This single movement delivers serious results, building full-body strength, enhancing athletic performance, and improving functional mobility that carries over into everyday life. Squats are a non-negotiable whether you're chasing bigger lifts, faster sprints, or just want to move better.
But here’s what most people overlook: squats come in many forms. If you’re bored of doing the same type of squat over and over, stuck in a progress plateau, or are looking to train toward a specific goal, then it might just be time to switch things up. And to make things easy, we’ve identified the best squat variations.
Whether you’re a beginner learning proper mechanics, a hybrid athlete chasing peak performance, or someone working around limitations, this guide will walk you through the most effective types of squats and how to do each one to reignite your workout and give you the results you want 🔥.
New to squats? Check out how to squat to master the basics of the bodyweight squat first, before trying the best squat variations in this article.
The Best Squat Variations
Squats are likely one of the first exercises you’ll learn when you start working out–and they’re one that you’ll continue to do again and again. But unlike with many things that you have to do repeatedly, you’re unlikely to get bored of squats. Why? Because there are so many different kinds of squats.
When you think of squatting, you probably think of a back squat (with a barbell), a bodyweight squat, or maybe a front squat. But there are actually many different types of squats, including kettlebell and dumbbell squats, machine squats, unilateral squats, and those made for explosiveness or mobility.
Each type of squat has its benefits, but one thing that unites every squat exercise is its ability to activate multiple muscle groups at once, build functional strength (making you better prepared for everyday life), and improve mobility and flexibility.
So why would you look for squat variations?
Well, there are a number of reasons: You could be looking to add resistance and make your squat more difficult, or you could be seeking out explosive or sport-specific squat exercises. Perhaps you have knee, hip, or back issues that leave you searching for something easier on the joints…
Whatever your reason, there’s a squat variation for you–and here’s what we’re covering:
Bodyweight squats (sumo squat, prisoner squat, Cossack squat)
Kettlebell & dumbbell squats (goblet squat, suitcase squat, double kettlebell front squat)
Barbell squats (back squat, front squat, Zercher squat)
Machine squats (Smith machine squat, hack squat, belt squat)
Single Leg squats (Bulgarian split squat, pistol squats)
Explosive squats (jump squats, broad jumps)
Bodyweight Squat Variations
First up, bodyweight squat variations. These are the ideal workout from home variation or a safe beginner option to work on your form. Even if you don’t fall into either of these categories, Bodyweight squat variations can still be incredibly effective, and they're perfect for warm-ups, active recovery, or anyone looking to master movement without external load.
Sumo squats take a wider stance to light up your inner thighs and glutes. Prisoner squats challenge your posture and core with hands locked behind your head, encouraging better upper-body alignment. And Cossack squats push your mobility and balance to the next level by working one leg at a time in a deep side-to-side motion.
1. Sumo Squat
Primary Target Muscles: Glutes & adductors (inner thigh)
Equipment: None
Difficulty: Easy
Bodyweight sumo squats are a powerful lower-body exercise that puts a unique spin on the traditional squat by widening your stance and turning your toes slightly outward at a 45-degree angle. This variation involves greater hip flexion compared to a regular stance, which increases activity from the hip extensors (especially in the inner thighs (adductors), glutes, and hamstrings) [1]. Sumo squats also work the quads, particularly during the ascending phase, and use the core for stability.
Sumo squats can be performed using just your bodyweight (making them perfect for beginners), or they can be turned into weighted squats by using a resistance band, dumbbell, kettlebell, barbell (in back or front rack position), or even a cable machine.
How To Do A Sumo Squat:
Stand in your regular bodyweight squat stance. Take a big step out to the side with both feet so your stance is about 3-4 feet wide, and you can still comfortably squat down. Your toes should be pointed out at 45 degrees.
Push your hips back, bending your legs and driving your knees out in line with your toes. Bring your arms out in front of you as you do so to stabilize yourself, keeping your chest proud.
Lower until your thighs are parallel to the floor (or as close as possible, without sacrificing form), then drive up, pushing through your heels to come back standing, squeezing your glutes at the top.
Repeat for the prescribed rep range. Keep a neutral spine, chest up, and core engaged throughout the movement.
2. Prisoner Squat
Primary Target Muscles: Quads, glutes, hamstrings, and core
Equipment: None
Difficulty: Easy
If you’re struggling with your chest dropping forward when you squat or finding it difficult to keep a neutral spine, prisoner squats are a great exercise to improve your squat form by forcing you to focus on keeping your chest forward. By placing your hands behind your head and keeping your elbows wide, this type of squat forces you to focus on maintaining an upright chest and neutral spine throughout the movement.
