Starting with a bodyweight squat is the simplest way to build lower body strength, and getting the basics right from day one will save you months of correcting bad habits later. The movement is straightforward: stand with feet slightly wider than shoulder-width, bend at the hips and knees, lower yourself until your thighs reach parallel with the ground, then stand back up. But the details between those steps are what separate a productive squat from one that leaves your knees or back aching.
Setting Up Your Stance
Place your feet slightly wider than shoulder-width apart with your toes pointing forward or turned out very slightly. Your weight should be distributed across your entire foot, not shifted to your toes or heels. Before you descend, brace your core by tightening your abdominal muscles as if someone were about to poke you in the stomach. This tension protects your spine throughout the movement.
Keep your chest lifted and your gaze forward, not down at the floor. Looking down encourages your upper back to round, which pulls your whole spine out of alignment. Think about showing the logo on your shirt to someone standing in front of you.
The Descent and Drive Back Up
Initiate the squat by pushing your hips back, as though you’re sitting into a chair that’s slightly too far behind you. Then bend your knees and ankles simultaneously as you lower yourself. Your back should stay in a neutral position the entire time: don’t flatten the natural curve of your lower back, and don’t exaggerate the arch either.
Lower yourself until the tops of your thighs are at least parallel with the ground and your hip joint is level with or slightly below your knee joint. At this depth, your feet should remain entirely flat on the floor. If your heels lift, you likely need to work on ankle mobility (more on that below). To stand back up, drive through your whole foot and squeeze your glutes at the top. The path up should mirror the path down.
One detail that trips up nearly every beginner: keep your knees tracking over your feet throughout the movement. They should point in the same direction as your toes. Don’t let them cave inward or flare excessively outward.
Muscles the Squat Trains
The squat primarily works two muscle groups: your hip extensors (glutes and hamstrings) and your knee extensors (quadriceps on the front of your thigh). Which group works harder depends on your torso angle. The more you lean forward, the more demand shifts to your glutes and back muscles. A more upright torso emphasizes the quads.
Your trunk muscles also play a significant stabilizing role. Your core and the muscles along your spine work hard to keep your torso rigid under load, which is why squats build midsection strength even though they look like a leg exercise. This stabilization demand increases as you eventually add weight.
A Simple Beginner Progression
If you can’t yet perform a clean bodyweight squat to parallel, start with an assisted version. Hold onto a sturdy pole, doorframe, or the uprights of a squat rack and lower yourself into the bottom position. The support lets you practice the movement pattern without worrying about balance. As you get stronger, gradually lighten your grip until you can squat without holding anything.
Once a bodyweight squat feels comfortable for sets of 10 to 15 reps, the goblet squat is the best next step. Hold a dumbbell, kettlebell, or even a heavy book against your chest with both hands and squat to a box or bench. The weight in front of your chest acts as a counterbalance that actually makes it easier to stay upright, while the box gives you a consistent depth target. Lightly graze the box at the bottom rather than sitting down on it. You want to maintain tension in your legs and core the entire time, not relax onto the surface and lose tightness.
From the goblet squat, you can progress to a front squat with a barbell across your shoulders or a back squat with the bar behind your neck. But there’s no rush. Many people spend months on goblet squats and build impressive strength doing so.
Mobility That Makes Squatting Easier
A full-depth squat requires meaningful range of motion at three joints: ankles, knees, and hips. Research measuring joint angles during deep squats found that participants needed roughly 54 degrees of ankle dorsiflexion (the ability to pull your toes toward your shin), about 146 degrees of knee flexion, and over 135 degrees of hip flexion. You don’t need to measure these precisely, but if you feel stuck or restricted at any point in the squat, limited mobility at one of these joints is almost always the cause.
The most common restriction is tight ankles. A quick test: face a wall, place your toes about four inches away, and try to touch your knee to the wall without lifting your heel. If you can’t, ankle mobility is likely limiting your squat. Spending two to three minutes per side doing wall ankle stretches before you squat can make a noticeable difference within a few weeks.
For your hips, standing hip circles are an effective warm-up. Stand on one leg, swing the other in progressively larger circles to the side, and do about 20 in each direction before switching. High knee walks, where you pull each knee toward your chest while stepping forward, also prepare the hip flexors and glutes for the range of motion squatting demands.
Three Mistakes That Cause Pain
Rounding or arching the lower back is the most common error and the one most likely to cause injury. When your back rounds on the way up or down, your core disengages and the load transfers directly to your spinal discs. This raises the risk of disc injury and chronic low back pain. If you notice your back rounding, the fix is usually reducing your depth slightly and actively bracing your core harder before you descend.
Knees caving inward is the second most frequent problem. It’s typically caused by weak glutes or stiff ankles pulling the kneecaps out of alignment. This inward collapse strains the ligaments in your knee and can contribute to pain under the kneecap over time. A useful cue: imagine spreading the floor apart with your feet as you squat. This activates the outer hip muscles that keep your knees tracking properly.
Rising onto your toes or letting your heels lift shifts stress forward onto your knees and compromises your balance. If this happens consistently, it points to limited ankle mobility. Working on the wall ankle stretch described above, or temporarily placing thin weight plates under your heels, can help while you build the flexibility to squat flat-footed.
What to Put on Your Feet
Footwear matters more than most beginners realize. Running shoes with thick, cushioned soles are a poor choice for squatting. The spongy material compresses unpredictably under load, reducing your ability to drive through the floor and making it harder to stabilize. Think of it like trying to balance on a mattress.
Flat-soled shoes with minimal cushioning (like canvas sneakers) are a solid starting option. They let your foot grip the ground and stabilize naturally. If you find that staying upright is difficult because of tight ankles, dedicated weightlifting shoes with a raised heel (typically half an inch to one inch) can help. The heel elevation allows your torso to stay more vertical and your knees to bend further, making it easier to hit depth. Experienced lifters tend to benefit more from this effect than beginners, but the shoes can be worthwhile even early on if ankle mobility is a real limitation.
Whatever shoe you choose, make sure the toe box is wide enough to let your toes spread. A narrow shoe boxes in your forefoot, reduces your base of support, and can contribute to the very knee-caving problem you’re trying to avoid.
Modifying for Existing Pain
If you have low back pain, the goal is to minimize compressive forces on the spine while still strengthening the hips. A wider stance lets you stay more upright and reduces forward lean, which decreases strain on the lower back muscles. Limit depth to where you can maintain a neutral spine, even if that’s above parallel initially.
For hip impingement, where you feel a pinch in the front of the hip at the bottom of the squat, keep depth conservative. Deep squats increase the demands for hip flexion and internal rotation, both of which aggravate impingement. Turning your toes out slightly and using a wider stance promotes more external rotation at the hip and can reduce pinching. Even if a deep squat doesn’t hurt, the joint stress at full depth is significant enough that limiting range of motion is the safer long-term strategy.
Knee pain during squats often improves by addressing the form errors above, particularly keeping knees aligned over toes and avoiding excessive forward knee travel. If pain persists despite good form, box squats to a height that stays within a pain-free range let you continue building strength while respecting your current limits.