Quads exercise
Landmine SquatHow to do it, with form in numbers
- Also works
- Abs
- Equipment
- Landmine
- Level
- Beginner
How to do it
How do you do the Landmine Squat?
- Hold the end of the bar at your chest with both hands.
- Stand facing the pivot, feet a little wider than your shoulders.
- Push your hips back and sit down until your thighs are about level.
- Keep the bar on your chest and your elbows down.
- Push through your whole foot to stand up.
Cues
- Sit back into the bar.
- Chest up, bar on your chest.
- Knees follow your toes.
Common mistakes
- Pushing the bar away from your chest.
- Rounding your back at the bottom.
- Letting the knees fall inward.
Form in detail
What does good form look like?
Starting position
Lift the free end and hold it in front of the chest, just under the chin, with both hands cupped round the end of the sleeve, fingers laced, elbows pointing down. Face the pivot with the feet slightly wider than shoulder-width, toes forward or a little out, the bar running away between the feet. Stand tall, leaning very slightly into the bar, shoulders down and back, spine neutral.
The movement
Push the hips back and down while the knees bend forward. Because the bar swings on an arc around the pivot, the free end moves down and slightly back towards the body as you sit, so the lifter sits back into it. The bar end stays on the chest and the elbows stay down and inside the knees. The trunk stays fairly upright. Push through the whole foot to stand, the bar end riding back up its arc.
End position
Bottom: thighs at or near parallel, bar end still at the chest. On a 2.2 m bar that gives angles of asin(1.3/2.2) ≈ 38° and asin(0.9/2.2) ≈ 25°, and the bar end moves from about 1.75 m to about 2.0 m from the pivot: about 25 cm back towards the lifter while it drops about 40 cm.
Tempo
2 s down, 0.3 s pause, 1.2 s up, 0.5 s standing.
Form in numbers
What are the angles and distances?
| Measure | Target | Good range | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stance, heel to heel | 1.1 × shoulder width | 1.0–1.3 × | [1] |
| Toe-out, each foot | 10° | 0–20° | [1] |
| Depth: thighs at the bottom | parallel | within 10° above to 5° below | [1][3] |
| Heel lift | 0 cm | 0 cm | [1] |
The targets our 3D demo was built to, from the references below. Bodies differ, so treat the ranges as a guide for your own build.
For coaches
Use this demo in your clients’ programs
The Landmine Squat is in Trainaq’s exercise library. Add it to a workout, and your client sees this demo in the free Trainaq app above the sets they log.
Sources