This bodyweight squat challenges your lower body–particularly the quads, glutes, and hamstrings—and engages the core and upper back muscles, too.
How To Do A Prisoner Squat:
Stand tall with feet shoulder-width apart and hands behind your head, elbows wide.
Engage your core and keep your chest up, avoiding arching your back.
Push your hips back and bend your knees to lower into a squat.
Lower down until your thighs are parallel to the floor (or as low as comfortable).
Drive through your heels to return to standing, keeping your torso upright.
3. Cossack Squat
Primary Target Muscles: Quads, glutes, hamstrings, adductors, calves, core, lower back, and spinal erectors.
Equipment: None
Difficulty: Intermediate
Cossack squats are a lateral (side-to-side) squat variation that improves lower-body strength, flexibility, and mobility, particularly in the hips, groin, hamstrings, and ankles. Performed by shifting your weight to one leg while keeping the other extended out to the side, they require balance, control, and joint mobility–so don’t get frustrated if you can’t reach full depth at first on these! (hint: Wearing seamless shorts or some 2-in-1 shorts with a side slit and flexible inner short supports lateral motion without restriction, making reach depth much more comfortable.)
A great thing about Cossack squats is that they highlight imbalances between sides. Often, you’ll find you’re much more mobile on one side than the other, so performing cossack squats may highlight where you need to work on hip mobility.
This type of squat can be used during warm-ups, prepping the hips, groin, and ankles before heavy lifts or explosive movements, or as accessory strength work within your main workout to build unilateral strength. It is particularly useful for those training for multidirectional sports, such as martial arts and combat sports, soccer, and tennis.
Perform these using only your bodyweight, or add a dumbbell or kettlebell to increase the difficulty.
How To Do Cossack Squats:
Start with feet wider than shoulder-width apart, toes pointing slightly outward.
Shift your weight to one leg, bending that knee and pushing your hips back and down while keeping the other leg straight out to the side with toes pointed up.
Lower yourself as far as is comfortable on the bent leg, keeping your chest up and back straight.
Keep the extended leg straight, with the heel grounded and foot facing forward or slightly outward.
Push through the bent leg’s heel to return to the starting position, then repeat on the other side.
Tip: If you find these difficult, try holding onto the rig, a TRX strap, or a stable surface to reduce the load on your hips and knees while you build strength and mobility.
Kettlebell & Dumbbell Squat Variations
Adding a kettlebell or dumbbell to your squat variations puts the muscles under greater tension to build strength and improve stability (and greater tension = greater gains 💪🏻).
Using an external load makes progressive overload easier. Opting for kettlebell/dumbbell squats is safer and more accessible than barbell-loaded squats, which can be challenging for beginners and come with a higher risk of injury, primarily due to the load placed on the spine and the technical demands of the movement.)
Goblet squats reinforce proper squat mechanics and develop core strength with a front-loaded position. Double suitcase squats load both sides evenly, challenging your grip, trunk stability, and lower body power. For a bigger challenge, the double kettlebell front squat loads your upper body in a rack position, demanding even more core control, posture, and total-body strength, preparing you well for barbell loaded squats.
4. Goblet squat
Primary Target Muscles: Quads, glutes, hamstrings, and adductors.
Equipment: Kettlebell or Dumbbell
Difficulty: Beginner
The goblet squat is a staple weighted squat exercise. All you need is a kettlebell or dumbbell, which, as you’ve probably guessed, you hold in front of you like a goblet (hence the name). The front loading not only helps to keep your form on-point by keeping the chest upright, but requires greater core engagement and loads up the quads, making them an excellent exercise for thicker-looking thighs.
How To Do Goblet Squats:
Choose a kettlebell or dumbbell to challenge you for the prescribed rep range. Take hold of the handle, one hand on either side, holding the kettlebell against your chest.
Set up in squat stance (as above) – feet just outside of hips, toes forward or slightly out. Take a deep breath in and brace your core.
Begin the squat by pushing your hips back, knees tracking in line with your toes. Keep the kettlebell close to you—it should be hovering just in front of your chest. Focus on keeping your chest up and not rounding your back as you descend.
When you reach parallel, pause, then stand back up, driving through your heels and extending your legs.
Exhale as you rise, press your hips slightly forward at the top of the movement, and squeeze your glutes.
Repeat for as many sets as desired.
5. Suitcase squat
Primary Target Muscles: Quads, glutes, hamstrings, and adductors.
Equipment: Kettlebell or Dumbbell
Difficulty: Beginner
A suitcase squat involves holding a dumbbell or kettlebell in each hand by your side and performing a squat as if you were carrying a suitcase by the handle. Compared to a back squat, suitcase squats put less stress on the lumbar spine, making it a good variation for people with a history of back trouble. Suitcase squats are also a good exercise for those who struggle with squat form, increasing awareness of proper alignment of knees and toes and maintaining correct posture and a neutral spine. This variation also challenges grip and core strength to a greater degree.
