Chair squat
Muscles worked : Quadriceps, glutes · Hamstrings, core
How to do it
- Stand in front of a stable chair, feet about hip-width apart.
- Push your hips back as if sitting down, knees tracking in line with the feet.
- Lower under control until you brush the seat, weight in the heels.
- Touch briefly without sitting down, chest upright.
- Drive back up through the heels until the legs are fully extended.
Common mistakes
- Knees caving inwards: unstable and hard on the joints.
- Dropping onto the chair instead of controlling the descent.
- Chest tipping too far forward: shifts the effort onto the lower back.
Where you should feel it
You should feel the front of the thighs and the glutes, with clear pressure through the heels. Tension at the front of the knee or in the lower back means the hips are not travelling back enough and the torso is compensating.
Range of motion
Lower until you brush the seat without settling onto it. The chair is a consistent depth marker, not a seat: that is what makes the exercise measurable from one session to the next.
Tempo and breathing
Three seconds down, one to two seconds up. Inhale on the way down, exhale as you drive through the heels. A one-second pause at the touch removes any bounce.
What works, precisely
The quadriceps extend the knee and the gluteus maximus extends the hip: two prime movers working together. The hamstrings and adductors stabilise, the gluteus medius stops the knee falling inwards, and the erector spinae with the abdominal wall keep the torso braced.
Movement mechanics
Simultaneous flexion then extension of hip and knee in the sagittal plane. The descent is eccentric, the ascent concentric. Sending the hips back places your centre of mass over the heels, which is what shares the load between thighs and glutes instead of concentrating it on the knee.
Benefits
- Rebuilds the most-used movement in daily life: getting out of a chair, into a car, or picking something off the floor.
- Strengthens thighs and glutes at once — the first things to fade during a sedentary spell.
- The chair gives an objective depth marker, so you can progress without having to judge by eye whether you went low enough.
Adapt and progress
- Easier : Use a higher seat, or actually sit down between each repetition.
- Harder : Work towards a lower seat, slow the descent to five seconds, or hold three seconds at the bottom.
- Move on when : When three sets of fifteen go by without the knees caving and without pushing off with your hands, lower the seat.
Precautions
If the knee is sore, reduce the depth rather than the number of repetitions: a pain-free partial range beats a full range that hurts.