Are you bored with goblet squats and double bell squats?
Switch it up, unlock tight hips and ankles, bombproof hips and knees, and/or build lots of muscle with these 9 variations that you might not have ever heard of.
Hack Squat
This type of squat is great to build resilience into your knees. Allow your heels to come up off the ground as your knees slide way forward. Try to stay upright and sit those hamstrings down onto your calfs. Your goal – 24kg for sets of 10.
1.5 Squat
If you can’t squat below parallel you won’t get much out of this one. Keep working on your ankle mobility and you’ll get there. To do a rep, go down below parallel come up about half way, go down again and then come all the way up. Your goal – 5 reps with the 40kg
Tempo squat
The purpose of this one is to make your legs more aerobic and enduring, so its a great option for runners, cyclists etc. Your targeting the type 1 fibres so you have to move slowly. To perform, hover around parallel, right at that most painful depth moving VERY slowly up and down. Whilst you do this, breathe normally, no bracing or holding the breath. Your goal is to do one min on one min off for 3-5 sets. Work up to the 32kg over 12 weeks.
Potato sack squat
The potato sack squat is great for beginners, similar to the goblet it helps the trainee find balance and its easy to get out of as you can simply let the weight fall to the ground. It might also be a great option for those that are training around shoulder injuries and can’t hold weights up high.
Offset Squat
If you don’t have pairs of kettlebells the same weight, and you’ve been avoiding double bell work, let me enlighten you! Using pairs of bells that are different weights carries huge benefit! Ideally use bells that have a 4kg difference between them, but experiment with bigger gaps also. The benefit here is how your entire body reacts to this offset load and fires all of your core muscles and stabilisers, whilst still receiving some heavy loading through some of your major muscle groups. You won’t need to do additional core exercises after a few sets of these.
Single leg back squat
This is an awesome exercise to build quad mass, throw the biggest bell you can manage up onto your back and hold it there whilst you squat down to a bench or if your an absolute beast, don’t even use a bench and squat ass to grass! Your goal is 10 reps with the 32kg !
Sumo squat
A great warm up exercise and not one that you would progress in weight in until you have unlocked the flexibility that this exercise offers. Push those knees out and get deeper with every rep. 3 sets of 10 before your workout seems to make a lot of sense!
Cossack Squat
As above the Cossack is another type of squat that opens ups the hips and strengthens your adductors. These muscles make up a large portion of your entire leg musculature sitting between your hamstrings and quads. They are also often injured during sports, so let’s fix that with 3 sets of 5, only progressing to heavier loads once you have mastered full depth, aka hammies on calves. Point your pinkies (toes) up on the lengthening side whilst using glutes to push back up out of the squat on the other side.
Somersault Squat
Grab your bell, shove it up into your groin and hold it there as you squat. Be prepared to burn! Your goal – 32g for 25 reps!
If you want to learn more, consider coming to our kettlebell classes in Ashton park school, Bower Ashton or have private kettlebell tuition in Bristol with coach Peter Luffman.
Good luck with your training and please leave a comment if you have any questions about how these exercises should be performed.