How To Do Suitcase Squats:
Stand tall with feet shoulder-width apart, holding a dumbbell or kettlebell in each hand at your sides.
Engage your core and keep your chest lifted, shoulders back, and spine neutral.
Push your hips back and bend your knees to lower into a squat, keeping the weights close to your legs.
Keep your knees aligned with your toes and your heels flat on the ground.
Drive through your heels to stand back up, extending your hips and knees at the top.
6. Double Dumbbell / Kettlebell Front Squat
Primary Target Muscles: Quads, glutes, hamstrings, and adductors.
Equipment: Kettlebell or Dumbbell
Difficulty: Intermediate
The double kettlebell front squat is a kettlebell squat variation (or dumbbell) that involves racking the weights at your shoulders in a front-rack position. It simultaneously works your quads, glutes, core, upper back, and grip, demanding strong core bracing to prevent rounding or collapsing of the back and chest, which can initially feel very challenging!
If you’re a beginner yet to move up to barbell squats, and would like to master loading a barbell in front and back rack, the loading position and core bracing practiced during double kettlebell front squats is a good stepping stone to prepare you!
How To Do A Double Dumbbell / Kettlebell Front Squat:
Start with two dumbbells or kettlebells on the floor between your feet, handles angled slightly toward each other. Stand with feet shoulder-width apart, hinge at the hips, and grip the weights with a neutral grip (palms facing each other).
Hike the weights back slightly, then drive through your hips to pull them up in one powerful motion. As the kettlebells rise, rotate your hands around the bells, so they rest on the outside of your arms, between your forearms and biceps. If using dumbbells, rotate them up so they sit on your shoulders, knuckles facing the sky.
Stand with feet shoulder-width apart, toes slightly turned out, and core braced.
Begin the front squat by pushing your hips back, bending your knees to lower into a squat, and keeping your torso upright and elbows forward.
Descend until your thighs are parallel to the floor (or as low as your mobility allows).
Drive through your heels to stand back up, maintaining core tension and posture.
Barbell Squat Variations
Barbell squats are a cornerstone in strength, athletic, and hybrid training programs. They allow you to move heavier loads, challenge full-body coordination, and develop serious lower-body power.
The classic back squat targets the glutes, quads, and hamstrings, making it ideal for building overall lower-body mass and strength. With the bar racked on the front of your shoulders, front squats shift emphasis to the quads and core, promoting a more upright posture and demanding greater thoracic mobility. For a more unconventional challenge, try Zercher squats, placing the bar in the crook of your elbows, which forces you to stay tall, brace hard, and engage your core, upper back, and posterior chain in a challenging variation.
If you’re new to barbell squats, you should always make sure you have mastered your bodyweight squats with good form and practiced loading your squats using dumbbells or kettlebells first. You may want to try a back rack machine-loaded squat first (such as Smith machine squats) and consider using only the barbell at first before loading weight on.
7. Back squat
Primary Target Muscles: Quads, glutes, hamstrings, and adductors.
Equipment: Barbell and squat rack
Difficulty: Intermediate
Arguably the most popular movement in the gym, the barbell back squat is the ultimate compound exercise involving a barbell placed across the upper back (trapezius muscles). It targets the biggest muscle groups in the body at once, making it a cornerstone of many training programs. These include the quads, hamstrings, glutes, hip flexors, and core [2].
The back rack positioning of this squat variation allows you to lift the heaviest loads and maximize strength gains, making it one of the most effective and widely used strength training exercises for developing lower-body power, total-body strength, and core stability [3]. This position can take a while to get used to, so if you are just starting, you should practice back squats using only the barbell at first (and no additional weight plates).
Practice creating tension on the bar by thinking about trying to “bend the bar” over your shoulders, pinching your shoulder blades together slightly, and driving your elbows down. This will engage your lats, stabilising the torso and protecting the spine.
If you’re lifting heavy, you may also want to consider using a spotter (someone who stands behind you while you do the lift, ready to assist you or guide the bar back into the rack if needed) or wearing a lifting belt to support your core and spine.
How To Do A Back Squat:
Set up the barbell in the squat rack, just below shoulder height.
Place your hands on the bar, just outside of shoulder width. Move underneath the bar, resting it on your upper back and placing your feet directly below you, hip-width apart.
Stand fully upright, unracking the bar. Take two steps back and place your feet in your squat stance, feet just outside of your hips, toes pointing forward or slightly out.
