If you're new to exercise, working out can be intimidating. The trick is to begin with exercises you can build on. Start with the legs. After all, they help support our bodies in the most basic of activities — standing and walking! Try wall squats, the building block of all squat variations. Here's how to get started right now.

Wall Squat

Stand with your back about 1 1/2 feet from a wall, feet hip-width apart, your weight on your heels. Lean back until your shoulders and upper back touch the wall. Now slowly lower yourself (as if you were going to sit on a chair) until your thighs are parallel with the floor and your legs form a 90-degree angle. In the seated position, your back — from the shoulder blades to the lower rib cage — should rest lightly against the wall. Hold this position for as long as you can, stand back up, and repeat.

When you've mastered the form and technique, kick it up a notch by adding resistance with hand weights. Once you've developed quad, glute, and hamstring strength with this beginner move, you'll be ready to tackle more advanced leg exercises and indeed more challenging variations of squats such as the sumo squat and the jackknife squat which requires following through the full range of movement in the knee joint, the jump squat which introduces the desired cardio element and the more advanced Burpee, which just works pretty much every other major muscle group to booth. Getting good quad and hamstring strength and not least the often time forgotten glutes helps build strength en for various other forms of exercises and sports like running, cycling and combat sport.

It helps with good posture alignment and muscle stability. For home fitness training, squats are a very useful and effective exercise which really just requires working with the challenge that is your own body weight. For personal fitness training at home Get started with a Squatting.

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