Reasons for Searching For Alternatives

There could be many reasons why someone might be looking for an alternative to squats. These reasons usually are related to pain while performing the squat or looking for other lower body exercises that do not move through the squat movement pattern. The squat is one of the key movement patterns when it comes to strength and conditioning, so it will be in almost all well designed training programmes in some shape or form. Any training programme that avoids the lower body entirely should not be taken seriously.

Never Move Through Pain

Individuals looking for alternatives to squats are often experiencing pain when performing the squat movement pattern. If this is your case then avoid all the single leg squat variations I provide below and if the hinge or glute dominant variations also cause pain then they should be avoided also. Resistance training should never involve moving through pain.

Single Leg Squats

An excellent alternative to the bi-lateral squat is the uni-lateral squat, which moves through the squatting movement pattern (knee flexion) whilst only using a single leg. Performing squats on a single leg will allow you to improve squatting strength and build muscle in the muscles that perform the squat (glutes, quads, hamstrings) while also taking some of the fatigue away that is often created from performing back squats and front squats . Single leg squats require more stability and control and also use much less muscle mass than the bi-lateral squat, resulting in using much lighter loads. Using lighter loads fatigues the central nervous system much less than performing heavy back squats.

Using single leg squats and bi-lateral squats within the same training block and week can be a great way to perform more volume in the squat movement pattern. When I do this I typically perform them on different training days to prevent accumulating too much fatigue during a single session. Below are three excellent single leg squat variations that you can add to your training. More variations can be found in our squat movement library .

Hinging Exercises

The hinge is a completely different movement pattern than the squat and puts emphasis on different muscle groups as it focuses much more on the posterior chain. The posterior chain is made up predominantly of the hamstrings, glutes and muscles in the lower back. This can mean, in some cases, that individuals suffering from knee pain in the squat are able to perform hinge exercises without any pain at all.

The hinge is a great alternative to squat movements when the squat specifically is causing knee pain. Ideally however, a training programme for health and or athletics would involves some form of hinge movement pattern and squat movement pattern. These movement patterns should not be seen as mutually exclusive and both should be programmed into a well designed training programme (unless as mentioned above one is causing pain). Below are three examples of hinge variations. More variations can be found in our hinge movement library .

Glute Dominant Exercises

Finally we see a third alternative to squats, glute dominant exercises. These are predominantly made up of hip thrust variations that aim to specifically put emphasis on the muscles of the glutes. Squat variations are excellent at both strengthening and growing the glutes, but if they are causing pain or you just want to add more lower body work that isn’t squatting into your week then these glute dominant variations are great alternatives. Glute dominant exercises focus a lot more on isolating a single muscle group rather than working the full body systemically like say the back squat, this makes these exercises much less tiring than intense squats. Below are three variations for squats that are glute dominant exercises. More variations can be found in our lower body movement library.