Speed Squat
Trains the Quads.
- Equipment
- A barbell and a rack
- Mechanic
- Compound
- Force
- Push
- Level
- Advanced
How to do it
- Rack a barbell across your upper back and step back into your usual squat stance.
- Load it noticeably lighter than a working squat — this is about speed rather than weight.
- Brace your stomach and set your chest up.
- Squat down under control to your usual depth.
- Drive back up as fast as you can, as if trying to leave the floor.
- Reset your breath and brace between repetitions rather than cycling continuously.
Common mistakes
- Loading it like a working set. Past a certain weight the bar cannot be moved fast, and the exercise has quietly become an ordinary squat done tired.
- Rushing the descent as well. The way down is controlled; only the drive out is fast, and a dropped descent is how the bottom position gets lost.
- Cutting depth to move faster. The depth is the same as any other squat — a faster shorter repetition is not a faster repetition.
- Running the repetitions together. Each one starts from a fresh brace; speed work loses its point when the trunk is not reset.