The Best Squat you're Not doing and How to do it with These 5 Steps

Lateral (Cossack) squats are a super fine exercise. Here's how to do them followed by a few simple reasons why you should do them...

Here's how I perform the exercise:

1. Feet spread wide and toes pointed slightly out.

2. Hinge the hips back slightly, creating space to move laterally (side to side).

3. Lean into a squat on one leg while keeping the other foot flat.

4. Feel a good stretch in the quad of the squatting leg and the adductor (inner thigh) of the straight leg.

5. When you get to as deep as you can without compromising form, contract the glute and quad on the squatting leg and push yourself back to the starting position (think of how a speed skater starts a race, or how a base runner in baseball pushes off laterally to sprint to the next base).

Lateral squats are a great exercise for the following reasons:

1. It trains the quads, glutes, and adductors.

2. It allows you to work in a different plane of motion.

3. It builds strength and resilience in lateral movement that carryover to sports and every day life.

I don't use lateral squats every "squat" session. But, lately, I have been working them into every 2nd or 3rd "squat" workout.

Give it a shot.