Goblet Squat
Trains the Quads.
- Equipment
- A kettlebell or a dumbbell
- Mechanic
- Compound
- Force
- Push
- Level
- Beginner
How to do it
- Hold a kettlebell or a dumbbell against your chest with both hands, elbows tucked underneath it.
- Stand with your feet a little wider than your hips and your toes turned slightly out.
- Brace your stomach and keep your chest up — the weight in front will try to pull you forward.
- Squat down by bending the knees and pushing the hips back together, keeping the weight against your chest.
- Go down until your hips drop below your knees, or as far as you can go with a flat back.
- Stand back up by driving through the whole foot, keeping the chest up the whole way.
Common mistakes
- Letting the weight drift away from the chest. Held close it counterbalances you and lets the torso stay upright; held out in front it becomes a load the lower back has to hold up.
- Stopping at parallel because that is where a barbell squat usually stops. Depth is the reason this variation exists — the counterbalance at the chest is what lets most people reach the bottom with a flat back for the first time.
- Letting the knees fall inward on the way up. Pushing them out over the middle of the foot is part of the movement, not a correction to make afterwards.
- Treating it as only a beginner's squat. The depth is what brings the glutes and the adductors in, and a deep goblet squat trains a range that a heavier, shallower squat never reaches.