Why Would You Go Away From Squatting?

It’s quite well known that squats are one of the best exercises you can do during your leg workouts. It’s not just the legs either, as the classic free-weight barbell squat makes many muscle groups take part in the movement. While the quadriceps are usually going to do most of the work, the hamstrings, calves, and core all work while you squat.

Of course, it isn’t all peaches and cream when it comes to the squat. Granted it’s a great exercise, but there are certainly some downsides to it. Also, as you get older and have been doing squats for many years, it may be time to look into alternatives due to injury and just feeling a bit beat up from the exercise.

First off, it’s not an easy exercise to do properly. So much more goes into performing the movement than just getting a barbell on your traps and squatting down. Foot placement, how far you squat down, and where your knees go when you squat are all factors. You also have to keep the lower back in the proper position throughout the exercise. All of these factors can vary from person to person as well.

In going along with proper form, injuries can occur if you aren’t doing the exercise the right way. Even if you think you are using the proper form, there’s also the possibility of overdoing it. Whether you use too much weight or do too many sets, you can really beat up your body with squats. Knee and lower back pain are coming for many heavy squatters.

There is also the fact that not everybody is built for the free-weight squat. Everybody’s different, and these variances in things like limb length and flexibility can have an effect on how you should squat. Maybe the squat just feels unnatural to you no matter what you do.

Lastly, intense squats will take a lot out of you. If you have to work later in the day after doing multiple hard sets of squats, it may really be a chore. While this can be true of other leg exercises, squats do take more out of the whole body than just about any other weight training exercise.

It may sound like I hate the squat from listing the cons of the exercise. However, I did them for many years and was able to go quite heavy in my 20s. Over time, I’ve found that it’s still a great exercise but I now prefer the best squat alternatives to train my quadriceps.

The Best Alternatives To The Squat

There are plenty of great alternatives to the squat. They will all have you emulating the squat in some way. At the same time, you will be saving your joints and you can do exercises that are better for the way you are built.

Leg Press

Possibly the most well-known squat alternative is the leg press. Because of this, any gym you go to will at least have one leg press machine, if not multiple machines. Despite being such a bulky piece of equipment, you should never have a hard time finding one to train on.

Leg press machines have you lying on a padded seat of sorts. You then have a platform to place your feet. These machines always feature some type of handle to unrack the weighted platform. Of course, there will also be sleeves to load weights onto.

When you get into the proper position on a leg press machine, you unrack the weight and lower it towards your body. Your knees will bend as the platform gets closer to you. Once you get to the point where you feel a nice stretch in your quads and glutes it’s time to use the muscles to lift the platform back up. You do this until the legs are almost, but not quite, straightened out.

Most leg presses will have a weight sled that comes down at about a 45-degree angle. I’ve seen ones with sleds that come straight down which you lie underneath. The commonality of the 45-degree sled makes them preferable, though if you go to a gym with the other type of leg press you may find that you prefer it. It’s all about what works for you.

One thing I personally prefer very much is a larger foot placement platform on a leg press machine. I find that they almost always have the width I’m looking for. However, some platforms aren’t very big from top to bottom. The larger the platform, the more variety you can take advantage of.

While leg pressing, lower the weight while keeping your lower back on the seat. If lower to the point where your back comes off of the bench it can lead to injury. You also shouldn’t straighten the legs completely to avoid hyperextending them.

Going back to platform size, I like to vary where I place my feet on every single set. For instance, when I leg press I like to do 6 straight sets. For first will be done with a low amount of weight and a lot of reps, call it a warm-up set though I do go very close to failure. In this set, the feet are placed close together. On each subsequent set, the weight is increased and the feet are placed farther apart. By the last set, my feet are out to the edges of the platform and a little further up on it as well to do my heaviest set.

Hack Squat

The hack squat is another great exercise involving a large piece of equipment you will see at most gyms. These are a bit like a standing leg press, with a platform you stand on and pads you lie back against. The majority of them are also angled back, though some go almost straight up and down.

Many of the same concepts for proper leg press form hold true for the hack squat. You want to lower the body and make sure to keep the back against the pad. It’s also beneficial not to straighten the legs completely at the top. Having a larger foot placement platform is again optimal.

I like to do my sets of hack squats just like my sets of leg presses. The first set is the lightest and done for the most reps. The weight is increased and reps decreased on each set after the first. I also work my foot placement from close together on the first set out to far apart on the last.

Goblet Squat

The goblet squat is another excellent barbell squat alternative. This is a variation of the squat you can do with either a dumbbell or kettlebell. You hold whatever type of weight you are using up in front of your chest with your hands under a kettlebell or one end of a dumbbell. Then you squat down while holding the weight in the same position in front of your body. To complete the lift, you use the leg muscles to get back to the starting position.

The thing that really separates the goblet squat from other types of squats is how the weight is held. It doesn’t require a heavy barbell on your back or on your front shoulder area in the case of front squats. I like that it’s easy to get deeper down when doing them, as I’ll go down until my elbows touch my thighs. This is possible because of how you hold the weight.

Another thing I like about the goblet squat is that it can target the adductor muscles of the inner thighs better than most other leg exercises. When you get into a wide stance and get deep on the goblet squat you will definitely feel a nice stretch in the adductor muscles.

Lunge

Lunges are always one of the best squat variations. There are tons of ways they can be done as well. You can effectively do them with a barbell, dumbbells, kettlebells, or even just your body weight.

To do lunges, you step forward or backward and get down until the thigh you are working on is parallel to the floor. You then use the leg muscles to return to the starting position. I prefer to step forward, but stepping backward will be better for you if you have knee pain. You can train one leg at a time to failure, or alternate between which leg you lunge with on each rep.

My favorite way to do lunges is the walking version of the exercise with a dumbbell in each hand. You step forward as you lunge down a track. I like that the legs are alternating on each rep. Take a nice big step if you can and get a nice stretch every time you get down into the lunge. If you prefer using a barbell, by all means, do what you’d like.

There Are More Great Squat Alternatives

There are certainly some other exercises you can use as squat alternatives. However, you can’t go wrong by adding most of the exercises described above to your routine. Squats are an incredible exercise, especially when you are trying to build muscle mass. As you get older, like me, you. may very well find that it’s time to take advantage of these other exercises to train your legs.