6 Muscle Groups That Squats Work (And Variations)

Front squats: As the name suggests, this squat variation will have your weights on the front part of your body, rather than on your back like with a traditional barbell squat. Hold the barbell or weight securely and perform the traditional squat movement – the shift in weight placement will work your front side a little more than your back.

What Muscles Do Squats Target?

Squats have developed a reputation as a booty-building exercise — but the truth is that they strengthen almost every muscle in your lower body. When you do squats, the muscles worked include your quads, glutes, hamstrings, calves and even your core muscles.

Tip

When you do squats, you’re working your glutes and quads, in addition to your hip adductors, hamstrings, calves and core muscles.

Muscles Worked in a Squat

Your quadriceps and glutes are the most powerful of the muscle “engines” that drive you through the squat motion. As you’re coming up out of the squat position, your quadriceps fire to straighten your legs at the knee, while your glutes straighten your body at the hips. The end result of this simultaneous action? You stand up.

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The reverse happens as you sink back down into the squat: Your quadriceps and glutes both lengthen under load as you flex at the hip and the knee, a movement known as an eccentric contraction. This lengthening under load is what controls your descent and keeps you from simply plopping onto the floor at the mercy of gravity.

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However, as you might expect, there’s more going on during this exercise than the brute force of your quads and glutes. When you do squats, the muscles worked also include:

The Calves

Your soleus muscle, the smaller of your two primary calf muscles, is responsible for plantar-flexing your foot (or to put it another way, pointing your toes) when your knee is bent. And although your heels never come off the ground during a squat, plantar-flexion is still the motion that helps return your shin to a vertical position from the slight forward lean it assumes when you’re in the “down” position of the squat.

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Because your knee is bent while plantar-flexion is happening, your gastrocnemius — the bigger, meatier muscle that sits on the outside of your calf — isn’t providing much power to the movement, but it does help stabilize your leg.

Hamstrings and Adductor Magnus

When you do squats, the muscles worked also include your hamstrings. As noted in a very useful squat analysis from ExRX.net, the hamstrings counter the direct forces of your quadriceps to help stabilize your knee, reducing shearing forces and strain across the joint.

Another notable muscle, the adductor magnus, keeps your hamstrings company on the posterior (rear) part of your thigh. This muscle also kicks in to help your glutes power the movement, extending your leg at the hip.

Core Muscles

Because your hips hinge backward, a certain amount of forward torso lean is necessary to make squats happen — which means your core muscles all play an important part in maintaining proper squat form and preventing injury.

The further forward you lean, the more your erector spinae muscles are involved in holding your back straight, while your rectus abdominis (the so-called “six-pack muscle”) and obliques counter the pull of the erector spinae to keep you stable.

Proper Squat Form

Of course, you’re only going to get that sort of muscle engagement if you use proper form. Squats are an endlessly versatile exercise that you can do with only your body weight for resistance, or using dumbbells, kettlebells or a barbell for extra weight.

The barbell squat (or to some, back squat) is a great example for teaching the key points of proper form. In addition to that barbell, you’re going to need a squat rack ⁠— a sturdy metal frame with equally sturdy pins that you can rack, or rest, the barbell on. Here’s how you get into proper position to do a squat:

1. Rack the barbell at just below shoulder height and, if necessary, add weight plates. Note: If you’re just starting out, it’s best to practice this exercise with no weight at all, working up to using the barbell (which usually weighs 45 pounds on its own) and, then and only then, adding weight to the bar.
2. Duck under the barbell and situate yourself so that it rests on the meaty portion of your upper back, just behind your neck. The barbell should not rest directly on your neck. Some people will need the aid of a “neck roll” (padding that wraps around the bar) to make this position comfortable.
3. Squeeze your abs (think “chest up, shoulder blades together and down”) to stabilize your core as you stand up, lifting the bar off the rack. Take a step back so that the bar will clear all portions of the rack when you squat.

Once you’ve accomplished that, the actual process of doing your squats is quite straightforward — although proper attention to form is still critically important for avoiding injury.

