The air squat is a bodyweight squat and the first movement in CrossFit's squat series, ahead of the front and overhead squat. CrossFit's standard is full depth: the crease of your hips goes lower than the tops of your knees, with your lumbar curve held, heels down and knees tracking your toes. CrossFit advises getting this solid before you load a squat, because small faults here get bigger under a bar.
Set your stance
Set your heels about shoulder-width apart with your toes turned out slightly. Adjust a little wider or narrower to whatever lets you squat best.
heels under your shoulders, whole foot on the floor.
Stand tall with your hips and knees fully extended, squeeze your belly like you're bracing for a punch, and look straight ahead.
tall and tight before you move.
Sit below parallel
Start the rep by pushing your hips back and down. Your hips lead. If your knees shoot forward first, your weight rolls onto your toes.
your hips moving back before your knees bend much.
Keep your chest up and your lower back in its natural curve all the way down.
belly still squeezed, chest facing forward, not toward the floor.
Push your knees away from each other so they stay in line with your toes, over the top of your foot. Your knees can move forward past your toes as long as your heels stay down.
spreading the floor apart with your feet.
Keep your heels down and your weight toward them, and lower under control until the crease of your hips is lower than the tops of your knees. That is below parallel, the CrossFit depth standard.
heels heavy, a smooth descent, no dropping into the bottom.
Drive up
Drive through your heels, lead with your chest, and squeeze your glutes and hamstrings until your hips and knees are fully extended. Every rep finishes standing tall.
pushing the floor away, hips fully open at the top.
Feel it
Your weight stays toward your heels the whole rep, your knees push out over your feet, your belly stays tight, and you pass below parallel without your chest dropping. Standing up, you lead with your chest and finish with your hips fully open. If your heels lift, your knees cave in or your back rounds at the bottom, slow down and use the fixes below.
Fix-its
- You don't get below parallel Squat to a target behind you (a box or medicine ball) set just above the depth you can reach now, and lower it over time. CrossFit's own guide says to keep practising the air squat to full depth while you fight for a neutral back, because that practice is how the position improves.
- Your knees go first and your weight shifts to your toes or your heels lift Start each rep by pushing your hips back. Cue "sit through your heels." Try toes-up squats: lift your toes off the floor so your weight has to stay on your heels.
- Your knees cave inside your feet Cue "knees out" or "spread the floor." Do bodyweight squats with a light band around your knees and press out against it.
- Your lower back rounds at the bottom or your chest drops Brace your belly before each rep and keep your chest up. Slow the descent and use a depth target so you can stop at the point where you still hold position, then lower the target as it improves.
Drill
- Squat therapy: stand facing a wall with a box or medicine ball behind you as a depth target. Squat slowly and under control to touch it. If a fault shows up, step back from the wall or raise the target; as your form holds, move closer and lower it. CrossFit suggests doing this weekly, if not several times a week.
- Toes-up squats: squat with your toes lifted off the floor to teach weight on your heels.
- Band squats: bodyweight squats with a light band around your knees, pressing out against it.
- Tempo squats: lower much slower than you stand up (for example 5 seconds down, 1 up) to build a controlled descent.
- Film 10 straight reps from the side (depth, hips leading, heels) and from the front (knee tracking). A fault that shows on 2 or more reps is the one to work on. Move to loaded squats only once these hold.
Sources
- CrossFit — The Essential Air Squat (Stephane Rochet, 2024)
- CrossFit — Level 2 Training Guide and Workbook: Summary Sheet: Squats, Sample Teaching Plan, Triaging Faults (2020)
- CrossFit — Common Fault in the Air Squat: Knee Initiation
- 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.