How to do the barbell squat

If you only had one leg exercise, this would be the one. The barbell squat lets you load your quads and glutes heavier than any machine or dumbbell version, it trains your trunk to stay rigid under weight, and progress is easy to see because the bar only moves in one direction when things go well. The leg press is easier to learn and fine for building muscle, but it doesn't teach you to own a heavy weight on your back. The squat does, and that carries over to deadlifts, lunges and picking up heavy things in real life.

How to do a barbell squat

1. Set the bar at mid-chest height in the rack. Set the safety pins or straps just below the depth you'll squat to, so you can dump a failed rep onto them.
2. Place the bar on your back and grip it. For a high-bar squat it sits on the meaty top of your traps, just below the bony bump at the base of your neck. For a low-bar squat it sits 2 to 3 inches lower, across your rear delts. Grip the bar as narrow as your shoulders comfortably allow and pull your elbows down so your upper back tightens under it.
3. Unrack and take two or three steps back. Stand with your heels about shoulder width apart and your toes turned out around 15 to 30 degrees. Walk out only far enough to clear the hooks.
4. Breathe in and brace. Take a big breath into your belly and tighten your midsection as if someone's about to poke you in the stomach. Hold that breath.
5. Bend your hips and knees at the same time. Your knees travel forward and out in line with your toes while your hips move down and slightly back. The bar should stay stacked over the middle of your foot the whole way down.
6. Descend until your hip crease is level with or just below the top of your knee. That's parallel. You should feel the stretch in your glutes and inner thighs, with your weight spread across your whole foot.
7. Drive up by pushing the floor away. Lead with your chest, not your hips, so your back angle stays roughly the same as you rise. Breathe out near the top, stand fully, then re-brace before the next rep.

A good rep feels like a tight spring loading and unloading. You should feel it in your quads, glutes and inner thighs. Your lower back works hard to hold position, but it shouldn't feel like the muscle doing the lifting.

Cues for the squat

"Spread the floor." Imagine tearing the floor apart with your feet without moving them. It switches on your glutes and stops your knees drifting in.

"Knees out over your toes." Keeps your knees tracking where your feet point. If you tend to overdo it and roll onto the outsides of your feet, switch to the floor cue instead.

"Chest up out of the hole." Fixes the hips-first stand-up where your back ends up doing the work. Some people find "push your back into the bar" gets the same result.

"Sit between your heels." Useful if you keep reaching back with your hips like you're sitting on a low chair, which tips your chest forward.

"Tripod foot." Weight on your big toe, little toe and heel. Fixes heels lifting and rocking onto your toes.

Try one at a time, and keep whichever makes the rep feel smoother. Three cues at once is how people freeze under the bar.

Common mistakes

Knees caving in on the way up. Your knees drift toward each other just as you push out of the bottom. It usually means the weight's too heavy for your hips to hold position, or you never learned where your knees should go. Drop the load, use the "spread the floor" cue, and film a set from the front to check it's gone.

Stopping well short of parallel. Quarter squats let you load more but most of the growth and strength comes from the bottom half. A useful check: film from the side and look at your hip crease against the top of your knee. If you can't get there with your heels down and your back flat, lighten the bar and work on it with goblet squats.

Turning it into a good morning. Your hips shoot up first out of the bottom, your chest drops, and the bar ends up in front of your toes. The quads have given up and your lower back has taken over. It's common on the last rep of a hard set. Think "chest up" and keep the weight lighter until your legs catch up.

Heels coming off the floor. Your weight rolls forward onto your toes and the bar drifts ahead of mid-foot. The cause is usually tight ankles or a stance that's too narrow. Widen your stance a little, turn your toes out a touch more, or squat in weightlifting shoes (or with small plates under your heels while you work on your ankles).

Letting your lower back round at the bottom. A small tuck of the pelvis in the deepest part of the squat (often called butt wink) is common, and the evidence that a little of it hurts healthy backs is thin. A lot of rounding under heavy load is a different story. Our default: squat as deep as you can while your lower back stays roughly flat, which for most people is at or slightly below parallel.

Knees past your toes and how deep to go

Your knees are supposed to go past your toes. How far depends on your leg and torso proportions, and trying to stop them forces your hips back and your chest down, which moves the stress to your lower back instead of removing it. Keep your heels down and your knees pointing where your toes point, and let them travel.