Take a deep breath into your belly, and squat down, driving your knees out and keeping your chest up.
Lower until your thighs are parallel to the floor (or as close as possible). Pause briefly, then press through your feet to return to standing, squeezing your glutes at the top.
Repeat for the prescribed rep range, then walk the barbell back into the rack to re-rack it.
8. Front Squat
Primary Target Muscles: Quads, glutes, hamstrings, and adductors.
Equipment: Barbell and squat rack
Difficulty: Intermediate
Front squats offer all the strength-building benefits of back squats, with one significant difference: bar placement. Instead of resting across the upper traps like in a back squat, the barbell sits in a front rack position, balanced on the front of the shoulders and supported by the fingertips. This setup shifts the emphasis forward, placing greater demand on the quads and trunk muscles [1,4].
While the front rack position does require solid shoulder and wrist mobility, it has a major upside: it encourages better squat mechanics. Lifters must stay upright with elbows high, which helps protect the lower back and reduces the risk of knee pain often associated with poor back squat form. Just don’t expect to lift as heavy: Prioritize form and build up gradually as your strength and mobility improve.
How To Do A Front Squat:
Set the squat rack to just below shoulder height. Loosely grip the bar with an overhand grip, slightly wider than shoulder width apart.
Step forward under the bar, driving your elbows underneath and up, resting the bar on your shoulders, and providing support with your fingertips.
Lift the bar and slowly step away from the rack, positioning your feet slightly wider than shoulder-width stance, with your toes pointing slightly out.
Keep your elbows high and torso upright, bend your knees, and lower your hips below parallel.
Drive back up to the top of the movement, ensuring your knees don't come inwards (try to keep them in line with your little toes).
9. Zercher squat
Primary Target Muscles: Quads, glutes, hamstrings, and adductors.
Equipment: Barbell and squat rack
Difficulty: Advanced
The Zercher squat is an unconventional but powerful lower-body movement that challenges your legs and entire body to stay braced, balanced, and strong. Instead of resting the bar on your back or shoulders, you cradle it in the crook of your elbows, front and center. This unique loading position forces you to fight to stay upright, lighting up your core and posterior chain, particularly the erector spinae. Compared to front squats, Zercher squats have slightly lower quad activation, but similar activation in the gluteus Maximus and hamstrings compared to other squat variations [5].
The Zercher squat is excellent because it exposes weak links in your squats—poor posture, lack of core stability, or upper back tightness—and demands you fix them. It’s ideal for athletes, hybrid lifters, or anyone looking to develop real-world strength that transfers outside the gym, whether you’re breaking through a squat plateau, improving bracing technique, or just looking for a serious challenge.
How To Do A Zercher Squat:
Setting up for a Zercher squat can initially feel awkward, but once you know how to position the bar safely and securely in your elbow crease, it becomes much more manageable.
Set the bar in a squat rack at elbow height. Hook your forearms under the bar, allowing it to rest securely in the bend of your elbows. Your arms can be either palms up (a more open position) or crossed over one another (a more compact position for heavier loads).
Stand tall to unrack the bar and step back into your squat stance, feet shoulder-width apart, core braced, and chest tall.
Lower into a squat by pushing your hips back and bending your knees, keeping your torso upright.
Descend until your thighs are parallel (or lower), keeping the bar tight to your body.
Drive through your heels to return to standing, maintaining a strong core and upright posture.
If you find it uncomfortable to hold the bar in the crease of your elbow, try using a barbell pad or towel on the bar until you get used to the position. Focus on keeping the bar tight to your body throughout the movement, resisting the urge to let it drift forward or pull you out of position.
Machine Squat Variations
Machine squats load your lower body with more control, less technical demand, and reduced strain on the spine. They are ideal for building strength safely, especially when fatigue is high or you're managing joint stress, making them suited to high-volume training or accessory work.
Smith machine squats offer guided stability, allowing you to focus on targeting specific muscles—like quads or glutes—by adjusting your stance and depth. Hack squats use a sled-style machine to isolate the quads while minimizing the load on your lower back, making them great for hypertrophy. Belt squats provide a unique way to load the lower body without spinal compression, using a hip-loaded setup perfect for training around back or shoulder limitations.
10. Smith Machine Squat
Primary Target Muscles: Quads, glutes, hamstrings, and adductors.
Equipment: Smith machine
Difficulty: Beginner
The Smith machine looks similar to the squat rack, but the key difference is that the Smith machine squat guides the bar along a fixed vertical (or slightly angled) path. This reduces the need for balance and stabilizer muscle engagement, which can benefit beginners, rehabilitation, or isolating specific muscles. The fixed bar path and safety hooks also remove the need for a spotter, allowing for safer, heavier lifting [6,7]. However, the Smith machine may limit the development of overall balance and coordination compared to free-weight squats.
