Squats are known to be one of the best muscle building exercises to develop muscular and strong legs. This reputation is well deserved, as it is a major compound exercise that targets the quads heavily, fries the glutes and helps to develop a very strong core. The squat involves a lot of muscle mass in one single movement and allows for rapid results measured in both muscle size, strength and athletic performance.
The problem with back squatting is that many people have pre-existing conditions that cause them to experience back pain, knee pain or hip pain while squatting. Obviously, if this is the case, the first thing you should do is to seek help from a medical professional in order to find out what causes the pain and what do to do relieve it.
However, many of the clients I’ve coached have dealt with some sort of pain that doesn’t allow them to perform traditional barbell back squats, but have had crazy results by focusing their attention on performing alternative movements that also allow for easy progressive overload, without causing pain in any way!
The most common reason why people experience pain while back squatting, even with good form is because of the distribution of the weight on the spine. Some people simply can’t handle carrying a barbell on their upper back without suffering from lower back pain, hip pain or knee pain. Does that mean that you cannot build your legs? Absolutely not! As I’ve said, I’ve helped countless of people that were unable to perform traditional barbell squats, but have had absolutely no issues with other squat variations or other lower body exerises.
In this article, I will give you some options to try out as a substitute for traditional barbell back squats that will also allow you to sculpt a pair of muscular, athletic legs that will complement an athletic upper body. These exercises will help a lot of people out because of the different placement and distribution of the weight on the spine, hips and knees, or even because they avoid spinal compression completely.
SQUAT ALTERNATIVE #1 – FRONT SQUATS
While also being a barbell squat, the front squat allows you to carry the weight in front of your body, which allows you to keep your pelvis in a more neutral position and as a result, causes less spinal compression.
Front squats have all the benefits back squats have, but with a lower risk of injury. They will absolutely hammer your quads, stimulate the glutes and will give you a steel core. This athletic movement has a fantastic carry over to any athletic activity and will make you an overall better athlete. A lot of people even report eliminating their back pain because of getting more proficient at front squatting. This exercise will not only make you more muscular and good looking, it will also improve your mobility and posture, which will make you less likely to suffer from aches and pains untrained people tend to experience as they age.
Just like back squats, front squats allow for easy progressive overload and are a fantastic staple compound exercise that can be the foundation for your leg development. Holding the weight in place may be a bit of a challenge at first, but once your wrists are used to carrying the barbell on your shoulders and get the hang of the proper technique, you won’t want to swap out this exercise again, especially when you will see the amazing results it will deliver.
SQUAT ALTERNATIVE #2 – SPLIT SQUATS
Another squat variation is the split squat, also known as the Bulgarian split squat. I’m not going to lie.. this one is brutal. It’s an exercise that isn’t for the faint hearted as they demand a lot of effort. Although this exercise is extremely challenging, the results are undeniable amazing.
Just like all squat variations, the quads get stimulated to the highest degree and the glutes get hit even more than with other squat variations. Because split squats are a single leg exercise, more focus is going to be placed on the vastus medialis, which is the tear drop muscle near your kneecap. This is unique to single leg squatting exercises, since bilateral squatting movements place more focus on the outer quad muscles, the vastus lateralis. Combining both bilateral and unilateral squatting movements will give your legs the most complete level of development and aesthetics.
This exercise can be performed by carrying dumbbells in your hands, held to your side, with a barbell on your back or even in front of you as in a front squat grip.
Due to the fact that you’ll automatically use less weight due to the single leg component of the movement, less spinal compression is going to take place. And since you’ll be pushing more from your glute, less hip and knee pain will also be a fact.
Split squats are an amazing back squat substitute and work amazingly well to consistently make lower body muscle and strength gains. They are well worth of being a staple movement in your exercise arsenal.
SQUAT ALTERNATIVE #3 – SISSY SQUATS
The first time I saw someone performing sissy squats, I truly thought those were for sissies! I thought they looked somewhat ridiculous and were an excuse for people who were to lazy to perform a barbell squat of some sort… until I actually tried them myself. I have to admit that they humbled my attitude, since I struggled to correctly perform 8 reps with my body weight, whereas I thought I’d easily rep out 50 without even breaking a sweat.
Sissy squats are an amazing quad builder and don’t require any spinal loading. This exercise truly allows you to get the maximum effect out of minimal loading when it comes to building the quads without taxing the lower back. It may be a bit uncomfortable in the beginning because it takes a bit of trial and error to get the form right, but it’s worth getting the hang of this movement.
Once you can perform 10 – 15 reps, you can start performing them weighted by holding a small plate of dumbbell while doing the exercise. The extra resistance will allow you to apply progressive overload and allow your muscles to grow bigger.
Definitely don’t knock sissy squats until you give them a try. They are more challenging than you think, even if you’re used to squatting decent weights, this exercise will humble even the biggest guys.
SQUAT ALTERNATIVE #4 – LUNGES
Lunges, walking lunges, reverse lunges, front squat grip lunges, etc. are all fantastic compound exercises that train the same leg musculature as squats train. Because lunges are a single leg exercise, you will automatically use less weight and your lower back won’t be as heavily taxed as with traditional squats.
The quads, glutes and core musculature all get a fantastic workout by performing a lunge variation. By modifying the distance of your step while performing lunges, you can make lunges a more glute and hamstring dominant exercise or a more quad dominant exercise.
In short, lunges are a fantastic foundational exercise for those who can’t squat, allow for easy progressive overload and are a fantastic tool in order to sculpt athletic, strong legs.
SQUAT ALTERNATIVE #5 – PISTOL SQUATS
Pistol squats are a more advanced movement that will already require you to have a decent amount of leg strength. Essentially, the pistol squat is a single leg squatting movement that will give you a fantastic workout with your bodyweight alone, which doesn’t mean that you can’t add weight by carrying a plate or a dumbbell if the bodyweight version becomes too easy.
I love this movement because it stimulates muscle growth in all the right places and also hits the VMO pretty hard, just like with other single leg exercises. You will improve strength, balance and mobility by performing pistol squats, without loading up the spine with too much additional weight.
Not only is it effective to build muscle and improve your athletic feats, it also just looks really cool, so don’t be surprised if people gaze at you for being able to perform this movement.
If performing pistol squats right away is too challenging for you, slowly work your way up to a full pistol squat by performing easier variations and perform sufficient flexibility and mobility work so that you get stronger and have the necessary mobility and flexibility to perform this amazing exercise.
FINAL WORD
While squats remain one of the best exercises you can do for the lower body, they are not something that is carved in stone that one needs to do. If you have any issues as a result of doing squats, it’s not in your best interests to perform them on a regular basis when you have alternatives that will give you as good results.
Building muscle is about allowing muscles to get progressively stronger over time. There are multiple ways to train those muscles and to allow them to get stronger, squats are one of them, but as you can see with the exercises listed above, there are multiple options that may be better suited to your body and current situation and won’t cause any issues.
No squats, no problem. So no more excuses not to train legs while leaving out barbell back squats!
Kevin Mahjoubi