Resistance Band Squats: How To, Benefits,…

Squats are a valuable exercise but you likely need some resistance. Find out how to do resistance band squats and whether these are good.

There are many ways to do resistance band squats. One of the top options is looping a band around your feet and upper back and doing the squat.

This one and other resistance band squat variations tend to be good in the sense that they allow you to work certain muscles more.

Many people will need this to see results with their squats so you can definitely say this is a good exercise.

How to do a resistance band squat

There are different resistance bands for squats and ways to place them.

This article will consider a squat with a big loop resistance band anchored safely under your feet and over your upper back as the “standard”.

Take the following steps to do a resistance band squat of this type:

1. Stand up straight with your feet at more or less shoulder width. Loop one end of the resistance band below your feet.
2. Slowly lower your body as far as comfortable by bending your knees.
3. Loop the other end of the resistance band behind your upper back. Keep your spine straight throughout the exercise.
4. Push yourself up by stretching your legs until these are slightly less than stretched.
5. Repeat step two but with a resistance band applying downward pressure.

You can also loop a resistance band around your knees or upper legs to work your outer thigh muscles more. Make sure you push your knees outward enough in these.

Additionally, if you don’t have a loop resistance band, you can still hold the ends of your resistance band to make the squats harder.

One downside of this variation is that your grip may fatigue before your legs had a good workout.

Resistance band squat muscles worked

Similar to the regular version the type of resistance band squat described mainly works your quadriceps (front thighs) and to some extent your glutes (butt), hamstrings (back thighs), erector spinae (lower back), and calves.

The variation where you loop a resistance band around your thighs works your hip abductors aka outer thigh muscles more.

For all these variations you still want to implement the squat reps and sets for your training goals.

As an example to grow your quadricep muscles, you want to do 3 to 6 sets of 6 to 10 resistance band squats with enough resistance to make these ranges hard.

You will likely need a sturdy band since squats are one of the heaviest resistance band exercises.

Benefits of resistance band squats

The positive points of the resistance band version are very similar to the benefits of regular squats but you get these to a larger extent.

At the same time, a few extra benefits of resistance bands are worth mentioning too.

1. Helps you grow and strengthen muscles: Doing resistance band squats in a good routine can benefit your leg muscle size and strength a lot.
2. Budget-friendly way to add a lot of resistance: Resistance bands add a lot of pressure at a low price. This is great for heavy exercises like squats.
3. You can do them almost everywhere: Because bands are so light and compact, it becomes easy to do this weighted squat variation at home or wherever else you are.
4. Can improve performance: Growing and strengthening your leg muscles with resistance band squats can improve your performance in activities that involve fast running.

Other resistance band leg exercises can help with these benefits too but the squat is definitely one of the best options there is.

Resistance band squat alternatives

You may wonder what some of these other (resistance band) leg exercises are.

For reasons like personal preferences or the muscles they focus on, these resistance band squat alternatives could be better choices for you.

• Other weighted squats
• Step-ups
• Bulgarian split squats
• Lunges
• Leg presses

You can also just switch up your leg workouts by sometimes doing resistance band squats and sometimes doing one of these alternatives.

Are resistance band squats a good exercise?

Resistance band squats are a great exercise for growing and strengthening your quadricep (front thigh) muscles in a budget-friendly way at home.

Depending on what you are trying to achieve and your personal preferences you could stick with the standard resistance band squat or also consider one of the alternatives.

At the same time, it is worth mentioning that you can also consider other resistance band quad exercises if you like these more.

Squats are great but enjoying the exercises you do to a larger extent can benefit how consistent you are with your workouts a lot.

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