What do heel elevated squats do?

They tilt your shins forward from the start, which lets the knees travel further and keeps your torso more upright. The result is a squat where the quads do more and the hips do less, with a few degrees more range at the knee and the ankle.

How high should your heels be?

High enough to feel the shins tilt and no higher, and only under the heels with the forefoot still on the floor. There is no correct number of plates; what matters is that you can stand on it steadily and your heels stay in contact with it for the whole set.

Are heel elevated squats easier on your knees?

No, and this is the most common thing people get wrong about them. Raising the heels increases how far the knee bends and how much work it does per rep. If the knee is what you want to ask less of, keep your heels down and send your hips back instead.

Do heel elevated squats fix ankle mobility?

They work around limited ankle range rather than changing it. You will reach more depth on the day, which is genuinely useful. Whether relying on it helps or hinders your ankle over months is not something the research settles, so treat it as a tool and not as treatment.

Can you do heel elevated squats every session?

Nothing stops you, but there is no reason to. Alternating between flat and elevated gives you a squat that shares work between hip and knee and one that concentrates it at the knee, and the two together cover more than either alone.

What can you put under your heels?

Weight plates, a proper wedge, or shoes with a raised heel. All three do the same job. What matters is that the surface is stable and level, because a heel that slips off mid-rep is a worse problem than the one you were solving.

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Kettlebell · beginner · upper legs

Kettlebell elevated squat

Also called Heel elevated goblet squat, Wedge squat, Plate elevated squat, Cyclist goblet squat.

The short answer

The elevated kettlebell squat puts something under your heels, usually a wedge or a plate, and leaves your forefoot on the floor. Raising the heels lets your knees travel further forward and your torso stay closer to upright, which moves the work toward the quads and away from the hips. Your glutes and hamstrings still assist and your midsection holds the position against the bell at your chest. It is a quad squat by design, not an easier squat.

How to do it

Step oneStand with your heels elevated on plates or a wedge, holding a kettlebell in a goblet grip at your chest.
Step twoStand with feet shoulder-width apart and toes pointed slightly outward.
Step threeKeeping your chest up and elbows pointing down, lower your body by bending your knees.
Step fourDescend until your thighs are at least parallel to the ground.
Step fiveDrive through your heels and midfoot to return to the standing position.

What usually goes wrong

Each starts with what you would notice.

You set up on the plates and the squat feels exactly like it did before.

WhyYour whole foot is on the raised surface. If the forefoot goes up with the heel, nothing is elevated relative to anything and the setup has done nothing.

FixOnly the heels go on the plate or wedge. The balls of your feet and your toes stay on the floor, so the foot sits at a slope. If your feet are entirely on top of a box, step forward.

You still end up folded forward at the bottom, even with the heels up.

WhyYour ankles were not what was stopping you. Raising the heels reduces how much the ankle and the trunk have to give, so if the chest still drops, the limit is somewhere above the ankle or the position is being lost under the weight.

FixTake the bell down a size and squat only to the depth where the chest stays facing forward. Adding more wedge will not fix something the wedge does not touch.

The bell slides down and away from your chest as you descend.

WhyYour elbows have drifted out and the weight is now hanging in front of you rather than sitting against you, which pulls your torso down with it.

FixHold the bell high against your sternum with your elbows pointing at the floor, and squeeze it into your chest as you sit down. An upright torso is the entire reason for this variation, and a drifting bell cancels it.

Your knees are sore in the days after you switch to the elevated version.

WhyThis variation lets the knee bend further and asks more of it per rep than a flat squat does, and most people also go deeper the first time they try it. That is two increases at once at the same joint.

FixSquat to the depth you used flat for the first few sessions and let the depth grow from there. If something hurts and keeps hurting, that is a question for a physiotherapist.

Heels up or flat on the floor

Raising your heels tilts your shins forward before you have even started. From there the knees can travel further, the ankle and knee both move through a few degrees more range, and the hips and torso do correspondingly less. That is the geometry, and it is not in dispute: more knee, less hip, more upright chest. What the measurements disagree about is whether it changes how hard the quads work.

So the two versions are not better and worse, they are aimed at different muscles. A flat squat splits the work more evenly between the hips and the knees. A heel-elevated squat pushes it toward the quads, which is exactly what this variation exists for.

The other thing people use a wedge for is to reach depth they cannot otherwise reach. That works, in the sense that you will get lower today. Whether it changes your ankle range over time is not something the research answers, and anyone who tells you confidently in either direction is going past the evidence. Using it while you also work on the ankle directly is a reasonable position to hold.

The thing people have backward

Heel-elevated squats are widely recommended as the gentler option for people with cranky knees. The measurements are split: some find heel elevation raises quadriceps activity and knee demand, others find no difference in knee moment or muscle activity at all. So this is not the reliable knee-sparing choice it gets sold as, and it is not reliably the knee-heavier one either. What it does change for certain is the range the knee travels through and how upright you can stay.

If your knees are the reason you are looking for a variation, this is not the one. A squat that keeps the shins more upright and sends the hips back asks less of the knee, and a hinge asks less again.

None of which makes this a bad exercise. Loading a knee through range is how a knee gets stronger, and the quads are worth training directly. Just pick it because you want your quads to work, not because you were told it would spare something.

What it is for

The kettlebell elevated squat uses heel elevation and a kettlebell in the goblet position to maximize quadriceps engagement and promote an upright torso. It is effective for building quad strength, improving squat depth, and developing core stability.

Questions people ask

What do heel elevated squats do?: They tilt your shins forward from the start, which lets the knees travel further and keeps your torso more upright. The result is a squat where the quads do more and the hips do less, with a few degrees more range at the knee and the ankle.
How high should your heels be?: High enough to feel the shins tilt and no higher, and only under the heels with the forefoot still on the floor. There is no correct number of plates; what matters is that you can stand on it steadily and your heels stay in contact with it for the whole set.
Are heel elevated squats easier on your knees?: No, and this is the most common thing people get wrong about them. Raising the heels increases how far the knee bends and how much work it does per rep. If the knee is what you want to ask less of, keep your heels down and send your hips back instead.
Do heel elevated squats fix ankle mobility?: They work around limited ankle range rather than changing it. You will reach more depth on the day, which is genuinely useful. Whether relying on it helps or hinders your ankle over months is not something the research settles, so treat it as a tool and not as treatment.
Can you do heel elevated squats every session?: Nothing stops you, but there is no reason to. Alternating between flat and elevated gives you a squat that shares work between hip and knee and one that concentrates it at the knee, and the two together cover more than either alone.
What can you put under your heels?: Weight plates, a proper wedge, or shoes with a raised heel. All three do the same job. What matters is that the surface is stable and level, because a heel that slips off mid-rep is a worse problem than the one you were solving.