Single-Leg High Box Squat

How to do it

1. Set a box behind you at a height that keeps the working thigh above parallel when seated.
2. Stand on one leg in front of it, the other leg held out in front of you.
3. Hold your arms out for balance or hold a light weight at your chest as a counterweight.
4. Sit back and down under control until your backside touches the box.
5. Touch without sitting, keeping the trunk braced.
6. Drive back up through the standing foot, then finish the side before swapping.

Common mistakes

• Setting the box too low to start. A high box is the point — it is what makes a single-leg squat possible before the full range is, and lowering it is the progression.
• Sitting down between repetitions. Touch-and-go keeps the leg loaded; sitting makes each repetition a fresh start from a dead position.
• Letting the knee fall inward. On one leg there is nothing to hide it, and it is the signal to raise the box or end the set.
• Letting the free leg touch down. It stays off the floor for the whole repetition, or the exercise is quietly a two-legged one.

Muscles worked

Primary

• Quads

Secondary

• Glutes
• Hamstrings