Squat to Bench with Dumbbells

🎯 Quadriceps🏋️ DumbbellCompoundCalves (2°)Hamstrings (2°)Glutes (2°)

How to do the squat to bench with dumbbells

  1. This is a great overall exercise for the lower body. There are many variations on the squat, this one uses a bench to remind you how far down to squat.
  2. Place a bench behind you.
  3. Grasp a dumbbell in each hand.
  4. Place your feet slightly wider than shoulder width apart with your knees and toes pointed slightly outward.
  5. Drawing your abs in descend slowly by squatting down and bending at the knees and hips.
  6. Lower yourself as far as you can control without letting your body shift towards your toes (this will cause you to loose balance).
  7. Pause in the downward position and slowly return upright to the starting position.
  8. Practice the squat without any weight to allow yourself to become comfortable with the movements. Do not sit on the bench during the exercise.

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 calves control the ankle and hold the heel position; the hamstrings assist hip extension and slow the knee down; the glutes finish hip extension.

Every exercise for:QuadricepsCalvesHamstringsGlutes

How this movement works

Several joints move together, so effort spreads across a chain rather than concentrating in one place. Coordination is part of the difficulty: the movement is only as good as its weakest link, and improving it often means fixing a position somewhere other than the muscle you meant to train.

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:

Related exercises

Illustration: Everkinetic — CC BY-SA 4.0 — license. Modified versions are shared under the same license. Full attribution →

ⓘ Informational only — not a substitute for professional fitness or medical advice.