The Smith machine allows you to experiment with foot placement. Placing feet directly under the bar tends to emphasize quad development, whereas walking them forward a couple of inches engages the hamstrings and glutes more. Give it a go and see how it feels.
How To Do The Smith Machine Squat:
Set the bar at shoulder height and position yourself under it with feet shoulder-width apart, toes slightly turned out.
Unlock the bar by rotating it and firmly grip it with your hands just outside your shoulders.
Brace your core, keep your chest up, and slowly bend your knees and hips to lower into a squat, keeping your back straight.
Lower until your thighs are parallel (or slightly below) to the floor, ensuring your knees track over your toes.
Drive through your heels to stand back up, maintaining tension in your core and proper alignment throughout.
11. Hack Squat
Primary Target Muscles: Quads, glutes, hamstrings, adductors, and calves.
Equipment: Hack squat machine
Difficulty: Beginner
If building muscular quads to show off in your 5-inch or short shorts is your priority, try the hack squat.
The upright position of the machine forces the quads to be the key drivers out of the squat in this movement, firing up activation to define and chisel those thighs. The hack squat's machine loading means you can lift heavier than a back squat, leading to greater overall strength gains, particularly in the quads. However, something to note is that hack squats require less trunk activation and are less ‘functional’ than back squats, as the machine stabilizes the movement [8].
This makes them less applicable to real-world movements, but good for bodybuilders (for targeting quads with less fatigue to core or back) and beginners (as it’s a safe exercise to build leg strength before moving up to the barbell squat).
How To Use A Hack Squat Machine:
Load the machine with the desired weight. Adjust the shoulder pads if necessary (they should sit just lower than shoulder height so that you can press the machine up).
Step onto the platform, placing your back against the backrest and your shoulders under the shoulder pads.
Position your feet on the platform, hip-width apart. Take hold of the handles located next to the shoulder pads. Push through your feet, fully extending your legs. Release the safety pins.
Start the movement: Slowly lower the weight, bending your knees until your thighs are parallel to the floor.
Pause, then reverse the movement, extending your legs and driving through your heels, until you return to the starting position. Ensure your knees do not lock out at the top.
12. Belt Squat
Primary Target Muscles: Quads, glutes, hamstrings, adductors, and calves.
Equipment: Belt squat machine
Difficulty: Beginner
We’ll admit it, the belt squat can look pretty intimidating if you’ve never used it before! But this exercise is, in our opinion, a hidden gem of squat movements. With the unique loading of the weight on the hips, belt squats eliminate any strain on the spine and lower back that is common in barbell back squats, while providing similar engagement in the quads, hamstrings, and plantar flexors (muscles in the lower leg and foot responsible for pointing the toes downwards).
That being said, belt squats, compared to back squats, reduce the activation of the trunk stabilizers, including the lumbar extensors, rectus abdominis, external obliques, and glutes.
Whilst you can certainly program belt squats as your main leg exercise, we prefer using them as a finisher. We use a lighter load and high-volume sets to burn out the quads and give them the ultimate post-workout pump.
How To Do Belt Squats:
Secure the belt snugly around your hips and attach it to the machine’s loading mechanism with the hook or chain provided.
Stand on the platform with your feet shoulder-width apart, toes slightly turned out, and maintain a tall, braced posture.
Unlock the safety mechanisms if applicable, ensuring you have a full range of motion.
Bend your knees and hips to lower into a squat, keeping your chest up and back straight.
Drive through your heels to stand back up, fully extending your hips and knees while maintaining core engagement.
Single Leg Squat Variations
Single-leg squats are a game-changer for building balance, unilateral strength, and correcting muscle imbalances. They also demand excellent core stability and coordination.
Bulgarian split squats elevate the rear foot to increase hip and quad activation while challenging your balance and stability. Pistol squats take things to the next level, requiring exceptional strength, mobility, and control as you lower and lift your entire body on one leg. Skater squats mimic lateral skating movements for a dynamic alternative, enhancing single-leg strength, balance, and explosiveness.
13. Bulgarian Split Squat
Primary Target Muscles: Quads, glutes, hamstrings, adductors, and core.
Equipment: A bench or box. Using a pair of dumbbells is optional.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Test your balance and coordination while building leg and core strength with the Bulgarian Split Squat [9,10]. As a unilateral (single-limb) exercise, this movement is a great way to challenge each leg individually, honing in on muscular imbalances between legs, which are common but often masked during a regular squat.