1. Place your feet slightly wider than shoulder-width apart.
2. Squat down as if you were sitting in a chair; the motion starts in your hips as they sink back and your torso tilts forward, just a bit, to keep the barbell centered over your feet. Squeeze your core muscles to keep your back flat and chest up as your torso hinges forward and your knees bend, sending your hips down and back.
3. Stop when your hips break the plane of your knees.
4. Drive through your feet and legs as you stand back up.

If you’re just starting out, one or two sets of eight to 12 repetitions is a good goal. Once you’re done with your set, step forward and carefully lower the bar back onto the racking pins. Make sure it’s safely racked on both sides before you step out from under it.

Tip

Make sure you put weight collars on your barbell when you add plates. These spring-loaded clips stop the weight plates from sliding off if you tip the bar to either side.

Watch for These Mistakes

Squat injuries are often caused by mistakes in form — so at the risk of repetition, it’s worth recapping key issues to avoid. Some common mistakes to avoid, and their fixes, include:

1. Letting Your Knees Cave Inward

Reduce the amount of weight you’re lifting and use a mirror or a lifting buddy for feedback as you focus on keeping your knees “up” instead of letting them sag in. It might help to pay close attention to your feet: Sometimes reminding yourself to push through your entire foot (instead of just the inside edge) will help correct this.

Here’s another useful cue that might help: Your toes should point straight forward or slightly out and, from your perspective as you look down the length of your body, your knees should always point in the same direction as your toes.

2. Tilting the Bar

The barbell may tip to the side if you’re lifting too fast, lifting too much weight or if one side of your body is weaker than the other. The solutions are easy: Slow down, reduce the weight, and/or use a mirror or a buddy for feedback as you focus on driving or sinking equally through both legs in a smooth, controlled motion. If an imbalance persists, a medical or fitness professional might prescribe unilateral (one-sided) exercises to strengthen the weaker leg.

3. Not Hinging at the Hips

Some people try to do squats without leaning forward from the hips at all — but this places a lot of pressure on your knees. Your hips actually start the motion, moving down and back, which in turn requires your knees to bend and your torso to tilt forward slightly.

4. Lifting With Your Back

Have you ever heard the directive “Lift with your legs, not your back”? That certainly applies to squats ⁠— so, when you begin to stand back up, think of pressing through all of both feet and driving with your legs to initiate the motion. If you try to start the motion in your back instead, you’ll get hurt.

Variations on the Squat

You’ll find almost endless variations on the squat, usually based on where you place your feet, what sort of weight you use or where you hold the weight. A few key variations to be aware of include:

Front squats: In this exercise, you hold the barbell across the fronts of your shoulders. As confirmed by EMG (electromyography) analysis in a small study of 12 participants, published in the Journal of Sports Sciences, the front squat emphasizes quadriceps activity and decreases trunk lean. That makes it potentially a good choice for those with back concerns, but a poor choice for those with knee issues.

Tip

The goblet squat, in which you hold a single kettlebell in front of you by the “horns” or handle, is a variation on the front squat.

Wide squats: You can do squats with an increasingly wider stance until you hit the wide, toes-out stance of the plié squat — as long as you follow the cardinal rules of proper form: Your knees must always point in the same direction as your toes, and don’t let your knees cave in toward your midline.

As noted in the ExRX.net squat analysis, a wide stance emphasizes the involvement of your hip adductors, or inner thigh muscles. Glute activity increases when you do wide squats with a heavy load, and it’s worth noting that hip torque increases as well — so if you struggle with hip pain, this probably isn’t the squat variation for you.

Dumbbell squats: Doing your squats with dumbbells means giving up some of the overall stability of the barbell — but in return, you get more flexibility in the way you hold the weights. Two of the most common variations are letting your arms rest by your sides (so the dumbbells “ride along” on the outsides of your body throughout the squat) or holding the dumbbells racked at shoulder level. The latter more or less mimics the positioning of a barbell, but gives you greater flexibility in the angle at which you hold your hands.

Another dumbbell variation is holding a single weight by one end and letting it dangle between your legs as you squat. This variation sometimes makes it easier for beginners to achieve proper form, and it allows you to do wide squats. But, depending on the size of the weight you’re using, the lower end of the weight may contact the ground and thus limit your range of motion.

