How to Squat Properly: Technique, Variations, and Training Plan

By the nucoach editorial team · Updated November 2, 2026 · approx. 15 min read

What are squats?

Squats are a multi-joint exercise for the lower body: your hips, knees, and ankles bend at the same time, your upper body stays stable, and then you push back up to standing through your legs. In German the exercise is called Kniebeuge, literally “knee bend”. At the gym you’ll hear both terms; they mean the same movement.

Squats mimic a natural everyday movement. Every time you sit down on a chair, pick something up from the floor, or get up from a crouch, you’re doing a form of squat. Toddlers sit in a deep squat for minutes at a time; many adults lose this mobility with age because the movement is missing from their daily lives.

In strength training, the squat is considered one of the big basic lifts alongside the deadlift and the bench press. In powerlifting, the barbell squat is one of the 3 competition lifts. For beginners, your own bodyweight is enough: squats need no equipment, fit in any living room, and can be adapted from your very first workout to competitive sport. Which basic exercises belong in a first plan is covered in the guide Strength Training for Beginners.

Which muscles do squats work?

Squats work mainly the front of the thigh, the gluteus maximus, and the adductors. The hamstrings, calves, spinal erectors, and abs stabilize the movement. Depending on stance width, depth, and where the weight sits, the emphasis shifts between thighs and glutes.

The core work in squats is often underestimated. As soon as weight is added, your upper body has to carry the load stably without your lower back rounding. Strong abdominal and back muscles are the prerequisite for heavy squats. Suitable core exercises, from the forearm plank to the dead bug, are covered in the guide Ab Workout.

The most important holding exercise for the core is explained in the guide How to Do a Plank Properly, and the most important pushing exercise for the upper body in the guide How to Do Push-ups Properly.

How do you squat properly?

A clean squat follows 6 steps: hip-width stance, tension in your core, hips back and down, knees follow your toes, heels stay on the floor, drive powerfully back up to standing. These instructions apply to the bodyweight squat, the foundation for all other variations.

1. Find your stance: Feet about hip- to shoulder-width apart, toes turned out slightly, for most people between 10 and 30 degrees. Your weight is spread across the whole foot, from heel to ball.
2. Build tension: Take a deep breath and brace your stomach as if you were about to absorb a light punch. Chest up, eyes forward. Stretch your arms out in front of you or cross them over your chest.
3. Start the movement: Your hips and knees bend at the same time. Your hips travel back and down, as if you were sitting on a chair placed a little too far behind you.
4. Guide your knees: Throughout the movement, your knees point in the direction of your toes. They may travel forward; they should not cave inward.
5. Bottom position: As deep as you can go with a straight back and your heels on the floor. The target is at least parallel: thighs level with the floor.
6. Stand up: Push up powerfully through the whole sole of your foot, extending hips and knees at the same time. Breathe out at the top and briefly squeeze your glutes without arching your lower back.

Tempo also shapes the effect. For beginners, a lowering phase of 2 to 3 seconds has proven effective, followed by a short pause at the bottom and a controlled, brisk drive back up. Lowering slowly improves control and makes technique errors visible.

Can your knees go past your toes?

Yes, in a deep squat most people’s knees naturally travel past their toes. What matters is the direction: your knees point toward your toes and don’t cave inward. The old rule that your knees must never go past your toes is stubborn, but measurements have disproved it.

A 2003 study by Fry and colleagues examined what happens when the knee is stopped by a barrier in front of the toes during a squat. The result: the load on the knee fell by 22%, while the load on the hip rose by 1,070%. If you artificially hold your knees back, you have to lean your upper body far forward and shift the load into your hips and lower back.

How far your knees travel forward depends on your proportions. People with long thighs and a short torso automatically lean forward more, while people with long shins or good ankle mobility stay more upright. Both are normal. There is no fixed rule for everyone; the squat adapts to the body.

Things are different if you have knee pain, especially at the front of the knee. Then it often helps to temporarily drive the movement more through the hips, for example with a box squat onto a bench. The best adjustment is something to work out with a physiotherapist or an experienced trainer.

How deep should a squat be?

