Kettlebell · intermediate · upper legs
Kettlebell walking lateral squat
Also called Lateral squat, Side squat, Walking Cossack squat, Side lunge walk, Lateral lunge.
Holding a kettlebell at your chest, you step out wide to one side, shift your weight over that foot and sit down into it while the other leg stays straight, then push back to standing and travel. The quad of the bent leg does most of the work with the glute assisting, the outer hip keeps that knee tracking out over the foot, and the inner thigh of the straight leg is stretched by how wide you are standing. It looks like the gentle sideways option and it is not one, which is the useful thing to know before you go deep.
How to do it
- Step oneStand with feet shoulder-width apart holding a kettlebell at your chest in a goblet grip.
- Step twoStep one foot out wide and lower into a lateral squat by shifting your weight over that foot.
- Step threeKeep the other leg straight and both feet flat on the ground.
- Step fourDrive through the squatting leg to return to standing, then bring your feet together.
- Step fiveRepeat the lateral squat to the same side, then switch sides.
What usually goes wrong
Each starts with what you would notice.
The heel of your bent leg comes up, or the foot rolls onto its outside edge.
WhyYou are asking for more depth than your ankle and hip can give from that position, so the foot gives up its contact with the floor to buy you the last few inches.
FixBoth feet stay flat, all the way through. Stop at the depth where they do, and take a slightly wider step next time so there is somewhere to sit.
The straight leg rolls over so you end up on the inside of that foot.
WhyNothing is holding that leg in position, so it follows your body sideways.
FixKeep the toes of the straight leg pointing up and the heel down. That leg is not passive; it holds its own line while the other one works.
You end up bent over your working thigh with the bell hanging in front of you.
WhyThe chest is dropping to get lower rather than the hip folding, and the bell has drifted away from you and is pulling you down with it.
FixHold the bell against your sternum with your elbows down and keep your chest facing forward as you sit into the side. If it will not stay there, the bell is too heavy or the depth is too much for today.
The knee of your bent leg drifts inward as you push back up.
WhyThe outer hip has stopped holding it out over the foot, so it takes the shortest route.
FixPush the knee out toward your little toe on the way down and keep that pressure on as you stand. Watching one set from the front tells you more than any amount of feeling for it.
Lateral squat or forward lunge
They train legs in different directions, which is the obvious difference and the reason to have both. The less obvious difference is where each one puts pressure on the kneecap, and it is not where people assume.
The closest movement anyone has studied is the side lunge, tested against the forward lunge in 16 healthy people, with the load on the kneecap estimated by a biomechanical model rather than measured inside anybody's knee. Shallow, at small amounts of knee bend, the model put more load on the kneecap in the forward lunge. But from a moderate bend onward, all the way down, it put substantially more there in the side lunge.
That range from a moderate bend downward is exactly where a lateral squat lives. So the sideways version, which gets recommended everywhere as the softer, mobility-flavored option, is the one asking more of the kneecap at the depths you actually use. It is a reason to add depth over weeks rather than in one session, not a reason to avoid it. That study was bodyweight side lunges, not a loaded walking version, so treat it as the direction rather than the exact answer.
The direction nothing else trains
Almost everything in a gym happens front to back. You squat down and up, you hinge forward and back, you lunge forward or backward. Very little asks you to load a leg while your body travels sideways, and this is one of the few things that does. That is the honest argument for it and it is a good one.
What it will not do is what the internet mostly claims for it. It is not a mobility exercise, it will not open your hips, and no amount of it will make you flexible on its own. It is a squat with your weight over one foot and your other leg out to the side.
And it does not deserve its reputation as the joint-friendly choice. Sideways work looks careful, which is probably where that came from, but the modelled estimate that exists points the other way at real depth. Go as deep as your feet stay flat and your chest stays up, and let that grow slowly. If something hurts and keeps hurting, that is a question for a physiotherapist.
What it is for
The kettlebell walking lateral squat steps sideways and sits into each step while holding a bell, targeting the quads. Moving sideways under load asks the muscles down the outside of your hip to control the step, which is a direction most training never covers.
Questions people ask
- What muscles does the lateral squat work?
- The quad of the bent leg does most of it with the glute assisting. The outer hip works to keep that knee tracking out over the foot, the hamstrings assist, and the inner thigh of the straight leg is lengthened by the width of the stance.
- How deep should you go in a lateral squat?
- As deep as you can go with both feet flat on the floor and your chest still facing forward. That is a smaller range than most people start with, and it grows over weeks. Depth bought by lifting a heel is not depth you have.
- Are lateral squats easier on your knees?
- Not necessarily, and this is worth knowing because the opposite is widely assumed. When a side lunge was compared with a forward lunge, a biomechanical model estimated substantially more pressure on the kneecap in the sideways version, from a moderate knee bend all the way down. That is a modelled loading figure rather than a warning, but it is a reason to add depth gradually.
- Should the straight leg stay completely straight?
- Close to it, with the heel down and the toes pointing up. It is not doing nothing: holding that leg in position is part of the exercise, and letting it roll over is one of the easiest ways to lose the shape of the movement.
- Why hold the kettlebell at your chest?
- Because it works as a counterweight. Holding a bell in front of you lets you sit further into the side without falling backward, and it keeps your chest up. That only works while the bell stays against you; the moment it drifts forward it starts pulling you down instead.
- Is a lateral squat the same as a Cossack squat?
- Nearly. Both sit into one side with the other leg extended. A Cossack squat usually goes deeper and turns the toes of the straight leg up as part of the position, while a lateral squat tends to keep both feet flatter and stops higher. The demonstration here travels between reps, which most Cossack versions do not.