Wall sit
Muscles worked : Quadriceps · Glutes, core
How to do it
- Stand with your back against a wall, feet hip-width apart, about a step away from it.
- Slide down the wall until your thighs are parallel to the floor, knees at 90°.
- Keep your whole back flat against the wall and your knees stacked over your ankles.
- Hold the position breathing normally, without holding your breath.
- Push through the heels to come back up out of the position.
Common mistakes
- Knees travelling past the toes: too much pressure on the joint.
- Back peeling off the wall: you lose the support and load the lower back.
- Forcing a 90° angle when the knee complains: open to 120° instead.
Where you should feel it
A burn building steadily in the front of the thighs, rising evenly until the end of the hold. A sharp pain in the knee, by contrast, is not the expected signal: open the angle.
Range of motion
The knee angle sets the difficulty: 90° is the reference version, 120° a markedly more accessible one. Knees stay over the ankles, never pushed past the toes, and the back keeps contact with the wall along its whole length.
Tempo and breathing
No tempo — this is a hold. Breathe normally, out loud if it helps you check you are not holding your breath: that is the most common reflex on an isometric exercise, and it raises blood pressure for nothing.
What works, precisely
The quadriceps work isometrically to stop the knee bending further under bodyweight. The glutes and hamstrings help hold the hip, and the abdominals stabilise the pelvis against the wall.
Movement mechanics
An isometric contraction: the muscle produces force without changing length and without the joint moving. The wall removes the balance demand, which lets you load the thighs without the coordination a free-standing squat hold would require.
Benefits
- Builds strength endurance in the thighs — the quality that runs out going down stairs or standing for a long time.
- Loads the quadriceps without joint movement, which often makes it tolerable when a full range movement is not yet.
- Progress is measured in seconds, a clearer unit than "one more rep" for tracking progress.
Adapt and progress
- Easier : Open the knee angle to 110–120°, or split it into two shorter holds.
- Harder : Work towards 90°, extend the duration, or lift one heel slightly then the other.
- Move on when : When three sixty-second holds at 90° go by without the back lifting off, extend further or move to a dynamic load.
Precautions
If the knee pulls, open the angle before anything else. This exercise is easy to make gentler; there is no point in enduring it as it is.