A squat should go as deep as you can with a straight back and your heels on the floor. For most people, at least parallel makes sense, and deeper squats work the glutes more. A 2013 review by Hartmann and colleagues concluded that deep squats with clean technique and an appropriate load are no riskier for healthy knees than half squats.

Many beginners can’t reach parallel at first without their heels lifting or their lower back rounding. Common causes are limited ankle mobility, stiff hips, or a lack of core tension. With regular training, depth usually improves within a few weeks. Mobility exercises for the ankles and hips help, and you’ll find them in the guide Stretching Exercises.

A quick trick for more depth: a small lift under your heels, such as a weight plate or a sturdy book. The lift makes up for missing ankle mobility, so you get deeper while staying more upright. In the long run, it pays to improve your mobility and gradually phase out the lift.

What are the most common squat mistakes?

The most common mistakes are knees caving inward, heels lifting, a rounded lower back, an upper body that leans too far forward, and not enough depth. Most of them can be fixed with simple cues and a little less weight.

For most mistakes, taking a step back helps. Less weight or an easier variation brings the technique back, and then the load goes up again. If you build up with clean movement, you’ll progress faster in the long run than someone who loads up a lot of weight early and then has to take a break because of pain.

What squat variations are there?

Squats come in many variations, from the chair squat for beginners to the barbell squat in strength sports. The 10 most important ones cover every level and goal. The table is sorted by difficulty.

For many beginners, the goblet squat is the best bridge between bodyweight and the barbell. The weight in front of your chest automatically pulls your upper body upright, so the technique becomes more upright almost by itself. A dumbbell or kettlebell of 8 to 16 kg is enough to start.

The Bulgarian split squat is the toughest variation for training at home. Because one leg carries almost the entire load, it’s challenging even without weight. It also evens out strength differences between your left and right leg. Jump squats are good for explosive strength and as a building block in intense interval sessions like the ones described in the guide HIIT Training.

What does a 6-week squat plan look like?

A beginner squat plan includes 3 sessions per week with at least 1 rest day in between. The plan progresses from the chair squat to the goblet squat and the Bulgarian split squat. Each session takes about 15 to 20 minutes including the warm-up.

Before each session, warm up for 5 minutes: easy walking in place, hip circles, leg swings, and 10 slow half-depth squats. After the session, light stretches for the thighs and hip flexors help.

The rule for progress: only move on to the next stage once all sets in a week feel clean. If your technique wobbles, stay on the current stage for another week. Without a dumbbell, replace the goblet squat with a squat holding a filled backpack or a 6-liter water bottle in front of your chest.

How to combine squats with upper-body and core exercises into a complete plan is shown in the guide How to Create a Training Plan.

How many squats make sense?

How many squats make sense depends on your goal: for strength you train heavy with few reps, for muscle growth in the middle range, and for muscular endurance with many reps and little weight. The table shows typical guidelines for 2 to 3 sessions per week.

For muscle growth, what counts most is how close to exhaustion a set ends. 30 easy squats give little growth stimulus if you could still do 20 more. As a rule of thumb, you should have 1 to 3 clean reps left in the tank at the end of a set. If you can do more than 25 reps with bodyweight, switch to a harder variation.

Squat challenges with 100 or more squats a day are popular, but they don’t replace a plan. For beginners, the high volume raises the risk of overuse; for advanced trainees, the stimulus per rep is too small. If you want to practice daily, keep the sets short and clean and add 2 to 3 more intense sessions per week.

What are the benefits of squats?

Squats strengthen your legs and glutes, improve core stability, maintain hip and ankle mobility, and make everyday movements like climbing stairs, lifting, and getting up easier. Because many large muscles work at the same time, they’re one of the most efficient exercises per minute of training.

• Everyday strength: Getting up, carrying, and climbing stairs rely on leg strength. In older age, leg strength is closely tied to independence.
• Muscle growth: The thighs and glutes are among the largest muscles in the body. More muscle mass raises your basal metabolic rate slightly and improves your body shape.
• Core stability: With added weight, every squat also trains your core, because it has to hold the load steady.
• Mobility: Deep squats keep your hips, knees, and ankles moving.
• Sports performance: Jumping power, sprint starts, and changes of direction rely on strength from the hips and legs. That’s why squats belong in almost every athletic training program, from soccer to martial arts.

