Bodyweight Squat
Trains the Quads.
- Equipment
- Bodyweight
- Mechanic
- Compound
- Force
- Push
- Level
- Beginner
How to do it
- Stand with your feet a little wider than your hips, toes turned out ten to thirty degrees.
- Hold your arms out in front of you at shoulder height for balance, or clasp your hands at your chest.
- Brace your stomach and keep your chest up.
- Sit down and back at the same time, letting your knees travel forward over your feet and your hips travel back.
- Keep your whole foot on the floor, with pressure across the heel and the base of the big toe.
- Descend until the crease of your hip drops below the top of your knee, or as deep as you can go with your heels down.
- Drive back up by pushing the floor away, finishing standing tall with the glutes squeezed.
Common mistakes
- Rising onto the toes at the bottom. Usually a stance too narrow for the hips, or ankles that cannot let the knee travel far enough forward. Widening the stance and turning the toes out further is the first thing to try.
- Knees collapsing inward on the way up. Push them out in the same direction the toes point.
- Stopping high because depth feels awkward. Bodyweight is the right load to build depth with, and depth is what brings the glutes and adductors in.
- Treating it only as a warm-up. It is the movement pattern every loaded squat is built on, and time spent making it good at bodyweight pays back immediately.