Landmine Squat: How to Do It, Muscles Worked and Benefits

The landmine squat is a squat where you hold one end of a barbell at your chest while the other end sits in a pivot on the floor, and it's one of the friendliest ways to squat with real weight. The bar travels on an arc, so you naturally lean into it a few degrees, which takes pressure off your lower back and lets you sit deep without tipping backwards. It trains your quads and glutes hard, it suits beginners and people coming back from back niggles, and it lets you load up well past the point where a goblet squat gets too awkward to hold. Below: how to do it, what it works, how it stacks up against the goblet and back squat, and how to programme it.

How to do a landmine squat

You need a barbell, a landmine attachment (or a secure corner) and some plates. Load the free end of the bar, then deadlift it up and walk it into position.

1. Pick up the bar. Stand facing the anchor, grip the end of the sleeve with both hands and stand tall. Cup the end of the bar in your palms with your fingers interlaced, right at the top of your sternum.
2. Set your feet. Step back until the bar sits at roughly 45 degrees to the floor and your body leans very slightly towards it. Feet go about shoulder width, toes turned out 15 to 30 degrees.
3. Brace. Breathe into your belly, lock your ribs down and keep your elbows tucked under the bar, pointing at the floor rather than flaring wide.
4. Squat down. Bend your knees and hips together, letting your knees travel forward and out over your toes. The bar will move down and slightly towards you along its arc; let it, and keep it glued to your chest.
5. Hit depth. Aim for your thighs to reach parallel or a little below. Most people find they can squat deeper here than with a bar on their back, because the counterweight at the front keeps them balanced.
6. Drive up. Push the floor away through your whole foot and stand straight back up along the same arc. Squeeze your glutes at the top, breathe out, reset and go again.

Muscles worked

It's a lower-body exercise first, with a decent upper-body and core tax for holding the bar.

• Quadriceps. Your quads straighten your knees on the way up and do most of the work, particularly through the bottom half of the rep.
• Glutes. Your glute max drives your hips forward out of the hole. Sitting a touch lower and pushing the knees out brings them in more.
• Hamstrings and adductors. The hamstrings help extend the hip, and the inner thighs work hard if you take a wider stance.
• Core and upper back. Your abs, obliques and spinal erectors brace against the bar's pull, while your upper back and arms hold it in place against your chest.

How does it compare with the goblet squat? There's actually a direct study on this. Researchers at North Dakota State University had 16 men and 16 women do both squats at 30% of body mass, and found the landmine squat produced less quad (vastus medialis and lateralis) activity and less vertical force, while increasing horizontal force (Collins et al., Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 2021). The authors suggest that makes it useful for balancing hamstring and quad work, with the goblet squat the better pick if you're chasing quads specifically. One caveat: the load was light and fixed, so the study doesn't tell us what happens when you load the landmine squat heavier, which is where it really earns its place.

Landmine squat vs goblet squat vs back squat

Each one moves the load to a different spot, and that changes which muscles do more of the work. A clinical review of squat biomechanics explains why: when the trunk stays more upright, as it does with front-loaded squats, demand shifts towards the knees and quads, while the forward lean of a back squat loads the hips more (Straub and Powers, International Journal of Sports Physical Therapy, 2024).

	Landmine squat	Goblet squat	Back squat
Where the load sits	Front of chest, on an arc	Front of chest, straight down	Across the upper back
Bias	Quads and glutes, more balanced	Quads	Hips and glutes, more forward lean
Load on lower back	Low	Low	Highest
How heavy you can go	Moderate to fairly heavy	Limited by what you can hold	Heaviest
Kit needed	Bar, plates, landmine	One dumbbell or kettlebell	Bar, plates, rack with safeties
Best for	Back-friendly loading, beginners, athletes	Learning to squat, home workouts	Maximum strength

Our take: the landmine squat is the natural next step once a goblet squat stops being heavy enough, especially if you train at home with a bar but don't fancy loading your spine yet. It won't replace the back squat for absolute strength, though, because the bar's arc and your grip cap the load long before your legs give out.

Benefits

It's easy on your spine. There's no bar compressing your upper back, and the slight forward lean lets your legs take the load instead of your lumbar spine. Plenty of people who get a grumbling lower back from back squats can landmine squat pain-free.