When losing weight, squats help by preserving muscle. In a calorie deficit, strength training makes sure your body loses mostly fat and as little muscle as possible. There is no exercise that burns fat in a specific spot, such as the thighs: fat is lost across the whole body. The calorie deficit decides, training shapes.

Squats become more important with age. Over the years, muscle mass declines if it isn’t trained, and leg strength in particular decides how safely someone gets up from an armchair, climbs stairs, or keeps their balance after a stumble. For older beginners, the chair squat is ideal: the chair provides security, the depth is limited, and progress is easy to measure, for example by the number of reps in 30 seconds. If you feel unsteady, hold on to the back of a chair or a door frame at first and let go a little more each week.

Squats are also the foundation of many complex movements in functional training, such as thrusters, wall balls, or kettlebell swings. How such exercises come together into sessions is shown in the guide Functional Training.

What should you do about knee pain when squatting?

With knee pain, the rule is: stop the exercise immediately if you feel a sharp pain, and have the cause checked. With mild discomfort, less depth, less weight, and a cleaner knee position often help. Sore thighs the next day are normal; pain in the joint during the movement is not.

Common triggers for pain are knees caving inward, increasing training volume too quickly, and weak glutes. If you correct your knee position and strengthen your glutes with exercises like lateral band walks or the bridge, you often take noticeable strain off the knee.

• Box squat: Lower yourself onto a bench or chair, sit briefly, stand up. The height limits the depth and gives you confidence.
• Wall sit: Holds the knee in a fixed position and trains the thigh without movement in the joint.
• Glute bridge: Strengthens the glutes without any load on the knee.
• Slow down: Taking 3 to 4 seconds on the way down improves control.

With swelling, instability, pain after a fall, or symptoms that last longer than 2 weeks, the knee needs to be examined by a doctor. After injuries or surgery, your treatment team decides when and to what depth squats make sense again.

If you feel discomfort in your lower back when squatting, you often have too little core tension or are going deeper than your hip mobility allows. Suitable exercises for strengthening and relief are shown in the guide Exercises for Back Pain.

How do you fit squats into your training plan?

Squats belong at the start of a session, while you’re still fresh. For most goals, 2 to 3 sessions per week with 48 to 72 hours of rest for the leg muscles are enough. In a full-body plan, they sit alongside an upper-body push, a pull, and a core exercise.

Progress needs a load that increases over weeks. That works through more weight, more reps, more sets, or a harder variation. A simple method for beginners: if you hit the top of the rep range in all sets, increase the weight by 2 to 5 kg in the next session.

For visible muscle growth in your legs and glutes, your body needs enough protein and energy. A common guideline is 1.6 to 2.2 g of protein per kilogram of body weight per day. More on this in the guide Muscle Building Nutrition.

When does a personal trainer help with squats?

A personal trainer helps especially when you start with a barbell, if you have knee or back problems, and when your technique won’t get clean despite practice. A trained eye spots mistakes like caving knees or a rounded back faster than any video.

• Getting started with added weight: If you want to learn the barbell squat, 2 to 3 guided sessions on stance, grip, breathing, and racking the bar pay off.
• Existing conditions: After knee or back problems, a trainer puts together suitable variations in consultation with your treatment team.
• Plateaus: If the weight hasn’t gone up for weeks, a coach finds the cause in your technique, plan, or recovery.
• Motivation: Fixed appointments make it easier to stick with 3 sessions a week.

If you prefer to train at home, you can also have your technique corrected via video. How that works and what it costs is shown in the guide Online Personal Training.

What to look for when choosing, which qualifications matter, and which questions to ask in the first consultation are covered in the guide Finding a Personal Trainer. Personal training in Berlin and Hamburg usually costs €80 to €120 per hour, and 10-session packages are 20 to 40% cheaper than single sessions.

Frequently asked questions about squats

This guide does not replace individual training advice: if you have knee, hip, or back pain, existing conditions, or have been away from training for a long time, start under guidance. You can find, compare, and book verified personal trainers in the nucoach app, for Berlin and Hamburg.