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Top 5 Best Squat Variations To Grow Your Glutes & Legs | Masterclass | Myprotein
Jan 30, 2025
Discover the 5 best squat variations to grow your glutes and build leg muscle in this expert-led Masterclass video.
Myprotein Masterclass is here to help you unlock more from your training with expert guidance from the best of the best. In this video, our personal trainers Chris Broomhead and Simone Farrington are here to take you through 5 of the most effective squat variations to help you keep your lower body workouts challenging.
They cover split squats, goblet squats, barbell back squats, smith machine squats, and plate-loaded v-squats — giving you a variety of excellent muscle-building moves to try in your next session.
Get ready to take your next leg day to new heights with these moves.
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Chapters:
00:00 - Intro
00:13 - Split Squat
01:09 - Goblet Squat
02:09 - Barbell Back Squat
04:24 - Smith Machine Squat
05:48 - V-Squat
06:56 - Remember to Like and Subscribe
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0:00
hi guys my name's chris this is sim and
0:03
in this video we're gonna walk you
0:04
through five different squat variations
0:09
the first movement in our five exercises
0:12
is going to be the split squat
0:14
so sim if you want to set yourself up
0:15
for a split squat we need to make sure
0:18
of two things before we do anything else
0:20
that your feet are far enough apart
0:21
this way and that you're still staying
0:23
shoulder width
0:24
if you step across if you step that back
0:26
foot across for me
0:28
straight away you're gonna start losing
0:29
your balance
0:31
and you're gonna really struggle through
0:32
the movement so you need that nice
0:34
open stance forward and backwards and
0:36
open stance sideways as well
0:38
so it's holding that bounce from there
0:41
we can go just down to the ground
0:43
and you can see it's just a smooth
0:44
movement going straight down
0:46
working both legs at the same time
0:48
primarily focusing on the front leg
0:51
and then if you want to progress this
0:52
movement we can add dumbbells we can add
0:54
kettlebells you can put a bar on your
0:56
back
0:56
anything just maintaining the same sort
0:58
of structure and the same movement
1:00
focusing on the foot position and make
1:02
sure you keep that balance
1:05
okay guys the next squat variation we're
1:07
going to go into is the goblet squat
1:10
so for this one we're going to use a
1:11
dumbbell but you can use any weight you
1:12
just want to hold it in front
1:14
so if you just want to grab that weight
1:15
for me sim and you're going to hold it
1:18
securely
1:19
if you want to pull that tightly into
1:20
your chest as well to hold it more
1:22
secure
1:22
wherever you feel comfortable it's the
1:24
main point and then from there we're
1:26
going to do a normal squat position
1:28
driving the hips back bending at the
1:30
knee and going as low as you can go
1:33
so obviously each person will be able to
1:34
squat to a different depth but make sure
1:36
your knees are not rolling in
1:38
your feet slightly turned out and you're
1:40
controlling that movement
1:41
it's nice and smooth like sims perform
1:43
in there if you want to progress this
1:45
movement you can go up
1:46
with a heavier weight or you can even
1:48
regress it backwards if you're
1:50
struggling
1:51
but if you just bring the weight down in
1:52
front to here you can hold it there
1:54
which you can also do with the
1:55
kettlebell to go down slightly shortens
1:57
the movement makes it a little bit less
1:59
challenging if you're struggling to get
2:00
the weight up to the top
2:02
so there's pause there and that is a
2:04
goblet squat
2:07
so guys next up on the list we've got
2:09
the barbell back squat
2:10
so when people often see squats on their
2:12
programming it is referring to a barbell
2:14
back squat although it may just say
2:16
squat
2:16
it's a very complicated movement a lot
2:18
of people actually struggle to do but
2:19
most people will still try
2:21
so if you give it a go in the gym and
2:22
you struggle to do it that's absolutely
2:23
fine we've got our other squat
2:25
variations for that very reason
2:27
but we'll go through the setup today and
2:29
hopefully you guys will be able to
2:30
perform it
2:31
so the first thing we need to do is get
2:32
your hands set up
2:34
so what you need to do is get your hands
2:36
on the bar just outside of shoulder
2:38
width and then you're going to tuck your
2:39
head under
2:40
and get it on the back of your traps not
2:42
your neck
2:43
it's very important if it's too high
2:44
it's up here it's going to not only hurt
2:46
your neck but it's going to push you
2:47
forward if you're trying to squat
2:48
so from there it's comfortably in your
2:50
traps here pull the bar in and then
2:52
you're going to stand up
2:53
as you lock it in take a step back
2:57
see clear of the frame and then before
2:59
you go anywhere
3:00
you make sure your feet are set in a
3:02
comfortable position and that's going to
3:03
variate from person to person
3:05
but i would always advise just outside
