The bodyweight squat bends your hips and knees together to lower your body, then straightens them to stand back up, with no load but your own weight. Movement-screening research uses it to show how well your ankles, knees, hips and trunk work together before a squat is loaded. In this course it also comes before the single-leg squats, such as the pistol, so a controlled, balanced squat to the depth your mobility allows is the goal.
Set your stance
Stand with your feet about hip- to shoulder-width apart and your toes turned slightly out. Keep your whole foot flat on the floor.
even pressure through your heels and the balls of your feet.
Let your arms hang at your sides, pull your shoulder blades down and back, and tighten your core. Lift your chest and keep your head neutral with your eyes forward, not down at the floor.
tall and braced before you move.
Sit to depth
Breathe in and start the rep by pushing your hips back, then down, so your hips and knees bend together.
reaching your hips toward the wall behind you.
Keep each knee in line with your second toe as you lower. Your knees can drift forward past your toes as long as your heels stay down. Don't force them back behind your toes; that only tips your chest further forward.
knees pointing the same way as your feet.
Lower under control until your thighs are about parallel to the floor, or until your heels start to lift or your back starts to round, whichever comes first. That is your depth for now. If you can go lower with your heels flat and your back flat, you can. Don't drop or bounce into the bottom.
a smooth, steady descent you could stop at any point.
At the bottom, check that your feet are flat and your weight is spread between your heels and the balls of your feet. Seen from the side, your torso and shins should be roughly parallel.
balanced, not tipping toward your toes or falling back.
Drive up
Breathe out and push through your heels to straighten your hips and knees, letting your hips and chest rise together. Keep your heels flat and your knees over your second toes, and finish standing fully tall.
pushing the floor away, hips and shoulders moving up as one.
Feel it
Your feet stay flat and your weight stays balanced over them the whole rep. Your knees follow your toes, your chest stays up and your eyes stay forward, and you lower slowly and stand up a little faster. You stop going down at the point your heels or back would give way, not at a fixed number. If anything hurts, stop the set.
Fix-its
- Your heels lift or your weight rolls onto your toes Start each rep by pushing your hips back, and cue "press down with your heels." Only go as deep as you can with your heels flat. Practise toes-up squats: lift your toes off the floor while you squat so your weight has to stay on your heels.
- Your knees cave inward Film from the front to see it. Cue "knees out" or "spread the floor" so each knee stays over your second toe. Squat with a light band around your knees and press out against it.
- Your back rounds or your chest drops at the bottom Stop just above the depth where it happens and keep your eyes forward; looking down tips your trunk further forward. Squat to a box set just above that depth and lower it over time as your position holds.
- You drop or bounce into the bottom Slow the descent so going down takes at least twice as long as coming up. In a deep squat, a fast drop lets your hamstrings slam into your calves; a controlled descent avoids that.
- You can't get near parallel Hold a sturdy support in front of you for an assisted squat, or squat to a box set slightly higher than your current depth and lower it over time.
Drill
- Assisted squats: hold a sturdy support and squat as deep as you can with flat heels and a flat back. Move to free bodyweight squats once that holds. One published movement-competency programme breaks 100 squats into sets you can do with good form (for example 10 x 10), 2-4 times a week.
- Box sit-to-stand: set a box or chair behind you slightly higher than your current depth. Sit, then "press down on your heels and use your hips to stand." Lower the box as you improve.
- Tempo squats: lower much slower than you stand up, for example 5 seconds down and 1 second up.
- Overhead dowel squats: once your free squat is solid, hold a dowel or band overhead with straight arms and squat. It is the harder step in the same progression.
- Self-check: put your fingertips on the side of your head with elbows in line with your ears and do 10 straight reps as low as you comfortably can. Film from the side (depth, heels, torso) and from the front (knee tracking). A fault that shows on 2 or more reps is the one to work on.
Sources
- ACE — Exercise Library: Bodyweight Squat
- Kritz M, Cronin J, Hume P — The bodyweight squat: a movement screen for the squat pattern, Strength Cond J 31(1) (2009); reproduced as ch. 2.3 of Kritz, Development, Reliability and Effectiveness of the Movement Competency Screen, AUT PhD thesis (2012)
- Myer GD et al. — The back squat: a proposed assessment of functional deficits and technical factors that limit performance, Strength Cond J (2014)
- Myer GD et al. — The back squat: targeted training techniques to correct functional deficits and technical factors that limit performance, Strength Cond J (2015)
Last checked 2026-10-26.