17 Benefits Of Wall Sits Exercises

wall sit exercises

As a fitness conscious individual, you always look to perform exercises that benefit your body in a number of ways. You look to build your muscles, increase your body strength, cut some weight, tone your body muscles and keep fit among other things.

One of the rare sights in a gym is someone leaning on a wall with their feet firmly on the floor and knees held at 900 to the floor. These are called wall sits (squats). Whenever someone spots me doing the squats, they normally think I am wasting my precious gym time.

But did you know wall sits provide you lots of benefits, just as weighted squats? Take it from me; this seemingly relaxed exercise does you a tone of a boon.

So, for today, I am going to highlight some of the 17 benefits of wall sits. Next time, you can schedule it in your workout routine.

17 Benefits of Wall Sits

Benefits of Wall Sits

1. Makes You Concentrate And Focus More

Doing wall sits may sound like a very basic workout routine, but the truth is that it isn’t. Doing regular wall squats helps you develop a peace of mind that elevates your concentration. First of all, most people stay seated for longer hours than they do sleeping.

As a result, more so if you are at work, your concentration levels drop the more you stay seated behind a computer. Adding a little more active ingredient to your daily schedule keeps you going for longer.

Completing almost half a minute wall sits up routine requires you to keep your focus than you would ordinarily do.

First, you need to concentrate on your breathing. Secondly, you flex your abs, followed by balancing yourself with legs in no awkward position. Finally, you need to relieve your arms of their supporting role. You have to get all these done at the same time.

As you may realize, you would have to put in more effort to pull these off. At first, you may not get them right, but with practice, you definitely will. To get you through the motions, your brain trains itself to keep its focus and concentration which makes your abilities better over time.

Over time, your work performance and sports outcomes would improve even when you remain seated for extended periods.

2. You Don’t Have To Spend A Dime To Perform Wall Squats

Another reason to appreciate wall sits is the ability to do them at no cost at all. Also, a typical wall squats routine wouldn’t take too much of your time either.

You do not need any specialized equipment to perform a wall squat, neither do you have to pay gym fees.

Your house has a wall, right? Well, that’s all you need, including yourself and a couple of free minutes to spare. In the end, you will be getting into shape while improving your concentration and focus levels at no extra cost.

Of course, you can include wall sits as part of your gym routine if you already have a membership. But the point is when it is not part of a workout routine, then you do not have to pay a single buck to perform a wall squat.

There is also the bonus of the little amount of time you require for a daily workout. To realize the benefits, you need to carry out a maximum of 6 squats per day.

That translates to about 10 minutes of your time. How about that? If you are busy, this is an amount of time you can easily spare to gain an overall body strength.

3. Wall Sits Gives Your Abs A Workout

wall sits benefitsNow to an actual benefit you would have expected from a workout session to your body. Developing those infamous 6 packs or 8 packs common among male models is a top priority for some individuals looking for a workout session to get involved in. Here is a sure one of those.

The successful completion of a wall sits routine demands that you tense your abs muscles. Wall sits are all about flexing your abs more every time you perform them.

For a more result oriented workout, focus on your breathing cycles as it is a key part of flexing the abs.

While leaning on the wall and exerting yourself on the floor, inhale in the air and exhale via your nose (using the mouth might be tempting).

Additionally, do your breathing through your chest, and not your stomach. Getting both techniques right tones your abs in the long run.

The results achieved may not be as compared to those from a weighted sit up, but the yielded end products are just as good. Looking at it from an optimistic point of view, regularly flexing your abs for about 10 minutes a day would be more productive than sitting around and doing nothing.

4. It Gives Your Whole Lower Body A Workout

Wall sits are often regarded as a static or isometric form of exercising. However, because of the high number of muscles and joints involved, it can as well be considered to be a compound exercise. In effect, most of your muscles get a workout that results in overall endurance.

If you consider how the muscles and joints work in collaboration to achieve the wall sits movements, then one appreciates how intense it can be.

Leaning against the wall, firmly staying on the ground, and lifting yourself up and down involves your entire lower body.

Your hamstrings, quads as well as glutes become bulked up in mass. While this muscle increase is not always the intended result but an in-process benefit, achieving both would still be great. Another benefit is that you develop increased muscle endurance.

Getting almost your entire lower body worked out is not achievable in most of the isometric exercises. So, in a way, wall squats are unique in their own way.

After a while, through muscle endurance, an individual can perform wall sits for longer periods than they were capable of when starting.

5. It Is A Subtle Way of Burning Calories

Here is the deal, sitting around is one of the least intense things you can think of. It also negatively affects normal body functionality. This is not to scare you, but a Forbes magazine report shows that if you sit for extended hours, you could die sooner.

Wall sits may sound the same as just sitting idle, leading to increased weight, tight hips or back pain. Essentially, these are not great signs you would ordinarily want to find yourself in. Performing wall sit ups then creates an active way of alleviating all these health hazards.

