Squat strength and depth
Getting off low chairs, and back up off the floor, without a hand down.
- Length
- 4 weeks
- Sessions
- 2-3 a week
- Each
- 20 min
- Improves
- Wall Sit, Sit to Rise
The squat is the first pattern most desk-bound adults lose, and the loss hides for years because you can avoid it. It is also what the Wall Sit measures.
Clip coming: goblet squat
The session
Same movements every time. The load changes, not the list.
Deep squat hold
3 × 30-60s
Hold a doorframe if you need to. Using support is not cheating.
Goblet squat or barbell squat
3 × 8-10
The weight at your chest counterbalances you, so your chest stays up without thinking about it.
Wall sit
3 × till your legs shake
This is the screen test. Time it.
Split squat or lunge walk
2 × 8-10 each side
Four weeks
- 01Week 1 — learn the positions. Go lighter than you think.
- 02Week 2 — same weights, add one set to the goblet squat.
- 03Week 3 — add weight where every set finished with two reps left.
- 04Week 4 — retest your wall sit and compare.
Then retest your Wall Sit
Four weeks is long enough for this number to move. Take the screen before you start so you have a baseline worth comparing against.
The reasoning behind this
The squat, and getting off the floor
The pattern behind low sofas, Indian toilets, and picking up a grandchild. How to check your range, what usually limits it, and how to train both ends of it.
What a sit-to-rise score actually predicts
A simple floor test tracked mortality across 2,002 adults. Here is what that finding supports, and the part almost every summary of it gets wrong.