Dumbbell Squat
Trains the Quads.
- Equipment
- Dumbbells
- Mechanic
- Compound
- Force
- Push
- Level
- Beginner
How to do it
- Stand with a dumbbell in each hand at your sides, feet about shoulder-width apart, toes slightly out.
- Brace your stomach and set your chest up.
- Squat down by bending the knees and pushing the hips back together.
- Let the dumbbells travel down beside your legs.
- Go down until your thighs are at least parallel, or as far as a flat back allows.
- Drive back up through the whole foot.
Common mistakes
- Letting the dumbbells pull the shoulders forward. The load hangs at the sides rather than in front, so the torso should stay more upright than in a goblet squat — rounding forward is the grip tiring, not the legs.
- Stopping short because the dumbbells reach the floor. If they land before you do, stand on low blocks or hold them higher; the depth belongs to the squat, not to the dumbbells.
- Letting the knees fall inward. Pushing them out over the middle of the foot is part of the movement rather than a correction made afterwards.
- Treating the grip as the limit. On a heavy set the hands usually give out before the legs do, which is a reason to use a barbell or a goblet hold rather than a reason to stop squatting.