Exercise library

How to do the Kneeling Squat

A intermediate compound exercise using barbell, working the glutes.

Primary musclesGlutes
Secondary musclesAbdominals, Hamstrings, Lower back
EquipmentBarbell
LevelIntermediate
TypeCompound
ForcePush

Steps

  1. Set the bar to the proper height in a power rack. Kneel behind the bar; it may be beneficial to put a mat down to pad your knees. Slide under the bar, racking it across the back of your shoulders. Your shoulder blades should be retracted and the bar tight across your back. Unrack the weight.
  2. With your head looking forward, sit back with your butt until you touch your calves.
  3. Reverse the motion, returning the torso to an upright position.

Tracking it in OneRep

Add the kneeling squat to a routine and your previous weight and reps sit beside every set, so the decision to add load is made by what is already on the screen rather than by memory. Exercise history and volume trends are one tap away, and logging works offline for the gyms where signal does not reach.

Because OneRep tracks food on the same timeline, a stall on this lift can be read against what you were actually eating that month — which is the difference between a programming problem and an eating one. More on that in tracking progressive overload without a spreadsheet.

Where the instructions come from

The steps above come from free-exercise-db, a public-domain exercise dataset. They are general guidance, not coaching for your body: if a movement hurts, stop and get someone qualified to look at it.