hold the sit with good form, engaging your core and lower body to stay in position
• Keep your back flat against the wall
• Hold the position for 20 to 60 seconds as long as you can hold it comfortably
• Keep breathing normally and keep your hands at a neutral position
• When you’re ready to stand, push into your heels and slide up the wall to standing.
• Rest for 30 seconds and repeat the exercise three times. Increase your hold time in five-second increments as you increase your strength.

If you’re new to wall sits, start slowly, with 10 or 20 seconds for a hold. You can also ease into the 90 degrees. Don’t sink down so deep if you’re not ready or if it feels uncomfortable or painful.

Always watch where your knees are. They should never hyperextend or shoot out over your feet. Keep them over the ankles. Also watch out for your knees bowing inward or outward. They should remain straight and pointing forward throughout the hold.

Now you know where there’s a wall there’s a way to exercise and it’s a suitable movement for everyone, from beginner to pro.