Goblet squat: how to do it, and how many

How it should look

Weight at the chest, sit down between the hips, drive the floor away.

What it needs

One weight you can hold against your chest. A dumbbell, a kettlebell, a backpack with books in it.

With nothing at all

Sit down to a chair and stand back up without using your hands. Same movement, no weight, and harder than it sounds if you go slowly.

The three faults that actually show up

Not an exhaustive list. These are the ones that turn up, in this order, and each is written as the fix rather than as the mistake.

The heels lift

Push the floor away through the middle of the foot and let the knees travel forward over the toes. They are allowed to. Ankles that will not let them are the thing to work on, not a reason to shorten the squat.

The chest drops at the bottom

The weight is too far from you or too heavy. Hold it higher and tighter, or take less.

The knees fall together on the way up

Spread the floor with your feet. Think about turning your thighs out without moving your feet.

Easier, and harder

The same movement, scaled. Take the easier version until it is easy, then take the harder one. Neither is a different exercise and neither is a lesser one.

Easier

Sit to a box and stand back up, no weight.

Harder

Three seconds down, no pause, stand fast.

Or swap it for

Box squat, to a height you can reach cleanly. Split squat, one leg at a time. Split squat with the front foot on a step, when both feet on the floor stops being hard

What an MDRN plan starts you on

Straight out of the plan engine, not out of an article. This is the band before anything moves it: experience sets it, the goal then tilts it, and the block moves it a rung at a time across twelve weeks, so your own plan may read heavier or longer than this.

New to this

2 sets of 10 when it leads the session, 2 sets of 12 when it does not. Stop with 4 in the tank.

Coming back to it

3 sets of 8 when it leads the session, 2 sets of 10 when it does not. Stop with 3 in the tank.

Training already

3 sets of 8 when it leads the session, 3 sets of 10 when it does not. Leave 2 in reserve.

Years of it

4 sets of 5 when it leads the session, 3 sets of 8 when it does not. Leave 1 to 2 in reserve.

The longer version

• The six movements a week of training actually needsPush, pull, hinge, squat, carry, brace. Every useful strength programme is a rearrangement of these six, and you can do all of them in a front room with no equipment.