Raise your hand if you have trouble getting in and out of a chair. Or how about reaching down to the ground to pick up something you’ve dropped? Or do you ever have difficulty getting on or off the toilet? If any of these daily movements give you trouble, then chances are your legs are weaker than they should be and your mobility- and even your independence- may be in jeopardy. So what to do? Start with something simple and basic: Learn how to do squats and incorporate them into your everyday exercise routines.

A recent article outlined the top fitness trends for 2025, according to the American College of Sports Medicine. Among those top trends? Fitness for older adults, strength training, and functional fitness, which means practicing and perfecting simple movements that are at the core of your daily activities. Squatting is an essential movement that powers your ability to get up and down from the toilet or a chair, get in or out of your car, or get down toward the ground to pick something up, be it your dog’s droppings or a necessary item of clothing. If you want to be mobile, active, and independent, there’s just no way around being able to squat. Fortunately, it’s a movement that’s easy to practice without any equipment, wherever you are. As one fitness expert makes clear, for older adults, “You’ll get the most bang for your buck by doing squats.” By practicing and strengthening your ability to do a squat, you will be helping all of the muscles in your legs, including your glutes, hamstrings, quads, and calves, and strengthening your core and back. And what about your knees? As one expert reports, “Squats are not bad for your knees—they’re actually good for keeping the joint lubricated and mobile.” In fact, squats are known to promote the production of synovial fluid, which lubricates joints and reduces friction, something valuable for your creaky aging knees and legs. As a weight-bearing exercise, squats are also known to help strengthen bones (research has shown that squats can increase bone mineral density in postmenopausal women with osteoporosis or osteopenia). Other benefits of doing squats include moving your hip flexors, shoring up your balance, preventing falls, increasing your muscle mass, supporting your cardiovascular health, and improving your mobility. To further understand the full value of doing a squat, stand up from your chair and click here.

The basic squat movement is elemental and even intuitive, as you’ve been sitting in chairs and on toilets since a young age.  Although you’ll essentially be creating the movement of sitting down into a chair, here are a few pointers to help you squat correctly: If you’re a beginner, make sure you have something to hold onto; keep your feet initially shoulder-width apart (or slightly wider if that’s more comfortable); have your back straight, chest up, heels on the ground and hips moving behind you as you lower yourself. If you’re a beginning “squatter” you may also want to first test yourself to see how well your leg muscles do (watch the video here) or practice doing “chair squats,” as demonstrated here. However, because everybody is slightly different and has different capabilities as you get older, not everyone can do a squat in precisely the same way. If your hip joints are tighter or you can’t go as low as an instructor would like, that doesn’t mean you still can’t benefit. Ideally, a personal trainer or physical therapist would be on hand to get you started and make sure your form is correct.

Once you’ve mastered the basic squat, you’ll want to practice and incorporate it into your daily exercises. You’ll also want to begin to challenge yourself with weights or slightly altered squat movements, to keep your muscles challenged and constantly building. Silver Sneakers has a set of four demonstration videos, gradually working up to more challenging squats involving moving your legs to the side and even rotating your body. Doing squats on an unstable surface (such as on a half-round balance ball) is not only good for perfecting and strengthening your squatting but there’s research highlighting the benefits for your brain. You can also try such challenges as a “goblet” squat (holding up a dumbbell or kettlebell in your hands), a split squat (with one foot in front and one behind), or a one-legged squat when you become really strong, in addition to trying a barbell on your shoulders to increase the load you are squatting. You can also place a wedge under your heels while you are squatting as a way to increase your quad strength while helping your posture and strengthening your ankle flexibility. Whatever way you decide works for you, it’s a movement you’ll need throughout your life, so the more you practice and gain strength, the better off you will be in the long run.