The Best Alternatives To Doing Standard Barbell Squats

Squats. Yes, squats make you become a beast. They make you body more proportional and will increase you testosterone to build more muscle and feel great after performing them. They are the answer to all workout problems (ok maybe not all of them) but all jokes aside, squats are great. But many people seem to not like performing squats for several different reasons.

Reason number one and the reason why I myself ventured into looking for alternatives is pain. Some may complain pain in their back, shoulder, arm, knee, etc. I also experienced this pain (shoulder + back pain) when I first started performing squats. I, being a beginner, tough that it was my form that was causing this pain. I therefore researched proper form for the squat and copied it to my own form. Initially it all seem that in fact it was my form, but a couple of weeks later I knew that my form had nothing to do with my pain.

If you are reading this because you also experience pain when you do squats, I suggest you first clicking this link to check if you are performing squats right. It may be the reason why you have pain.

But if you don’t think its your form or if you just want to break away from the traditional squat then read on.

Why Do Alternatives To the Squat?

So if it wasn’t my form, what was causing this pain? To be honest I don’t exactly know. It could have been an unnoticed injury in my past that caused the injury again, I could have been overworking mysfl, using too much weight, I don’t know. But this condition wasn’t just my own experience. As I dove more into the subject I realized that practically everyone that do squats experience a little bit of pain. If you perform a set of barbell squats it would be crazy if you DIDN’T experience a little bit of pain. So it really wasn’t just an isolated case, multiple people feel my pain. (No pun intended…ok, maybe a little intention.)

But many people don’t like this pain so they look for alternatives, including myself. Although I generally implete the traditional squat every couple of weeks so get a great workout and I just fight through the little pain that I experience.

The Best Alternatives To Squats

To replicate the barbell squat is somewhat impossible. I haven’t found any exercise that truly brings better results than the barbell squat. But as you may know the squat isn’t the only experience you can do to target your quads, glutes, calves, hamstrings, and lower back. And although most of the exercises target one muscle at a time, which doesn’t give you the best results, they still will help you build your legs and lower body.

So here they are.

Dumbbell Squats – These are basically the same as a reguar barbell squat but you perform them with two dumbbells. These are good for a little while but as you progressin your workout the more weight you wil need to perform these and that means the dumbbells will hit the ground. But these are still a great alternative.

Front Squats – These are the same as the regular squat but you hold the bar in front of you and rearrange your doy a little. But if your shoulders are the reason why you are looking for alternatives, then this might not be the best choice.

Hip Belt Squat – This exercise is not known among many people. These are an excellent alternative because they provide great results. The only problem is that you probably don’t have the belt that allows this exercise. But that shouldn’t stop you to make your own. If you do want to buy the belt you can find it here.

Some others include,

Hack Squat - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHNnV7xSiEI
Snatch Grip Deadlift - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87hjft6OBiU
Smith Machine Squat - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHnX-aimA4E&noredirect=1
Jump Squat - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZZc18uX-q8
Pistal Squat (also known as “One-leged Squat”) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLBAbqEZIeU