Sissy Squat

How to do the Sissy Squat

1. 1Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and your toes pointing slightly outward.
2. 2Hold onto a stable object for balance if needed.
3. 3Slowly lower your body by bending your knees and leaning back, keeping your torso upright.
4. 4Continue lowering until your thighs are parallel to the ground or as far as you can comfortably go.
5. 5Pause for a moment, then push through your heels to return to the starting position.
6. 6Repeat for the desired number of repetitions.

Tip: Screw the feet into the floor and spread it apart to keep the knees out and the arch of the foot from collapsing.

Muscles worked

Common mistakes

• Knees caving inward — push the knees out over the toes on the way up, especially out of the bottom where they most want to collapse.
• Hips shooting up first — if the hips rise faster than the chest on the way up, you turn the squat into a good morning; drive the chest and hips up together.
• Cutting the depth — get the hip crease below the top of the knee on every rep unless mobility genuinely stops you, in which case work on it.
• Losing the brace — take a big breath into the belly before each rep and hold it through the sticking point, then exhale on the way up.

Where it fits in a workout

Squats go first in a lower body session when you are freshest. Follow them with Romanian deadlifts or leg press, or superset lighter sets with pull-ups to use the same rack.

How many sets, how heavy and how hard: see what the ACSM position stands support.

Variations and alternatives

When to talk to someone

• Chest discomfort, feeling faint or lightheaded, or trouble breathing during or after exercise can be signs of a heart attack. In the US, call 911 right away; elsewhere, call your local emergency number.
• Heart, metabolic or kidney disease, or symptoms like these when you are active: talk to your doctor before you start or step up training.
• Pregnant: ask your obstetric care provider which exercise suits you.

More exercises

• All legs exercises
• All quads exercises
• All bodyweight exercises
• Bodyweight quads exercises
• Banded Squat
• Barbell Front Chest Squat
• Barbell Front Squat
• Bench Barbell Front Squat
• Clean Grip Barbell Front Squat
• Barbell Hack Squat

Sources

1. ACSM position stand on exercise quantity and quality (Garber et al., 2011)
2. ACSM preparticipation health screening (Riebe et al., 2015)
3. ACOG Committee Opinion No. 804 on exercise in pregnancy (2020)
4. CDC: About Heart Attack Symptoms, Risk, and Recovery (2024)

Sources checked on October 17, 2026. Full citations are in the exercise library.