A wall sit requires you to keep your feet at a 90angle with the ground and maintain the position for some time. Rather than moving in or out of a position like in repetitive exercises, your muscles stay in a contracted position for the whole duration.

It is the main reason that if you stay against the wall for let’s say 30 seconds, your heart rate starts going up. You start feeling more burn as your body works overtime to keep you in position.

Increased heart rates indicate more calories being burned for the entire time frame. As a result, you lose more fat, leading to a significant weight loss.

wall sit workout

6. Improved Body Balance

The first art you learn when doing wall sits is to balance yourself against the wall properly. You do so without relying on any object, apart from your muscles and the wall you are leaning on. Keeping yourself steady and crisp for a couple of minutes every day eventually benefits you.

Like earlier mentioned, a wall sit builds your body endurance capabilities. Also, your lower body muscles get a workout, which further contributes to your ability to stay aloft for even longer. The more you do the workout, the lesser the chances of you slipping or falling.

Moreover, there is always more to maintaining body balance than keeping yourself from hitting the ground. Wall sits are like sitting on a chair, but without the chair. As nothing supports your bum, your body is forced to learn how to balance itself while in a sitting position.

Muscle proprioceptors react to the shift in positions so that you stay on your feet. The more the receptors are active within your body, the less likely your center of gravity shifts out of position.

Continued practice minimizes your chances of slipping and potentially breaking fragile bones when you reach an advanced age.

7. Increases Your Thigh Strength

Part of the reason why you develop an acute sense of balance is down to well-toned thighs. This workout specifically focuses on the thighs, since it is the part of the body that does most of the job of maintaining you in position as you move your body up and down the wall.

When doing wall sits, the bulk of your body weight is transferred to your legs, particularly the thighs.

After doing them for a while, you start noticing beautifully sculpted thighs, just as you may have been dreaming of. And who doesn’t appreciate great looking thighs when you have your swimwear on?

Benefits do not end there. With stronger thighs, athletes can catapult themselves faster off the mark. They can run faster as well. Also, in your soccer game, you will be kicking the ball harder than everybody else. If your home has a flight of stairs, climbing up would be no big deal.

For those looking to have solid and firm thighs, this workout would be an ideal choice. Increasing your body stamina comes as an added benefit.

How does a wall sit do this? Well, it activates your Slow Twitch Fiber muscle components which are responsible for more muscle endurance.

8. Vary the Workouts As Much As You Want

Performing the same workouts week in week out can become too boring for you to continue. But remaining in a fixed position for sometimes does not help either in breaking the boredom.

Fortunately, a session of wall sits is one you can vary in as many ways as you wish.

  • Straight Leg Lift-Up

This variant targets your quads, calves, adductors, glutes, hamstrings, upper, and lower abs. To do this, move down to the standard wall sit position and then extend one leg outwards. Alternate between the stabilizing left and right leg.

  • Wall Sit-Shoulder Press

Apart from the muscles worked by the leg lift-up, additional muscles such as the anterior, lateral, and posterior deltoids are targeted. Dumbbells are used for weights.

  • Wall Sit-Lat Raise

Instead of having your arms raised above your head like in the previous variation, here you have your arms outstretched parallel to the floor while in the wall sit position. Lower your arms as you slide downwards and back to the starting position.

  • Biceps Curl

As you lean on the wall with your feet pressing firmly on the floor, hold dumbbells near your torso, engaging your core in the process.

While still learning, make a step forward while maintaining a 6” distance between the feet. Exhale and inhale as you slide down to a floor position and back up.

  • Marching Wall-Sit

During this variant, simulate marching movements with your feet maintain the normal position you would be in for a wall sit.

9. Increased Bone Strength

By virtue of your lower body bones bearing your weight during a wall sit, you develop stronger bones. Having this weight bearing capacity over a period is what leads to increased weight capacity.

Bones are just like muscles, the more weight you exert on them, the more enduring they get. As a result, your leg bones (femur and tibia) increases in bulk, resulting in stronger bones. With strong bones, your body becomes resistant to osteoporosis which weakens your bones.

Having stronger bones also benefits you in plenty of other ways. Your chances of suffering a fractured bone become minimalized as well. Teens too can get involved in physical activities without having a fear of having a broken leg bone.

10. Reduced Stress

Everyday hassle can take a toll on you at the end of the week. Noisy urban life, urgent work reports, endless departmental meetings, and all that weighs on you at some point.

When it reaches a tipping point, stress becomes detrimental to your health and reduces work efficiency.

Wall sits provide you with a surprising way of getting relief from all that internal tension. If you didn’t know, wall sits are among the workouts enjoyed by a lot of fitness enthusiasts. The fun factor becomes a great stress reliever as you let out all that toxic energy.

Wall sits lovers engage one another in contests that can be found online, on who outperforms who. Some of these involve whole families from the youngest to the eldest. However, you don’t have to be part of these contests to have a relaxed, fun time of your own.

To combat your weekly stresses, play your favorite workout music and grab yourself your workout wall. Calming music in the background helps you keep your focus on yourself and your movements. You then forget all about your stresses as the toxins exit your body.