What About Smith Machines?

Whether or not Smith machines are an acceptable tool for doing squats is a subject of some controversy. The Smith machine has a couple of very useful safety features, such as height-adjustable stoppers that will support the bar if you get “stuck” at the bottom of the squat, and a self-spotting hook on the bar that you can rotate to lock the bar in place. Like the adjustable stoppers, this gives you a graceful (and potentially injury-avoiding) “out” in case of emergency.

But more to the point, a Smith machine also traps the bar in a vertical track. While not everybody will feel comfortable with this vertical range of motion, it can be helpful for beginners who are familiarizing themselves with the motion, who don’t have a spotter available or who feel pain doing normal barbell squats, because the motion-restricted bar allows you greater flexibility in where you put your feet.

Ultimately, the best way to see whether the Smith machine will suit you (or not) is to simply give it a try.

6 Muscle Groups That Squats Work (And Variations)

Squats are some of the most effective lifts to add to your workout routine. They’re a complex movement that can really show off your strength, are applicable to functional everyday tasks, and are an important part of any leg day.

There’s a reason there’s always a line at the squat rack!

Squats are a powerhouse of a workout that involves several muscle groups, the most obvious being in your legs.

What Muscles Do Squats Work?

The muscles that squats primarily work are:

Here’s the thing: A classic bodyweight or weighted back squat is going to work all of these different muscle groups in one powerful movement. But in order to get the most out of this lift, you’ll need to do it with the correct form and have a general understanding of how your muscles work in cohesion to make it happen.

Plus, you can take the classic exercise and do variations to put more of the focus on specific muscle groups depending on your goals.

Let’s take a closer look at which muscles squats work, plus explore some squat variations and tips so you can be on your way to a stronger, more explosive lower body.

Glutes

The glutes are highlighted in this x-ray illustration.

Many people start doing squats because they want to build a firmer butt, and for good reason – squats put a tremendous load on your strong butt muscles, also known as the glutes.

Your glutes are made of three parts: the gluteus maximus, the gluteus minimus, and the gluteus medius. A squat will work all three of these powerful muscles, though the majority of the stress will be on your gluteus maximus .

High-rep bodyweight squats will definitely get your glutes burning, and the butt-building benefits get even better when you add heavy weights into the mix. No matter what variation of squat you perform, your glutes are guaranteed to be involved, and the deeper you squat , the more activated they’ll become.

Squat variation to work your glutes:

Sumo squats: To activate more of your glutes during a squat, take a wider stance. Stand with your feet slightly further apart than hip-width and with your toes pointing slightly out instead of forward. Descend into a deep squat, making sure to keep your back neutral and not allowing your knees to go forward.

Hamstrings

The hamstrings are highlighted in this x-ray illustration.

Your hamstrings are the powerful muscles on the back of your thighs that connect your hips to your knees. During a squat, your hamstrings are activated as you descend into the squat and bend your knees. Make sure that you are “sitting back” into the motion with your knees behind your toes.

Developing strong hamstrings will support both your knee and hip joints, plus they’ll keep you stable and look great to boot.

Squat variations for working your hamstrings:

Pause squats: Perform a normal squat, either with just your bodyweight or with added weights, and hold the pose once your thighs become parallel to the ground. Hold this pause for three seconds, then push up to the starting position.

Box/chair squats: Get a stable box, bench, or chair that puts your thighs at parallel or slightly below when you sit on it. Place it behind you then perform the squat movement, “sitting back” on it. Use your leg muscles to push yourself back up to standing.

Quadriceps

The quads are highlighted in this x-ray illustration.

Now let’s move on to the front of your thighs. These muscles are called the quadriceps and are really worked during the “extension” phase of your squats as you push up and straighten your legs, opposite the hamstrings.

In combination with the work of your hamstrings, squats are great for helping you achieve strong, powerful thighs.

Squat variations for your quads:

Front squats: As the name suggests, this squat variation will have your weights on the front part of your body, rather than on your back like with a traditional barbell squat. Hold the barbell or weight securely and perform the traditional squat movement – the shift in weight placement will work your front side a little more than your back.

