Should You Be Doing Squats/Lunges with Weights?

Squats and lunges are probably the 2 best exercises for working, burning fat and getting the ‘toned’ look most people are looking for on their legs and glutes. Should you be doing high reps without any weight or should you be doing squats/lunges with weights? And if you should be holding weights, how much should you hold?

The answer really depends on your goals, so I will go through the answer separately for different goals;

1/ Bulk Up

If you want to put on muscle, then naturally you will need to use weights. You want to vary you rep range but between 8 reps and 12 reps. So choose the weight accordingly so you tire after that amount of reps. It’s always better to start lighter if you are not used to doing an exercise (or at least not used to doing it with weight), and then build up the weights and lower the reps gradually to ensure you maintain your technique.

2/ Tone Up

I hate that phrase because it’s not actually possible. You either gain lean muscle or lose it. But everyone knows what you mean when you say’ tone up.’ You are basically looking for sleek muscles and good muscle definition without being big or bulky.
To get this look you need to build lean muscle and you need to burn fat. So if you don’t already do weighted squats and lunges you need to start. Start light with the weights and build them up to whatever tires you out at 10-15 reps.

But you will also need to do either some higher rep training on the same exercises or some cardio that works the same muscles such as cycling. This way you burn the fat as well as building the lean muscle.

3/ Weight Loss

If you goal is first and foremost weight loss, I would suggest sticking to body weight squats and lunges to start with. Depending on how much weight you are carrying you may find 10/12 squats lunges quite fatiguing initially anyway. Then as you start losing weight and getting stronger you will start
finding them easier and can think about adding weight.

4/ Injuries

Injuries are always a spanner in the works. If you have knee problems for example it may be that adding weight into the exercising is too much strain anyway. In which case don’t push it, just stick to the bodyweight exercises and do more reps.

Conclusion – Should You Be Doing Squats/Lunges with Weights?

Too many people don’t use any weights and just do high reps. If your body fat is already relatively low and you are looking to improve on muscle definition, you MUST decrease the reps by adding some weights into the mix. Otherwise you won’t get the ‘toned’ look you are after.

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