Sissy Squat
A knee-dominant squat where the hips stay extended and the knees travel forward over the toes.
How to do it
- Stand with your feet about shoulder width apart and hold a support with one hand.
- Rise onto the balls of your feet, or place your heels on a two to four inch block.
- Brace your trunk and squeeze your glutes so the hips stay extended.
- Lean back from the knees, letting them travel forward while your torso stays in line with your thighs.
- Descend as far as you can control, keeping the hips from folding backward.
- Press through the balls of your feet to return to standing, then repeat.
Key technique cue
Lean back from the knees in one line, hips don't fold; don't pull on the support.
Common mistakes
- ✕ Letting the hips fold backward, which turns the rep into a shallow ordinary squat.
- ✕ Arching the lower back to reach depth, which loads the lumbar spine instead of the quadriceps.
- ✕ Dropping fast and bouncing at the bottom, which spikes load on the knee with no control.
- ✕ Pulling hard on the support hand, which removes the resistance the exercise depends on.
Benefits
- ✓ Loads the quadriceps hard without a barbell or a machine.
- ✓ Trains knee flexion and extension through a long range with the hips held extended.
- ✓ Scales by depth alone, so progression needs no extra load.
Progression: from easier to harder
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Step 1 -
Step 2 You are here - Sissy Squat
About the exercise
The sissy squat removes the hip hinge from a squat. You rise onto the balls of the feet, keep a straight line from head to knees, and lean back as the knees travel forward, so almost all of the movement happens at the knee joint. That makes the quadriceps the prime mover, with the trunk and calves working to hold the line and the balance. EMG work on knee extension across hip angles shows the four quadriceps heads work together rather than in isolation, so treat this as a quadriceps emphasis exercise rather than a way to single out one head.
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