Body Weight Squat Challenge


If you’re interested in a full body workout done in a measly 3 minutes, then this ones for you. This is a squat challenge, but believe me, the squat is actually a full body metabolically challenging exercise that you’ll feel everywhere when you’re done.

The title of this workout is a little misleading…you won’t be doing ‘just’ your body weight, you’ll be doing your body weight on the bar. So for example, I weight about 125 lbs, so that’s what I’ll load up.

This is similar to the push up challenge I posted here. Your goal is to get as many reps as you can in a three minute period.

These are the rules:

1.     Load up a barbell with your body weight.

2.     Set a timer for 3 minutes.

3.     Un-rack the bar and begin with perfect full depth reps.

4.     DO NOT rack the bar.

5.     Get as many reps as possible, rest while you have the bar on your back.

6.    Continue with reps for 3 minutes to see how many reps you can get.

Did I mention perfect form? Always err on the side of caution and rack the bar if need be. It’s better to  rest than continue squeaking out another ugly rep that could potentially injure you.

You can always use this workout as a benchmark. You can try to beat your rep score after some concentrated training time.

As always, I should have tried this workout once or twice before I taped it for the blog, but no matter, here’s how I did with 125 lbs on my back:

Try to tell me this is just a leg workout! I was sucking wind and my whole body ached. Squatting takes an enormous amount of core strength to maintain good form.

Take a look at this chart to see how you stack up:

1-10 perfect reps = You’re on your way to moving mountains and having legs of steel. You’d be surprised to know that the majority of peeps can’t squat their own body weight so you’re ahead of the crowd. Keep at it!

11-20 perfect reps = Great job! Getting from this level to the next can be achieved by working on your cardio with some HIIT, or high intensity interval training. It’s likely that within the three minute time period, you were more winded that fighting muscular fatigue.

21-30 perfect reps = Very impressive showing! Tighten your mental game and you’ll earn the title below.

30+ perfect reps = You’re a stud/stud muffin! Not only do you have legs of steel, you have an iron will to keep moving the iron when most would drop. Challenge workouts are often more about mindset and mental toughness and you’re as tough as they come!