100 Squats a Day: What It Does and How to Build Up

Updated November 12, 2026 · 6 minute read

100 squats a day is one of the simplest habits you can pick up. No equipment, no gym, and once you are used to it, it takes less than 10 minutes. It will not turn you into a bodybuilder, but it will make your legs stronger, your stairs easier and your daily step count feel lighter. Here is what to expect, how to squat well, and how to get to 100 from wherever you are now.

What 100 squats a day does

Muscles	Thighs (front and back), glutes, calves and core
Equipment	None
Time	About 5 to 10 minutes, rests included
Good for	Leg endurance, mobility, and a daily habit that sticks

Stronger, more enduring legs. In the first few weeks you will notice stairs, hills and long walks getting easier.
Better mobility. Going all the way down every day keeps your hips and ankles moving well.
A habit, not a project. It is small enough to do every day, and doing something every day is the hard part of fitness.

What it will not do on its own: build big legs or burn a lot of fat. Bodyweight squats get easy, and once 100 feels easy, your legs have little reason to grow. For more muscle, make the squats harder (see below). For fat loss, what you eat matters far more than any single exercise.

How to do a bodyweight squat

Stand with your feet about shoulder width apart, toes turned out a little.
Sit back and down, as if onto a low chair behind you. Push your knees out over your toes.
Go to depth. Aim for your hip crease just below the top of your knees, with your heels on the floor.
Keep your chest up. Reach your arms forward if it helps you balance.
Stand all the way up and squeeze your glutes at the top. That is one rep.

The most common mistakes: heels lifting, knees caving in, and stopping halfway down. If your heels come up, widen your stance a little. If you cannot reach depth yet, squat to a chair or a box and lower it over the weeks.

Can't do 100 yet? Here is a 4 week plan

First, test: do as many good squats as you can in one go. Then pick the row that fits.

Under 20	Week 1: 5 sets of 8. Week 2: 5 x 10. Week 3: 6 x 10. Week 4: 8 x 10.
20 to 40	Week 1: 5 sets of 12. Week 2: 5 x 15. Week 3: 6 x 15. Week 4: 10 x 10.
Over 40	You can start at 100 now. Begin with 10 sets of 10 and cut the number of sets as you go.

Rest 30 to 60 seconds between sets. Train every day, or every other day if your legs are still sore the next morning. Then test again at the end of week 4.

Ways to split the 100

10 sets of 10. The classic. Short rests, clean reps, about 6 minutes.
4 sets of 25. Fewer breaks, more burn. Good once 10 x 10 feels easy.
A ladder. 5, 10, 15, 20, 20, 15, 10, 5. That is exactly 100, with the big sets in the middle. More in the ladder guide.
Through the day. 20 squats five times: morning, lunch, afternoon, dinner, bedtime. The easiest way to start.
All 100 in one go. The goal for a lot of people. Under 3 minutes is fast.

Make it harder

Pause squats. Hold the bottom for 2 seconds every rep.
Slow squats. Take 3 seconds to go down.
Jump squats. Jump at the top. Swap 20 of the 100 for jumps.
Lunges. One leg at a time doubles the load on each leg. 50 lunges a leg is a different day entirely.
Squat Tabata. 20 seconds of squats, 10 seconds of rest, 8 rounds. Count your reps. More in the Tabata guide.

Is it safe to squat every day?

For most people, yes. Bodyweight squats are light, and your legs carry you around all day anyway. Take a day off if your knees ache (not just tired muscles), and go back to fewer reps for a week. If you already have a knee or hip problem, ask a physiotherapist before you start a daily challenge.

How to do 100 squats with RankTime

Squats are one of the nine exercises RankTime counts with the camera straight away. Every rep goes to your squat history and its own military rank, so the 100 a day adds up to something you can see.

RankTime during a 40 second work interval, lime screen with heart rate, SQUATS and the reps counted — During a set: heart rate on the left, squats counted on the right.

RankTime running a Tabata work interval, full lime screen with squats and the time remaining — The TABATA page runs squats out of the box.

Open REPS mode and swipe to the CENTURION page: 100 reps in sets of 5.
Pick SQUATS. Tap the exercises circle, tick SQUATS, then untick PUSHUPS. Check the total still reads 100.
Set your split. Tap the reps per set circle and drag it to 10 for 10 sets of 10, or 25 for 4 sets of 25. For the ladder, switch the same circle to Ladder and type 5-10-15-20-20-15-10-5.
Save it with the plus button, as SQUAT 100 or any name you like.
Prop the phone up and press play. Stand about 2 meters (6 feet) away with your whole body in the frame. The counting happens on the phone itself, nothing is uploaded, and the rest starts on its own when you finish a set.

Training on three separate days in a week earns that week's medal, so a daily 100 keeps your streak going without thinking about it.