This movement is a little more technical than the bilateral squats we’ve covered already, and bear in mind it may take a bit of trial and error to get the positioning right at first. You’ll need a bench or box around knee height to place your rear foot on. Dumbbells are optional, and while it’s a good idea to practice the movement first using only bodyweight, sometimes holding a dumbbell in either hand can help to keep you balanced.
How To Do A Bulgarian Split Squat:
Stand perpendicular to a flat bench (or box), 2-4 feet from it, depending on your leg length. Hinge forward to pick up the dumbbells (if opting to use them), holding one in each hand, arms fully extended by your side.
Take one leg back, resting the tops of your shoelaces on the bench top. Brace your core, keep your chest proud, and squeeze your shoulder blades together to stabilize yourself. Keep your eyes focused on a spot ahead of you.
Lower yourself down, bending the front leg. Aim to get the back knee close to the ground without touching it. In the bottom position, your front leg should be bent at a 90-degree angle, quad parallel to the floor, and knee in line with your toes. Keep your chest up and core braced throughout.
Pause, then reverse the movement, pushing through your front foot and squeezing your glutes to drive yourself back to the starting position, straightening the front leg but not locking it out at the top.
Repeat for the desired rep range, then swap legs.
14. Pistol Squats
Primary Target Muscles: Quads, glutes, hamstrings, adductors, calves, and core.
Equipment: Nothing, but adding a dumbbell or kettlebell for extra resistance is optional. Having a box, bench, or med ball as a target can help with learning this exercise.
Difficulty: Advanced
One for the more experienced squatter, pistol squats (or single-leg squats) are a challenging unilateral squat variation that requires control, balance, and excellent mobility. You’ll not only engage your quads, glutes, hamstrings, core, and calves but also improve hamstring flexibility, knee joint range of motion, and ankle mobility. As a single-leg squat variation, pistol squats are also good for highlighting imbalances between sides and showing where you need to work on mobility and strength.
You may find it useful to scale your pistol squats, reducing the range of motion by sitting back onto a box, bench, or medicine ball. Use the lowest option that feels challenging but allows you to maintain good form. Over time, aim to reduce the height of your object until you can do a full pistol squat unassisted.
Before attempting these, ensure you’ve mastered a regular bodyweight and weighted squat.
How To Do Pistol Squats:
Stand tall on one leg, with your other leg extended straight in front of you, arms reaching forward for balance.
Brace your core and slowly bend your standing leg, lowering your hips while keeping your chest up and back flat.
Lower down with control, keeping your extended leg off the ground and your knee tracking over your toes.
Descend until your hamstring touches your calf (or as low as you can go with good form). To reduce the range of motion, you might like to have a box, step, or med ball behind you to sit back onto.
Drive through your heel to stand back up, keeping your body balanced and controlled throughout the movement.
Explosive Squat Variations
If you want to boost your power, speed, and athleticism, you won’t want to miss these explosive squat variations. These dynamic movements not only boost your lower-body strength but also improve your ability to accelerate, jump higher, and move with agility, making them well-suited to those training for a specific sport, such as track and field athletes, functional fitness competitors, or weightlifters.
Jump squats combine a traditional squat with an explosive jump, helping to develop fast-twitch muscle fibers, improve vertical leap, and enhance overall lower-body explosiveness. Broad jumps challenge your horizontal power and coordination, training your hips, glutes, and quads to propel you forward with force and control.
15. Jump Squats
Primary Target Muscles: Quads, glutes, hamstrings, calves, and core.
Equipment: None
Difficulty: Beginner
Jump squats are one of our favorite plyometric exercises. They build power, speed, and strength in the lower body. Jump squats train your fast-twitch muscle fibers, improving explosive power, agility, and athletic performance, making them a favorite for sprinters, jumpers, and field athletes [11]. They’re also an effective heart-raiser, making them a great addition to your HIIT workout or cardio finishers.
Whether building power for sport or spicing up your leg day, jump squats are a fast, effective way to challenge your muscles and elevate your training.
How To Do Jump Squats:
Stand in your squat stance, exactly how you would if you were about to perform an air squat.
Move down into a full squat, bending your knees and pushing your hips back, keeping your chest up. As you reach parallel, swing your arms out in front of you.
To jump up, swing your arms behind you to create momentum, extending your legs and driving through your feet as you jump.
As you descend, bend your knees slightly to soften your landing. You should land back in the bottom squat position.
Go straight into the next rep, swinging your arms behind and jumping back up.
16. Broad Jumps
Primary Target Muscles are the quads, glutes, hamstrings, calves, hip flexors, core, and spinal erectors.
Equipment: None
Difficulty: Beginner
A broad jump, or standing long jump, is an explosive bodyweight movement where you leap forward from a squat position as far as possible, landing in control. It’s an excellent exercise for developing lower-body power, targeting the glutes, quads, hamstrings, and calves, and improving coordination, balance, and athletic performance.