Pulse squats: This squat variation will really have your quads feeling the burn. Start with a traditional squat, but don’t go all the way back up when you hit parallel; instead, “pulse” into the movement for ten seconds before straightening out, keeping your quads under tension for longer than a normal squat. Repeat a couple more rounds.

Adductors

They may not be as flashy as your glutes, quads, and hamstrings, but your adductors are a crucial muscle that keeps you stable during a squat. You can find these muscles in your inner thighs. They work during your squat by stabilizing your knees, keeping them together rather than splaying outwards.

To really get the most out of your squat and give your inner thighs some love (as well as to prevent injury and knee pain), make sure that your knees stay in line with the direction of your toes and don’t splay inward or outward during the movement.

Calves

Your calves are the muscles at the base of your legs and work during a squat to stabilize you and give you a strong foundation to perform the difficult movement during both the descent and ascent.

Developing strong calves can make you more explosive and balance out the aesthetics of your strong upper legs.

Squat variation for calves:

Jump squats: This squat variation works best if you’re using your body weight or lighter weight than you would use for other weighted squats. Perform a traditional squat, then jump upward as you ascend, making sure you’re moving on the balls of your feet to really work those calves. This is also a great variation to incorporate some cardio into your squat routine.

Core

It may not be the first muscle group that comes into mind when you perform a squat, but core activation is huge for stabilizing your body and keeping your position centered during this exercise. Bracing yourself during a squat is especially important for protecting your spine, especially when doing weighted squats, and will work your abdominals, obliques, and lower back.

Core activation in a squat is supported by having the proper breathing technique:

• Take a deep breath into your abdomen and hold it as you descend into your squat position, increasing the pressure in your abdomen.
• Release your breath as you rise to the top of the movement.

This will protect your back and get your core involved in the movement.

What are the disadvantages of doing squats?

Squats are a well-loved component of many peoples’ fitness routines, but they can be dangerous if not done correctly, and this is especially true when you’re doing heavy weighted squats with a barbell.

Always make sure that you are performing squats with correct form to avoid injury – you want your back to be neutral, your knees behind your toes, your core braced, and your depth to bring your thighs at least parallel to the ground. If you’re not sure about your form, ask a spotter or personal trainer to evaluate your movement, and don’t move on to using heavier weights until you’re confident in your form and ability.

Doing squats can also lead to hip, knee, and back pain, so make sure that you stretch and practice mobility exercises to relieve tightness. It is also a good idea to do other accessory exercises to strengthen all the muscles that you work in a squat – think leg extensions, hamstring curls, and glute bridges, for example.

How long does it take to see results from squats?

There are many factors that play into seeing workout results in your physique, including your body fat percentage and starting muscle size. Someone with a low body fat percentage will show their increased muscle definition must quicker than someone with a higher body fat percentage, for example, since their muscles are not “hidden” by as much fat.

Just like with any exercise or workout plan, consistency is key. If you’re looking to build muscle from doing squats, you may start to see results in one to two months if you continuously practice this exercise (once a week or so) and eat a diet formulated for muscle growth.

With any fitness or weight loss goals, proper nutrition is key. Building muscles requires plenty of protein to rebuild the microtears your leg muscles will get when performing squats, so be sure to eat lots of lean protein to enhance the results of your leg days.

The Bottom Line

Squats have earned their place as one of the most crucial lifts for strength training because they work so many muscles so efficiently. If you’re looking for strong thighs, a powerful butt, and explosive movement, getting your squats in is essential.

2 thoughts on “6 Muscle Groups That Squats Work (And Variations)”

Thank you for your detailed advice and suggestions as I train alone at home. I have started weight training late in life having never been a particularly sporty person. Now I have started to enjoy the feeling of my muscle growth and increasing mobility. I particularly like using newly found kettlebells and a multitude of dumbbell exercises.
Thanks for your valuable advice, Yours, David. Reply

Brodie Schroeder

Thank you for the kind feedback, David. Kettlebells and dumbbells are great. Best of luck in your training! Reply

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