JJ Virgin says women often skip strength training for cardio or Pilates, missing the stimulus needed for knee and back health. Squats are essential for everyday tasks like standing and sitting. Avoiding them because of pain actually makes it worse.
And the reality is, if someone hasn't done it, which so many women for so long, they would do cardio or they would do things like Pilates. And I know whenever I bring up this, then there's like the war. But for most people, Pilates is not going to be enough of a stimulus to start to really build strength like you need to. It might if you're deconditioned, but then you're going to need to get— I think it's a great—
there's a focus on the core, but you're saying there's a lot more than that.
Yeah, you know, I think that if all we focused on is getting, is getting into the most basic resistance training movements— do a squat. And I'll hear people say, I can't do that because of my back and my knees. And I'll say, you need to do it because of your back and your knees. In life, you have to get off the toilet, you get out of a chair, you get out of the car, you squat all the time. And so if you're telling me you can't do this because of bad back and knees and you avoid it, you're going to make yourself worse, not better. You got to train to get better at life, and then life involves Squatting. And so you can do it in a controlled environment to start, which is great, so that when you get out into the wild, you don't hurt yourself.