You can load it progressively. A goblet squat tops out around 30kg to 40kg for most people simply because holding a heavy dumbbell gets silly. A landmine lets you keep sliding 5kg plates on for months.

It teaches good squat mechanics. The counterbalance and the guided arc make it hard to fall backwards and easy to find depth, so it's a solid teaching tool before moving on to a front squat or back squat.

The setup is quick and safe. No rack, no unracking, no spotter. If a rep goes wrong, you step back and lower the bar to the floor. That's a big deal if you lift alone at home.

It counts towards your strength target. The NHS recommends strengthening activities that work all the major muscle groups on at least two days a week, and a landmine squat covers your legs and hips while giving your core plenty to do as well.

Common mistakes

Standing too close to the anchor. If the bar is near vertical, you'll be squatting almost straight down and lose the benefit of the arc. Step back until the bar is at roughly 45 degrees and you can feel yourself leaning into it.

Letting the bar drift off your chest. Once the end of the bar slides forward, your arms take the load and your upper back rounds. Keep it pinned to your sternum with your elbows under it.

Knees caving in. This usually shows up on the way up when the weight gets heavy. Think about spreading the floor apart with your feet and keep your knees tracking over your second and third toes.

Cutting depth short. The landmine squat is forgiving enough that most people can reach parallel, so don't settle for half reps. If your heels lift before you get there, a small plate under each heel helps while you work on ankle mobility.

Using a dodgy anchor. A bar wedged in a corner can kick out sideways under load. A proper landmine attachment on a rack or a weighted base is safer, and it won't take chunks out of your skirting board.

Variations

The basic squat is just the start. Because the bar is fixed at one end, you can turn it into a few useful single-leg and machine-style movements.

• Landmine split squat. Take a staggered stance, front foot about a stride ahead of the back, and drop your back knee towards the floor. The bar's arc keeps you balanced, so it's far less wobbly than a dumbbell split squat and a great way to train each leg on its own. Progress to a rear-foot-elevated version once it feels easy, much like a Bulgarian split squat.
• Landmine hack squat. Turn around so you face away from the anchor, rest the bar end on one shoulder (pad it with a towel) or hold a handle behind you, and squat with your feet slightly forward. It mimics a hack squat machine and leans heavily on the quads.
• Landmine reverse lunge. Hold the bar at your chest and step back into a lunge, alternating legs. Good for glutes, and it builds the single-leg control that bilateral squats skip.
• Landmine squat to press. Squat down, then as you stand, drive the bar up and away into a landmine press. It's a full-body conditioning move that works nicely at the end of a session.
• Single-arm landmine squat. Hold the bar end in one hand at the shoulder. The off-centre load makes your obliques fight to keep you square, so go lighter than you would two-handed.

Sets, reps and programming

Treat the landmine squat as either your main squat or a secondary leg movement, depending on your goals.

• Strength and muscle (main lift): 4 sets of 6 to 8 reps, resting 90 to 120 seconds. Add 2.5kg to 5kg to the bar once you hit 8 clean reps on every set.
• Hypertrophy or secondary lift: 3 sets of 10 to 12 reps after your main squat or deadlift, resting 60 to 90 seconds.
• Split squats: 3 sets of 8 to 10 reps per leg, starting with your weaker side.
• Conditioning finisher: 3 rounds of 12 squat to presses with 60 seconds' rest.

A simple full-body day might pair landmine squats with a landmine row and landmine press, so you can train your whole body from one bar and one anchor point. Twice a week is plenty for most people, with at least a day between sessions.

Kit you need for landmine squats

You need three things: a barbell, plates and something to anchor it. An Olympic bar with 50mm sleeves is the best choice because the sleeve fits standard landmine attachments; our guide to the best barbells in the UK covers solid options at different budgets.

For the anchor, the neatest setup is a rack that already has a landmine. Several racks in our best power cage roundup come with one included, and if you're tight on space, a squat rack with a landmine add-on does the job. Add a few bumper or iron weight plates in 5kg, 10kg and 15kg sizes and you're set for months of progress.

Recommended reads

• The best power cages in the UK
• The best barbells in the UK
• Goblet squat: how to do it, muscles worked and benefits
• Landmine press: how to do it and muscles worked
• Landmine row: how to do it and muscles worked