Muscles worked
The wall sit is a static exercise: your muscles work without you moving. Your quads carry almost everything, with your glutes and inner thighs helping to hold the position. The angle at your knee decides how hard it is: the closer to a right angle, the more your thighs work, and the higher you sit, the easier it gets. With the wall handling balance and supporting your back, it suits beginners and anyone training legs without equipment.
Common mistakes
- Feet too close to the wall. Your knees end up far in front of your ankles and take more of the load. Walk your feet out until your shins are roughly vertical in the low position.
- Creeping up as it burns. It is easy to rise a few centimetres without noticing. A shorter hold at the right height beats a long one that drifts upwards.
- Knees falling together. As your thighs tire, your knees tend to drift towards each other. Keep them over your feet, pointing the same way as your toes, right to the last second.
Variations and alternatives
- The single leg wall sit puts everything on one leg and is the next step once the regular hold feels easy.
- The Spanish squat can also be held still in the low position, with a band around something sturdy instead of a wall behind you.
- The bodyweight squat trains the same muscles in motion, for when you would rather count reps than seconds.
Sets and reps
The wall sit is measured in time. Two to four holds of 20 to 60 seconds, with about a minute's rest in between, suit most people, and one or two long holds make a good leg day finisher. How long to rest between holds is covered in the guide to sets and reps.
Build the time a few seconds at a go. Once you can manage a minute at a right angle, a heavier hold usually pays off more than a longer one: rest a weight plate on your thighs near your knees, or move to one leg. That is progressive overload, even when you are not moving. If your knees hurt, rather than your thighs just burning, stop and have it looked at by a doctor or physiotherapist.