Muscles worked
Your quads and glutes do the main work, helped by your inner thighs and hamstrings. Your abs and back keep your torso upright, while your feet and calves handle balance. Without added weight the load is light for anyone who has trained a while, but a beginner can get a long way on bodyweight alone, while learning the movement many other leg exercises build on. Depth matters most: squatting to seat height is much easier than sinking until your hips drop below your knees.
Common mistakes
- Your heels come off the floor. Your weight shifts to your toes and you start tipping forward. Go only as deep as your heels stay down, and try a slightly wider stance if your ankles feel stiff.
- Depth shrinks as the set goes on. In long sets the final reps tend to turn into half reps. Decide your depth before you start and end the set when you can no longer reach it.
- Bouncing at the bottom. Dropping down and rebounding makes reps faster but easier. Control the whole descent and drive up with your muscles, not momentum.
Variations and alternatives
- The back squat with a barbell is the next big step once bodyweight is no longer enough and you have access to a gym.
- The goblet squat, with a dumbbell or kettlebell at your chest, is the natural first step with weight.
- The backpack squat gives you more to carry at home, with books or water bottles in a rucksack.
- The tempo squat makes the same movement harder without weight, using a slow descent and a pause at the bottom.
Sets and reps
If you are new, 2 to 3 sets of 10 to 15 reps is plenty, several times a week. As a warm-up before heavier leg work, one or two easy sets will do. Once it gets easy, sets can climb towards 20 to 30 reps, but then you are mainly training endurance. The guides to sets and reps and how often to train help you plan your week.
Without weights, you progress with more reps or a slower descent. Past 25 good reps, it is usually time to add weight or pick a harder variation, so that progressive overload keeps working.