There’s a new, free-to-download app that will help workout mavens achieve the “perfect” squat.
Squats. Almost every personal trainer you’ll ever meet recommends them, and none of us do enough of them. Squats help tone our behinds, build our quads, and keep our knees serviceable as we (gracefully!) age. They can help with posture, back problems, and are often cited as the best exercise you can do at home without any additional equipment.
But, honestly, they're kind of the worst. Not just because they’re hard to do, but because they’re hard to do well. The perfect squat involves a specific dance of locking and unlocking parts of the body as it descends down, ensuring that no part reaches beyond the toes and that the back remains straight as a board, and then doing the same process in reverse while going back up. It takes energy, concentration, and above all, patience.
But now there’s an app that will hopefully help us all achieve the “perfect” squat. It’s called the "Kaia Perfect Squat Challenge" app and it was created by Kaia Health. It harnesses the power of AI to ensure that we're all squatting with style.
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Download the app and then set your phone up on a table somewhere. The app will access your iPhone’s camera and create a wireframe image of you by analyzing your body. It will map out 16 key points on your bod and then compare those points relative to one another. Then, it will compare your motion to the perfect squat.
Every time you perform a squat, there’s a little “ding” to let you know if you did the squat well enough. The app will also tell you if you’re doing something wrong with some helpful tips like, “Try not to extend your knees past your toes." If you get things right, it’ll even shout words of encouragement like, "Yes! Much better!" (Thanks app!)
It even comes with an online leaderboard as well as a function that allows users to connect with their squatting squad, so you can compare the number of squats you do per day with the numbers that your friends perform.
There have been, however, some criticisms. It has been noted that the movement on screen doesn’t go deep enough to constitute a true squat and that your hands shouldn’t be around your ankles when you take the plunge.
It’s not going to eliminate the need for a gym membership or a personal trainer if you have one, but it is an impressive piece of technology that should help tone your behind while at home.
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