On depth, there's some useful research. Kubo and colleagues had 17 untrained young men squat for 10 weeks, either to full depth or to about a 90-degree knee angle. Quad growth was similar between the groups, but the full-depth group grew their glutes and adductors more. It's a small study in beginners, but it lines up with what most coaches see: go at least to parallel, deeper if you can keep your position.

Breathing and bracing

The breath matters more here than on almost any other lift, because your spine is holding the whole load. Breathe into your belly rather than your chest, then push your stomach out against a tightened midsection, as if you're blowing up a balloon inside your waist. Hold it through the descent and the hardest part of the way up, then breathe out near the top. On sets of 5 or fewer most lifters hold one breath per rep. A lifting belt gives you something to brace against, but it's something to add once your working weights are heavy, not a fix for a weak brace.

Sets, reps and how much weight to use

For strength, 3 to 5 sets of 3 to 6 reps works well. For size, 3 to 4 sets of 6 to 12. Pick a weight you could do 2 or 3 more reps with, and squat first in the session. Rest 2 to 4 minutes between heavy sets; your legs and lungs both need it.

Ramp up to your working weight. If your working sets are 225 lb (100 kg), something like this works:

• Empty bar for 10 reps (45 lb, 20 kg)
• 95 lb (45 kg) for 5
• 135 lb (60 kg) for 5
• 185 lb (85 kg) for 3
• 205 lb (95 kg) for 1

If you're new, start with the empty bar, add 5 to 10 lb (2.5 to 5 kg) each session while your reps look the same, and squat two or three times a week. When that stalls, move to adding reps before weight. Logging each set (we built the Helthy workout tracker for exactly this) means you know what to beat next time instead of guessing.

Here's roughly what people squat for their normal working sets:

Barbell Squat working weights by bodyweight and experience

Bodyweight	beginner	intermediate	advanced
130 lb (59 kg)	50 lb (23 kg)	110 lb (50 kg)	175 lb (79 kg)
160 lb (73 kg)	65 lb (29 kg)	135 lb (61 kg)	215 lb (98 kg)
190 lb (86 kg)	75 lb (34 kg)	160 lb (73 kg)	255 lb (116 kg)
220 lb (100 kg)	90 lb (41 kg)	185 lb (84 kg)	295 lb (134 kg)
250 lb (113 kg)	100 lb (45 kg)	215 lb (98 kg)	340 lb (154 kg)

These are averages, not targets. Long thighs and a short torso make squatting a lot harder than the numbers suggest, so compare yourself with last month, not the advanced column. If you want to estimate your max from a set of 5, the one-rep max calculator will do it without you having to test it.

Variations and alternatives

• Goblet squat: the best way to learn the pattern. Holding the weight in front keeps you upright and teaches depth.
• High-bar vs low-bar: we'd start almost everyone high-bar. It's easier on the shoulders, more upright and more quad-heavy. Low-bar lets you lift a bit more weight with more hip involvement, which is why powerlifters use it.
• Front squat: more quads, more upper back, less weight. Good if your lower back tires before your legs do.
• Leg press: a solid swap when your back is sore or you want high reps without balance being the limit.
• Bulgarian split squat: one leg at a time with far less weight on your spine.

Most people should skip the Smith machine squat as a replacement. The fixed path makes you arrange your body around the bar instead of the other way round, and it doesn't teach the balance the free squat does.

Barbell squat questions

Is it bad to squat below parallel?

No. For healthy knees, deep squats are safe and train more of your glutes and inner thighs. Go as deep as you can with your heels down and your back holding position.

Should I squat with a belt?

It's optional. A belt helps most once you're squatting close to bodyweight or more for sets of 5 or fewer. Learn to brace without one first, so the belt adds to a good brace rather than replacing it.

Why does my lower back hurt after squatting?

Usually the hips are shooting up first, the back is rounding at the bottom, or you've jumped the weight too quickly. Drop the load by 20% for a couple of weeks and film your sets. If the pain is sharp or it's still there after a week of lighter training, get it looked at.

How often should I squat?

Two or three times a week is a good default. One heavier day and one lighter day works well once you're past the beginner stage.