Broad jumps train triple extension (hips, knees, ankles), essential for sprinting, jumping, Olympic lifting, and fast directional changes, making them ideal for athletes. They also require no equipment, making them a high-impact, low-cost way to build strength and explosiveness. They elevate the heart rate and challenge muscular endurance, making them ideal for HIIT, plyometric circuits, or a fiery finisher.
How To Do Broad Jumps:
Start with feet shoulder-width apart, knees slightly bent, and arms by your sides.
Lower into a partial squat, swinging your arms back to load your hips and prepare for the jump. Keep your chest up and spine neutral, gaze straight ahead, not down.
Explode forward, swinging your arms powerfully and driving through your feet to leap as far as possible.
Land softly on both feet in a squat position, absorbing the impact through your hips and knees.
Reset your stance, standing up fully, before jumping again—maintain balance and control to prevent injury.
Master the Squat, Transform Your Training
Whether you’re building unilateral strength with Bulgarian split squats, developing explosive power with jump squats, or increasing mobility and control through Cossack squats, there’s a squat variation tailored to your needs, whether you’re a total newbie or an elite athlete.
As a beginner, you should start by mastering the bodyweight squat. A good place to go from there would be the goblet squat and Smith machine squat, and then eventually work your way up to barbell squats. Try one or two squat exercises per workout at first.
If you’re a more experienced athlete, think about your goals in terms of each of these exercises. If you're chasing aesthetically pleasing legs, the hack squat and belt squat are great ways to define and chisel your quads. If you’re after increased athleticism, speed, and power, perhaps incorporate jump squats or pistol squats into your routine.
The best squat variation is the one that best suits your goals, training style, and movement capacity. Don’t be afraid to step outside the traditional back squat—experiment with different tools, planes of movement, and levels of complexity to keep progressing.
Mix it up, stay consistent, and watch your performance reach new heights—one squat at a time.
Download the Gymshark Training App for hundreds of squat-focused sessions, from squat mobility flows to 1RM back squat challenges to full leg day workouts.
FAQs
How Many Types of Squats Are There?
We can’t count exactly how many squat variations there are–but there’s a fair few! These include:
Bodyweight Squats
Kettlebell / Dumbbell Squats
Barbell Squats
Machine Squats
Single-Leg Squats
Explosive / Plyometric Squats
Mobility & Joint Health Squats
The key is choosing the right types for your goals—whether that's strength, power, mobility, or balance.
Which Squat Variation Is Best?
This greatly depends on your goal, your training level/ability, where you’re working out (and what equipment you have), and simply what you enjoy. If you’re a beginner, you should always master the foundational bodyweight squat first, whereas intermediate lifters could progress straight to barbell squats or learn more advanced, single-leg variations.
For the following goals, the best types of squats might be:
Build maximal strength and muscle: Barbell squats (back, front, Zercher) or kettlebell/dumbbell squats.
Improve explosive power and athleticism: Explosive squats like jump squats and broad jumps.
Increase mobility, flexibility, and joint health with mobility-focused squats such as deep goblet squats, Spanish squats, deep squat holds, and sissy squats.
To address muscle imbalances and improve balance, do Single-leg squats like Bulgarian split squats, pistol squats, and skater squats.
Train safely with controlled load or rehab injuries: Machine squats (Smith machine, hack squat, belt squat) or bodyweight variations.
You should always ensure the squat variation you choose suits your ability. If in doubt, start with bodyweight and then load with light weights to master form and movement patterns before loading heavy weights.
Is It Better To Use Free Weights Or Machines For Squats?
In general, machine-based exercises (e.g., the Smith machine squat, belt squat, or hack squat) provide greater stability and control and are easier to learn, making them better suited for beginners. They are also less likely to require a spotter, allowing you to push yourself to lift heavier weights.
Free weights (e.g., barbell squats, dumbbell squats, and kettlebell squats) improve balance, coordination, and overall functional strength. They engage more stabilizing muscles (particularly the core and hips), allowing for more natural movement patterns. However, free weight exercise can be more challenging and carries a higher risk of injury.
If you’re performing free weight squats, program these at the start of your session when you are less fatigued. Then, move on to perform machine exercises later in the session, which allow you to push intensity and volume safely.
Can I Build Muscle Without Barbell Squats?
Yes! You build muscle with many different kinds of squats–not just barbell squats!
The key to building muscle is putting your muscles under adequate tension, progressively overloading (making exercises progressively harder each week or session), and eating in a calorie surplus (i.e., consuming more calories than you’re burning).