11. Curbs Your Cravings

Get ready for a surprise! Wall sits, one of the isometric exercises is an instrumental part of helping you deal with some of the unwanted cravings you may have. Of particular interest is the urge to take certain drugs such as tobacco or alcohol.

As you already know, these two drugs are bad for your health, no matter the justification you may be having for taking them. These addictive drugs have an urge drive that hits their users at random times. Resisting the urges is probably one of the hardest tasks you can ever encounter.

All is not doomed though. Wall sits provide users with temporary relief from these drugs by curbing the dependency for a while. It is not only the wall sits that provide relief, but also other forms of isometric exercises.

At any point that you feel like having a drink or a puff, spare a couple of minutes and do wall sits. Theoretically, the cravings should disappear at an instant.

12. Wall Sits Instill The Art Of Multi-Tasking

Do you find it difficult to get a few things going on for you at the same time?

Well, if it makes you feel any better, you are not alone. If there is one thing wall sits are good at, it is enabling you to perform a number of tasks concurrently.

You can do the workouts as you listen to music, read a book, watch TV. All these are aimed at fighting the boredom that comes with leaning against a wall with your feet firmly on the ground. Indeed time flies by when you are actively engaged in other fun activity beside wall sits.

If you add to the impressive variability of this workout, then you have the perfect combination to get you started on this multi-tasking thing. You can have your dumbbells, do some wall sit-lat Raise, biceps curls, and shoulder press workouts, instead of focusing solely on wall sits.

13. Simulates Boarding And Skiing Sports

Wall sits are some of the exercises that skiers perform in preparation for their fun out on the ice.

Beginners, intermediates, and advanced enthusiasts rely on wall sits and other isometric exercises to get into shape after a long period of dormancy.

If you carefully examine the wall sit position, it bears close similarity with that of skiing and board activities. In fact, the same target muscles are worked in both exercises.

You could be leaning still in a squatting position against a wall or hitting the snow downhill. The fact is, both of you are more or less engaging the same muscles. Also, keeping your knees bent at the 90angles to the floor makes your muscles more enduring.

You are then capable of having extended fun in the outdoors. Moreover, your kneecaps become strengthened in readiness for the bumpy rides when skiing on a rough path downhill.

14. Provides Relief For Those With Runner’s Knee

Wall Sit Workout Provides Relief For Runner’s Knee

Any knee pain is every runner’s worst nightmare. The seamless knee flex and forward roll in every stride are what an athlete demands from their body.

But if out of sheer gusto, you rake in those miles too fast or you over-exert yourself, you can develop runner’s knee, a dreaded condition causing pain at the knees. A painful knee during flexion reduces your efficiency.

Out of the numerous available relief options, carrying out a wall sit workout is one of the most sorted after. This workout activates your quads, which results in the eventual alleviation of the condition.

Follow the usual wall sits procedure of leaning against a wall, moving your 2 feet in front of you then bending your knees as you slide downwards against the wall.

Stop when your knees form a 90-degree angle at the knee joints. Hold the position for half a minute, pull yourself back up, then repeat thrice.

15. Toning Calf Muscles

For some unknown reasons, everybody these days has a fascination with their legs. Both men and women alike have a thing for good-looking, muscle-toned legs. Everybody flaunts them nowadays in every corner you turn in town.

For those who are still behind the news, wall sits are an excellent way of toning your calf muscles to model status (that’s far-fetched, but you never know).

The guiding principle of a wall sit workout is that you have most of your weight resting on the calves (legs in general).

Having a quick session strains the leg muscles, creating that burn which results in great looking calves. Strong calves also allow you to walk and run for longer without tiring.

16. You Become Flexible With Your Range of Motion

Wall sits workout can be compared to a session of yoga. You sit in a fixed position, with a straight back and concentrate on body movements. These are almost similar to yoga, albeit without the wall.

This posture mimics being seated still giving you a light feel on some of your body joints. It is this light feel that makes your joints more flexible, giving you a range of motions.

17. There Are No Restrictions On Where To Have Wall Sits

Where there are no walls, there are trees, obstacles, rocks, and just about anything that you can lean against. Provided your knees can be bent into the required angle and your feet are firmly on the ground, then you are good to go.

And then, I don’t think anyone can be too busy to not afford at most a minute every day for the workout. Honestly, you could even do a wall sit in the bathroom as before you shower or even when refilling water at the tap.

Apart from curious glances here and there, you can do this work out just about anywhere.

Conclusion

Walls are not your typical workout equipment. Despite being in almost every part of the globe, even the countryside, they are rarely considered when it comes to improving human health.

The truth is, wall sits accrue a fitness enthusiast a whole lot of thigh bursting benefits. Toned calves, dense bones, better focus and concentration, improve body balance among a plethora of other advantages.

I believe from these 17 benefits of wall sits; you would never look at wall sits as a waste of time. These vast benefits create your good looking and fitter body than before.

17 Benefits of Wall Sits

17 Benefits Of Wall Sits Exercises

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