The landmine squat press is one of the many ways you can use a landmine setup. Find out how to do it and whether it is good.
As the name implies, this exercise is a combination of a landmine squat and a landmine press. Basically, the landmine version of a squat press.
Landmine squat presses can be great for training muscle power in your shoulders, triceps, and legs because you have to worry less about balance compared to free-weight versions.
On the other hand, this exercise is not great for growing and improving strength in the same muscles. Especially the legs.
This is because using enough weight in landmine squat presses to challenge these leg muscles enough is the suboptimal type of hard to do.
Additionally, due to the squat movements involved, you are spending less time actually working the arm muscles involved.
How to do a landmine squat press
You need a good landmine setup and enough weight plates to do this movement.
Once you have the equipment requirements, take the following steps to do a landmine squat press:
- Anchor the barbell and put the desired amount of weight on the free sleeve.
- Stand right in front of the barbell with your face toward the landmine anchor. Squat down so you can put your two hands on the free barbell sleeve and keep your spine straight.
- Stretch your legs and tilt your upper body back explosively so that you can move the landmine to chest height. Keep your hands slightly higher than chest height for now.
- Slowly lower your body as far as comfortable by folding your knees. Keep your upper body relatively upright.
- Push your body up again by stretching your legs. Depending on your training goals, you can do this somewhat faster.
- Push the barbell up and forward with your arms until these are slightly less than stretched.
- Lower the barbell back to chest height.
- Complete your set and lower the landmine.
You can also do a landmine squat press with one arm but this will allow you to use less weight.
In turn, it is even less likely that you are able to work your leg muscles enough to get results.
Additionally, you can do this exercise in more of a push press way where you use the momentum of your legs to push up the barbell with your arms.
This will focus more on explosiveness and allow you to use more weight which is helpful for the squat movement.
The alternative of doing a strict shoulder press after a landmine squat is typically not great.
Because you are able to use a relatively low amount of weight, the squat part does not have too much use in this variation.
Landmine squat press muscles worked
Landmine squat presses mainly work your deltoids (shoulder), trapezius (upper shoulder), triceps (back upper arms), pectoral muscles (chest), quadriceps, glutes, hamstrings, calves, and lower back muscles.
Due to their relative strengths but similar load, your deltoids, trapezius, and triceps will have the hardest time.
You can influence your training results by working your muscles in different ways.
By doing fast landmine squat presses and using a somewhat lighter load (about 40% to 70% of 1RM) you can train muscle power.
To really grow your deltoids, trapezius, and triceps, you would aim for a weight where you can complete 6 to 25 landmine squat presses instead.
One potential downside of this movement is that it is not the greatest landmine leg exercise.
Getting enough weight to work your leg muscles to chest height and keeping it there without fatiguing other muscles is hard to do.
If you want to grow and strengthen your legs with a landmine you preferably want to stick to strict landmine presses and squats with a landmine squat attachment.
Landmine squat press benefits
Even if they are not the best leg exercise, landmine squat presses can still offer a few nice benefits. Some of these are:
- Stronger muscles: Doing landmine squat presses in a smart workout program can still help you get stronger muscles.
- Keeps things interesting: Using different equipment and doing different movements can make your exercise program more fun. In turn, this could improve consistency.
- Easier than other squat presses: Squat presses with other equipment require more balance and coordination. The landmine version can be easier to learn and easier to do with heavy weights.
- Good for muscle power: The easier balance requirements can make landmine squat presses more convenient to focus on training muscle power with fast movements.
On top of these things, you also get some of the other typical landmine squat benefits.
Landmine squat presses are not the only exercise that offers these benefits but if they align with your preferences and training goals they can be a good option.
Landmine squat press alternatives
After giving landmine squat presses a try you may conclude they are not for you.
If you are still interested in similar benefits, you can also consider some of these landmine squat press alternatives:
- Other weighted squats including the landmine version
- Other shoulder presses including the landmine version
- Front raises
- Lateral raises
- Lunges
- Step-ups
- Bulgarian split squats
What landmine squat press alternatives are the right choices for you depends on what muscles you want to work and what equipment you have.
Are landmine squat presses a good exercise?
Landmine squat presses can be a good exercise to train muscle power in your shoulder, trapezius, tricep, and leg muscles.
To actually grow these muscles and improve muscle strength in them, landmine squat presses are suboptimal.
In the case of the leg muscles, this is because it is too hard to hold enough weight at chest height.
Additionally, if you want to grow and strengthen the arm muscles involved you likely want to stick to regular landmine presses.
So for specific goals, landmine squat presses can be a good choice.
At the same time, many people will want to choose one of the alternatives instead.
