The Goblet Squat – King of All Squat Exercises

Squatting is a fundamental human movement pattern and anyone who has spent time with young children can see how much time they spend squatting and how comfortable they are performing this movement.     As we grow older, become less active in general, sit in chairs more, and lose mobility we can lose the ability to perform this highly beneficial and functional movement pattern.   The key is not to stop squatting and learn a variation of the squat exercise that is safe and provides the benefits without the risks.

When most people think about squatting they envision someone with a bar across their back with a massive amount of weight on each end.  While back squats can be effective they are not the only way or the best way for most people to squat safely.  Back squats are difficult to do correctly for many people because:

They demand lots of shoulder mobility and stability which many of us lack!

Since the weight is behind the shoulders and people lack mobility in their ankles and hips they have to lean forward so that there is a lot of stress on the low back.

In addition, depending on the various lengths of your thighs, lower leg, and back the back squat can be almost impossible to do correctly without lots of mobility and stability work done for a long time.  The good news is that there is another squat exercise that does not require this!

It is called the Goblet Squat.  In the Goblet Squat instead of holding the weight on a bar behind the neck you use a dumbbell or kettlebell and hold it like a “goblet” against your chest – see here:  https://goo.gl/RURYOq

Since the weight is held in front of the body it is much easier to keep your back straight and not feel like you have to learn over to keep from falling backwards at the bottom of the movement.   In addition, the Goblet Squat does not require a lot of shoulder mobility or stability so you can focus more on squatting and less on discomfort in the shoulders.  

Start out by doing three sets of 10 – 15 repetitions concentrating on staying upright and going as low as possible without any pain in the low back or knees.      Keep your feet flat on the ground and this is really difficult use a shoe that has a heel lift.      Gradually increase the weight of the dumbbell or kettlebell you are using over time.