Goblet Squats
Goblet Squats, how to do goblet squats involves holding a weight close to your chest while squatting. This exercise strengthens your quads, core, and glutes.
The goblet squat is a great exercise and teaching tool to help you graduate to other squat variations, or to just build a bit of leg muscle. This front-loaded squat variation ensures that you stay upright, bolstering your form, and is usually done with either dumbbells or kettlebells. Why do we like goblet squats? Learning goblet squat form is a great way to introduce yourself to squatting with weights and reap all the benefits that come with it. Here’s how to do a goblet squat correctly.
1. Lift Your Butt
Goblet squats target your gluteal muscles, which tone and firm your butt. The placement of the weight in the goblet squat allows most people to sink lower into the squat, which loads the glutes in a different way than a typical back squat does. However, the back squat weight position places more stress on the posterior chain, the muscles on the back of the body, therefore targeting the glute muscles more than a goblet squat.
2. Strengthen Your Core
“In a front squat, the load is shifted forward, which means the person doing it must maintain a strong and stable back and core to protect the spine,” said Savoy. The core must work double-time.
Increased core strength means safer daily movements, heavier lifts, and a more powerful trunk for your entire body. You will also notice a tighter, firmer midsection.
3. Improve Your Quad Strength
A goblet squat uses different muscle groups throughout your legs to carry the weight. One study reported that goblet squats target quadriceps activity and increase vertical loading. More traditional back squats target the gluteal muscles. Goblet squats can also increase overall strength and power if you combine them with other kettlebell movements.
4. Increase Your Mobility
“Because you’re able to sit lower into the squat when done correctly, the goblet squat will help improve your ankle and hip mobility,” Shane Savoy, LMT, a personal trainer and massage therapist, told Health. Both joints tend to get stiff and tight if you sit for long periods, especially if you have arthritis (joint inflammation).
“If your ankles are incredibly immobile, consider raising your heels up 0.5-2 inches with weight plates so that you can squat more comfortably,” said Savoy. “Over time, reduce the height of the weight plates until you can do them on the flat ground.”
5. Reduce Injuries
Although the exercise sounds otherworldly, the goblet squat is a natural position for most people. It mimics the proper form for lifting a heavy object, making it a highly functional movement pattern and thus highly accessible and transferable to daily living activities.
As an exercise, the goblet squat allows you to perfect your form in this everyday position. This helps protect against injury in day-to-day activities, especially in older adults.
Recommended: 5 Squat Mistakes and How to Avoid Them
How To Perform Goblet Squats
Take note of the following steps to perform a goblet squat:
- Hold a weight (i.e., dumbbell, kettlebell, medicine ball, a bag of sand) at your chest, using both hands, and stand with your feet about shoulder-width apart. Savoy said you could hold a kettlebell with the handle facing up or down.
- Brace your core, then drop your butt back and down to lower into a squat while keeping your chest up, allowing for an upright spinal position. Avoid rounding the spine, as this could lead to injury.
- Sit back into your heels without shifting your weight forward onto the balls of your feet. To maximize glute activation, try to get as deep into the squat as possible, sending your hips below your knees.
- Drive through your heels, come back up to standing, and squeeze your glutes at the top. This is one repetition (rep).
Savoy recommended you warm up with two sets of 10-12 reps at a very low weight. Follow up with three working sets of 8-12 reps at a moderate weight. Warm up with a 12- or 16-pound kettlebell, for example, if you want to use a 35-pound kettlebell in the workout.
Variations
If you want to make the move harder, either increase the weight or slow down your descent. You can also try a tempo of four seconds on the way down and one second on the way back up. Pause at the top for 1-2 seconds before your next rep.
“Slowing down the eccentric, or downward, portion of the squat increases the amount of time under tension, which increases calorie burn and muscle activation,” said Savoy
Decrease the weight if you need to make the move a bit easier. You can also find something to hang onto, like a column, TRX band, handle, or door frame.