Muscles worked
Your front leg carries most of your body weight, so your quads and glutes have plenty to do even without weights. Your inner thigh and hamstrings help you stand back up, and the side of your hip keeps your pelvis steady. The back leg on the bench is mostly there for balance, and you will often feel a stretch across the front of that hip. How you stand sets the emphasis: an upright torso gives your quads more, a slight lean forward from the hips gives your glutes more. Without weights, you can learn the balance and depth before adding load.
Common mistakes
- Your hips twist. The hip on the back-leg side tends to drift back and out, leaving you standing at an angle. Keep both hip bones pointing straight ahead for the whole set, like a pair of headlights.
- You stop halfway. Shaky balance makes many people turn back well short of the floor. Hold a wall or door frame lightly until your balance settles, and lower all the way.
- Your reps are too quick. Without weights it is easy to bob up and down on momentum. Control the whole movement, especially the turn at the bottom.
Variations and alternatives
- The Bulgarian split squat with dumbbells is the next step once your body weight no longer makes the set hard.
- The bodyweight reverse lunge is easier to balance, as both feet stay on the floor.
- The assisted pistol squat puts all your weight on one leg and suits you when you want more single-leg strength at home.
Sets and reps
Count reps per leg. Two to four sets of 8 to 15 reps per leg is a good range for building muscle and endurance with body weight alone. Do all the reps on one leg, then switch, with a short rest in between. The guide to sets and reps explains how sets, reps and rest fit together.
Once 15 reps feels easy, the exercise needs to get harder for you to keep improving. Lower more slowly, add a two-second pause at the bottom or wear a rucksack with a few books in it. Raising the demand a little at a time is called progressive overload, and it works just as well without weights.