How to Do a Bulgarian Split Squat for Boosted Single-Leg Strength

The Best QL Stretches and Exercises stride. That means the muscles that help you balance—from your core, including your glutes, all the way down to the smaller muscles around the ankle—work in overdrive to keep you steady and then allow for a forceful push-off as you step forward.

published in the single-leg exercises in your workouts. One of the best to add to your program: the Bulgarian split squat. Also known as the rear-elevated split squat, this exercise targets your entire lower body—one side at a time—to build strength, stability, and power.

According to research published in the published in the that compares the two exercises, Other Hearst Subscriptions squat in terms of the hip extension. This means the Bulgarian split squat also works the glutes, improving the power phase of your gait, and adding efficiency and force to your steps, which can help improve your runs.

Here is everything to know about the Bulgarian split squat, including how to perform it properly for maximum benefits, the actual advantages you’ll gain from the move, and variations to add to your workouts, A 30-Day Squat Challenge for Runners Danielle Hirt, a.k.a Coach D, NASM-certified personal trainer and RRCA-certified run coach based in Arlington, Virginia.

Equipment Needed

To perform this exercise, you need a chair, box, bench, couch, or other stable surface. The elevated surface should come up to about knee height.

Set-Up

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• Stand up, keeping left leg in place and planting foot.
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• Place hands on hips, across chest, or clasped in front of chest (whatever is most comfortable), making sure to keep shoulders down and back.
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Execution

1. Lean slightly forward at hips and with left front foot planted firmly on ground, take an inhale and bend left leg to lower toward floor. Lower until back knee hovers just above the floor or as close to it as you can go while keeping left knee tracking over toes.
2. This means the Bulgarian split squat also works the glutes, improving the power phase of your.
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The Bulgarian split squat strengthens the quads (front of the upper thighs), hamstrings (back of the upper thighs), inner thighs, glutes, calves, and core muscles. In other words, you target a ton of muscles in just one move. It also promotes mobility The Best QL Stretches and Exercises.

Hirt also calls out this single-leg exercise for hitting the glute medius, which is an especially important muscle for runners as it helps with keeping hips stable on the run. By promoting pelvic stability with glute medius strength, you sidestep injury and run with more efficiency, thanks to better body alignment not only at the hips, but also the knees.

“The Bulgarian split squat challenges not just a runner’s strength but also their balance,” Hirt adds. “How to Do a Bulgarian Split Squat for Boosted Single-Leg Strength faster running and adding efficiency and force to your steps, which can help improve your runs speed work or sprinting.”

1. Poor Set-Up

Without lining up the legs properly, you “can limit your range of motion and overall effectiveness of the exercise,” Hirt says. To make it easier to find your footing without having to jump back and forth or side to side, use Hirt’s set-up as described above: First sit on the chair, then extend standing leg straight out, heel on ground. Stand up, keeping that foot planted, and place back foot on the chair.

Finding the proper foot placement is also crucial because it can save you from knee pain. If you’re too close to the chair, box, or bench, it can cause you to put more pressure into the knee as you move through exercise. With a better set-up, you can keep that front knee over the toes and recruit the Hirt also calls out this single-leg exercise for hitting the.

2. Not Going Deep Enough Into the Squat

You want to take advantage of your full range of motion in this exercise, so don’t be afraid to go low. Hirt recommends placing a pad or yoga block under the back knee as a target for where your back knee should very lightly tap on every rep. (However, don’t drop all the way down—maintain control as you go!)

Keep in desert, you also don’t want to lose your form to get lower in the exercise. Make sure to keep the front foot planted—heel always stays down and firmly pressed into floor—and aim to keep the front knee right over the toes, rather than pushing it forward or allowing it to fall inward or outward. All of this can place extra stress on the knee.

3. Leaning Back

While leaning farther forward from the hips in the Bulgarian split squat will target the glutes more than an upright position that hits the quads, you want to avoid any backward lean of the torso, no matter what muscle group you’re aiming to pinpoint. This can place extra pressure on the lower back, sometimes leading to discomfort or pain. Think about creating a straight, slightly diagonal line from the top of head to your elevated knee and engage the core throughout the entire exercise.

➥ Split Squat

Before you jump into the rear-foot elevated variation, start with a regular bodyweight split squat. To do it, stagger legs, left foot forward with full foot planted, right foot back with heel lifted. Feet should be about hip-width apart. Engage core and maintain tall posture, with a slight forward lean at hips. Bend knees to lower down, both knees bending about 90 degrees, front knee tracking over toes and back knee hovering just above the floor. Drive through feet to stand back up. Repeat.

➥ Weighted Bulgarian Split Squat

Like the regular Bulgarian split squat, you can take it up a level by adding weight. To do it, perform the traditional move as described above, but hold a kettlebell or dumbbell at your chest, goblet style. Take it up another level by holding two weights, one in each hand, down by sides and framing front foot as you lower down and press back up.

Hirt suggests doing this move at least once a week to start, working up to two times per week. Vary how you work the legs by changing that torso angle, Hirt says, throughout the week. You can do this as part of a lower-body workout or a total-body routine.

Start with six to eight bodyweight reps and two to three sets when just first adding the move to your schedule, working up to 12 to 15 reps if you want to target muscular endurance. When adding weight, go for six to 10 reps, and three to four sets, gradually increasing weight as the final reps start to feel easy.

Mallory Creveling

Deputy Editor, Health & Fitness

Mallory Creveling, an ACE-certified personal trainer and RRCA-certified run coach, joined the Runner's World and Bicycling team in August 2021. She has more than a decade of experience covering fitness, health, and nutrition. As a freelance writer, her work appeared in Women's Health, Self, Men's Journal, Reader's Digest, and more. She has also held staff editorial positions at Family Circle and Shape magazines, as well as DailyBurn.com. A former New Yorker/Brooklynite, she's now based in Easton, PA.