3:07
shoulder width with your feet slightly
3:08
turned out
3:09
so you can see as sim is in here feet
3:11
slightly turn out in a comfortable
3:12
position
3:13
from there to initiate the movement
3:15
she's going to focus on driving the hips
3:17
back slowly
3:18
and bending her knees as well driving
3:20
the knees out to the side make sure they
3:21
don't buckle in and slowly come back up
3:24
a lot of people you'll see as the knees
3:26
go down they'll buckle in
3:29
so if you just want to perform a bad rep
3:30
sort of going down knees buckling in
3:32
something we're really aware of that
3:33
often happens because the glutes are
3:34
still going to fire and hold that
3:36
movement steady
3:37
so we need to make sure our feet are set
3:40
drive the knees out as you go down to
3:41
perform it again
3:42
drive the knees out hips back knees out
3:45
to the side
3:46
keep that nice tight position and then
3:47
from there to re-wrap the bar you're
3:49
going to walk straight into the frame
3:52
and you see it comes in and down
3:55
locked in nice and safe and you stand
3:56
back up so you want to make sure this
3:58
positioning is not too high that you're
4:00
going on your tiptoes because it can be
4:01
dangerous when you've got weight on the
4:02
bar
4:03
with this movement if you want to
4:04
progress it all you need to do is add
4:05
some more weight to the bar
4:06
but make sure you can still maintain
4:08
that same technique as you do with the
4:10
empty bar when you start adding the
4:11
weight up
4:12
don't then put more weight on and your
4:14
reps drop to half reps
4:16
because it's a little bit too heavy so
4:17
just be aware of that and make sure you
4:18
don't hurt yourself in the process
4:21
okay guys our next squat variation is
4:23
going to be a smith machine squat with a
4:25
wide stance
4:26
the reason we're going to do this is to
4:28
focus more on the glutes
4:29
and the inner thighs because we're going
4:31
to take that wide stance with the toes
4:32
out
4:33
really driving your knees out it takes
4:35
the movement away from the knee which
4:36
takes away from your quads
4:38
more knee bend is more quad activation
4:40
more hip
4:41
is more glutes so we've already preset
4:44
our support bars at the side
4:46
just to set sim's bottom position so she
4:48
can only go to as far as she's going to
4:49
go safely so sim if you
4:51
just want to grab the bar behind you
4:53
there so just like we do the normal
4:55
barbell
4:56
squat gonna unhook it and twist it away
4:59
and then hold it in that position so it
5:01
doesn't clip back on from there
5:03
initiating with the hips again but now
5:05
with a wide stance
5:06
toes really turned out and focusing on
5:09
the hips moving more than the knees
5:11
so if you go down now really pushing
5:13
your bum out and if you can see it's
5:15
much more hip dominant and squeeze
5:17
glutes at the top
5:18
it's completely different movement as we
5:21
drive up and you'll feel it in a
5:22
different place
5:23
a lot less in the quads a lot more in
5:25
the hips and the glutes
5:26
so we can use that different variation
5:28
to target our different muscles
5:30
as you can see we come down just tap at
5:31
the bottom
5:33
and slowly up just pause there for me
5:35
and hook it back on so
5:38
hook it back on safely there and that
5:39
guys is our smith machine squat
5:41
with the wed stance
5:45
okay guys our last squat variation is
5:47
going to be the v-squat
5:49
so we can move our foot position on this
5:52
machine
5:52
so when we're moving ourselves around we
5:54
can either go further away
5:56
which is then going to target our glutes
5:58
and hamstrings more
5:59
or we can come in closer bending the
6:01
knees more tag in more of the quads
6:03
so on this one i want to move the feet a
6:05
little bit closer in and then turn the
6:07
toes slightly out
6:09
so then as you lift up it'll come off
6:12
the support
6:13
and then we're literally going to keep
6:14
your bum against the pad holding on
6:16
tight on the handles
6:17
and then squatting down to a point where
6:19
your back is trying to lift off that pad
6:21
and that'll be your bottom position so
6:23
go down down to a comfortable point
6:25
and then back up i find this is a great
6:28
alternative to a barbell squat when
6:30
you're really trying to push the
6:31
intensity of the exercise
6:32
because you can safely go a lot further
6:34
without your
6:35
mechanics crumpling in and then when
6:38
you're finished
6:39
just make sure we hook that back on and
6:41
make sure you've tested that before you
6:42
start adding any weight on just so you
6:43
know how to get it back on
6:45
so guys that is our v-squat simple
6:48
movement
6:48
really effective for really tagging
6:50
every area of the legs and focus on the
6:51
foot position depending where you want
6:53
to work
6:55
hopefully that's really helped you
6:56
that's our five
6:58
squat variations if you want more tips
7:00
and tricks just like this
7:01
make sure you check out the rest of the
7:02
videos on the myprotein youtube channel
7:04
and make sure you like and subscribe
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