maratoolPlie Dumbbell Squat
How to do the plie dumbbell squat
- Hold a dumbbell at the base with both hands and stand straight up. Move your legs so that they are wider than shoulder width apart from each other with your knees slightly bent.
- Your toes should be facing out. Note: Your arms should be stationary while performing the exercise. This is the starting position.
- Slowly bend the knees and lower your legs until your thighs are parallel to the floor. Make sure to inhale as this is the eccentric part of the exercise.
- Press mainly with the heel of the foot to bring the body back to the starting position while exhaling.
- Repeat for the recommended amount of repetitions.
Muscles worked
The prime movers are the quadriceps across the front of the thigh, which straighten the knee and, just as importantly, control it on the way back down.
Because more than one joint is moving, the work does not stay in one place: the abdominals brace the trunk so force can pass between the hips and the shoulders; the calves control the ankle and hold the heel position; the glutes finish hip extension.
The hamstrings take a share of the work as well.
Every exercise for:QuadricepsAbdominalsCalvesGlutesHamstrings
How this movement works
The working muscles shorten as they drive the load away from you, and more than one joint changes angle to do it. Load spreads down a chain instead of sitting on one muscle, which is why a compound push handles more weight than any single-joint alternative — and why joint position, not the muscle, is usually what fails first.
It is filed under strength: produce force against resistance for a countable number of repetitions, and progress the resistance over time.
What you need
Dumbbells let each side work on its own, surfacing a strength difference between limbs that a barbell would quietly cover for, and leaving the wrist free to rotate through the movement.
Every exercise using:Dumbbell
These train the quadriceps too, using equipment this one does not:
- Power Jerkbarbell
- Quadriceps-SMRfoam roll
- Rear Leg Raisesbody only
- Recumbent Bikemachine
- Smith Machine Hack Squatsmith machine + machine
Difficulty
Listed at beginner level: the pattern is simple enough to pick up without coaching, and a position that goes wrong mid-set is obvious enough to correct on the next repetition.
Of the 173 quadriceps exercises in this database, 70 are listed at beginner level.
Photos: free-exercise-db — public domain (Unlicense) Full attribution →
ⓘ Informational only — not a substitute for professional fitness or medical advice.