What muscles does a split squat work?

The quads of the front leg do most of the work, with the glutes extending the hip and the hamstrings assisting. The back leg mostly stabilizes, and your midsection holds you upright.

Is a split squat the same as a static lunge?

Yes. The two names describe the same thing: a lunge position held rather than stepped into. We call it a split squat because it is not really a lunge once the step is gone.

How far apart should my feet be?

Far enough that your back knee reaches the floor with your front heel flat. Beyond that it is a dial: a longer stance sends more work to the hip and glutes, a shorter one to the quads.

Why does my front heel lift?

Usually the stance is too short, so the descent has to come through the knee traveling forward and your ankle runs out of range. Lengthen the stance before assuming anything about your ankles.

Should my back knee touch the floor?

It should get close, hovering just above it, which tells you the stance was long enough and the descent deep enough. Banging it into the ground on every rep is a different matter and easily avoided by slowing down.

How do I make bodyweight split squats harder?

Hold dumbbells at your sides or a weight at your chest, or raise the back foot and run the Bulgarian split squat instead. Adding load leaves the movement untouched, which is more useful than adding reps to something that has stopped being difficult.

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Bodyweight · beginner · upper legs

Split squat

Also called Static lunge, Stationary lunge, Split stance squat, Bodyweight split squat.

The short answer

A split squat sets one foot a stride in front of the other and lowers you straight down between them until the back knee is close to the floor. The quads of the front leg do the work with the glutes extending the hip alongside them. The stance is set once and held for every rep, which is the whole difference between this and a lunge: nothing has to be caught, so the leg is what limits the set rather than your ability to land on it.

How to do it

Step oneSet one foot a stride in front of the other, rear heel off the floor, with your hands on your hips or hanging by your sides.
Step twoKeeping the stance where it is, lower your back knee toward the floor by bending both legs.
Step threeDescend until your front thigh is approximately parallel to the floor and your back knee hovers just above the ground.
Step fourDrive through your front heel to push back to the starting position.
Step fiveComplete your reps on that leg, then swap the stance and repeat on the other.

What usually goes wrong

You push back up off the ball of your back foot.

WhyThe back leg has taken over the return. It is the easier way to stand up and it means the front leg, the one you set the whole thing up to train, only did the lowering.

FixPress through the heel of the front foot and think about pushing the floor backward with it. Your back foot should feel like a kickstand you barely notice. If it will not stop helping, shorten the set.

Your front heel lifts and the knee travels a long way forward.

WhyThe stance is too short. With your feet close together there is nowhere for the descent to go except through the front knee, and your ankle runs out of range before your back knee gets near the floor.

FixSet up longer. Your front shin should be somewhere near vertical at the bottom with the heel flat. There is no correct distance, and the right one is the one where the back knee reaches the floor and the front heel stays down.

The stance is shorter by the end of the set than it was at the start.

WhyHolding one position for every rep sounds easier than stepping into it and it costs something a lunge does not: nothing resets the stance between reps, so a foot that creeps inward stays crept. It usually goes unnoticed because each rep only moves it slightly.

FixPick a landmark on the floor for the front toe before the first rep and check it every few reps. If the stance is collapsing rather than drifting, the set is over.

Your chest folds forward over your front thigh.

WhyThe torso has tipped to help the hip do more, which usually starts happening in the last few reps of a set and then becomes the way you do them.

FixStay tall through the chest and let the descent happen at the knees and hips instead. If you cannot hold it for the whole set, do fewer reps at a time and more sets.

Split squat or lunge

They train much the same muscles, so the useful difference is not a muscle list.

A lunge asks you to arrive somewhere. You step out, your bodyweight is already traveling toward the floor, and the front leg has to stop it before it can send it back. A split squat removes that entirely: the foot is already where it is going to be, and the only job left is lowering and standing.

That makes the split squat the version where the leg is the limit. When a lunge feels disproportionately hard, it is often the catching rather than the strength, and this is the movement that lets you find out.

It is also the easier one to load. A stance you are not re-establishing every rep will take a dumbbell in each hand without the balance becoming the problem first.

How long should the stance be

Stance length is the setting on this exercise, and almost nobody treats it as one.

A long stance opens your front hip further and leaves the front shin closer to upright, so more of the work goes to the hip and glutes. A short stance forces more bend at the knee, so more of it goes to the quads.

Neither is correct. What is worth avoiding is the stance that is too short to reach depth at all, since that is the version where the heel lifts and the range collapses.

Pick a length deliberately depending on what you want tired at the end, then keep it the same across the set. Drifting from long to short mid-set means the second half trained something the first half did not.

Where this sits between a squat and a Bulgarian

The split squat is usually skipped, which is a shame, because it is the only single-leg movement here where nothing but the leg is being tested.

A two-legged squat lets the stronger side quietly take more, and you cannot tell from the outside. A lunge loads one leg properly and adds a landing to control. The split squat sits between them: one leg at a time, and nothing else going on.

It is also the step before the Bulgarian split squat, which is the same movement with the back foot raised. Putting the rear foot on a bench takes more of the load off it and asks more of the front hip, so if a Bulgarian feels like a balance exercise rather than a leg exercise, this is what to run until it does not.

The limit is worth being straight about. With no weight, the load is fixed at your bodyweight and the exercise becomes an endurance test after a few weeks, which is the same ceiling every unloaded bodyweight movement has. Holding dumbbells at your sides is the usual answer and it does not change the movement at all.

What it is for

The split squat is a bodyweight single-leg exercise targeting the quadriceps, with the glutes and hamstrings assisting. You set one foot in front of the other and lower straight down between them, so the front leg takes most of the work without the step a lunge asks you to catch.

Questions people ask

What muscles does a split squat work?: The quads of the front leg do most of the work, with the glutes extending the hip and the hamstrings assisting. The back leg mostly stabilizes, and your midsection holds you upright.
Split squat or lunge?: They train much the same muscles. A lunge adds a step you have to catch; a split squat holds the stance so the leg is the only thing being tested. Pick the split squat when you want the leg to be the limit, and when you want to load it.
Is a split squat the same as a static lunge?: Yes. The two names describe the same thing: a lunge position held rather than stepped into. We call it a split squat because it is not really a lunge once the step is gone.
How far apart should my feet be?: Far enough that your back knee reaches the floor with your front heel flat. Beyond that it is a dial: a longer stance sends more work to the hip and glutes, a shorter one to the quads.
Why does my front heel lift?: Usually the stance is too short, so the descent has to come through the knee traveling forward and your ankle runs out of range. Lengthen the stance before assuming anything about your ankles.
Should my back knee touch the floor?: It should get close, hovering just above it, which tells you the stance was long enough and the descent deep enough. Banging it into the ground on every rep is a different matter and easily avoided by slowing down.
How do I make bodyweight split squats harder?: Hold dumbbells at your sides or a weight at your chest, or raise the back foot and run the Bulgarian split squat instead. Adding load leaves the movement untouched, which is more useful than adding reps to something that has stopped being difficult.