Barbell squats are often used in bodybuilding programmes as they are well suited to lifting heavy weights and working multiple muscle groups in one movement, but other types of squats can still build muscle.
The easiest way is to look for other ways to add load (e.g., kettlebells, dumbbells, or machines), where you ideally can perform 6 to 12 reps using a weight that feels challenging. If you only have lighter weights, you could look to include single-leg variations, such as lunges or split squats, which can be just as challenging, especially when you control tempo, increase reps, or use higher volume.
You could also include non-squat exercises that mimic the movement pattern of squats (e.g., the leg press) or target the same muscles (e.g., deadlifts or hip thrusts).
What Is the 5 4 3 2 1 Squat Program?
The 5-4-3-2-1 squat program is a straightforward, progressive approach to squat training that uses descending rep ranges and increasing intensity. It’s designed to build strength, muscle, and movement quality by gradually preparing the nervous system for heavier loads, without jumping straight into a one-rep max.
It works by performing five working sets, decreasing the number of reps each set, for example:
Set 1: 5 reps
Set 2: 4 reps
Set 3: 3 reps
Set 4: 2 reps
Set 5: 1 rep
As reps decrease, weight should increase, so your 1-rep set is the heaviest (but not necessarily a max). Rest periods can be 1–2 minutes for hypertrophy or 2–3+ minutes for strength.
The 5 4 3 2 1 squat program works best for barbell-loaded squats, as you can easily increase the weight in increments, but it can also be used for machine squats (Belt squats or Smith machine squats) or kettlebell/dumbbell squats.
What Is the Hardest Squat?
This depends on the person and will vary by opinion, but some of the hardest squat variations are:
Pistol Squats: These are one of the most technically demanding squat variations, requiring exceptional single-leg strength, ankle mobility, balance, and core control.
Barbell Back Squats: Likely the heaviest loaded squats that also place high demand on the entire body, especially the nervous system, joints, and bracing mechanics.
Skater Squat: This type of squat is tougher than it looks, requiring eccentric control, balance, and strength through a full range on one leg without counterbalance.
Cossack Squat: Again, tougher than it looks. This type of squat challenges hip, ankle, and knee mobility and can take time and practice to reach depth.
References:
Escamilla, R.F., Fleisig, G.S., Lowry, T.M., Barrentine, S.W. And Andrews, J.R. (2001). A three-dimensional biomechanical analysis of the squat during varying stance widths.
Coratella, G., Tornatore, G., Caccavale, F., Longo, S., Esposito, F. and Cè, E. (2021). The Activation of Gluteal, Thigh, and Lower Back Muscles in Different Squat Variations Performed by Competitive Bodybuilders: Implications for Resistance Training.
Martinez, S.C., Coons, J.M. and Mehls, K.D. (2022). Effect of external load on muscle activation during the barbell back squat.
Carvalho, L.H.F., Junior, R.M., Barreira, J., Schoenfeld, B.J., Orazem, J. and Barroso, R. (2022). Muscle hypertrophy and strength gains after resistance training with different volume matched loads: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
McCormick, J.B., Drusch, A.S., Lynch, D.J., Seeber, G.H., Wilford, K.F., Hooper, T.L., Allen, B.S., O’Connell, D.G., Mena-Iturriaga, M.J., Cooper, K.J. and Sizer, P.S. (2023). The Effect of Volitional Preemptive Abdominal Contraction on Biomechanical Measures During A Front Versus Back Loaded Barbell Squat.
Deniz, E. and Ulas, Y.H. (2019). Evaluation of Muscle Activities During Different Squat Variations Using Electromyography Signals.
Schwanbeck, S., Chilibeck, P.D. and Binsted, G. (2009). A Comparison of Free Weight Squat to Smith Machine Squat Using Electromyography.
Cotterman, M.L., Darby, L.A. and Skelly, W.A. (2005). Comparison of muscle force production using the Smith machine and free weights for bench press and squat exercises.
Clark, D.R., Lambert, M.I. and Hunter, A.M. (2017). Trunk muscle activation in the back and hack squat at the same relative loads.
Andersen, V., Fimland, M., Brennset, Ø., Haslestad, L., Lundteigen, M., Skalleberg, K. and Saeterbakken, A. (2014). Muscle Activation and Strength in Squat and Bulgarian Squat on Stable and Unstable Surface.
Loturco, I., Pereira, L.A., Kobal, R., Maldonado, T., Piazzi, A.F., Bottino, A., Kitamura, K., Cal Abad, C.C., de Arruda, M. and Nakamura, F.Y. (2016). Improving Sprint Performance in Soccer: Effectiveness of Jump Squat and Olympic Push Press Exercises.
