Cyclist Squat

• The steep elevation used with the cyclist squat removes ankle mobility as a limiting factor
• Without your ankles restricting your range of motion, you can squat very deeply
• The upright posture and narrow make the cyclist squat more quad-focused

The cyclist squat gets its name from its very narrow stance, with your feet spaced only about as far apart as when riding a bicycle. But the most important feature of the cyclist squat is the steep elevation of your heels. Elevating your heels removes ankle mobility as a limiting factor for achieving full depth. Without limitations at the ankle, you can fully bend at the knee and sink all the way down, making for perhaps the deepest squat you’ve ever performed.

With a typical squat (left), your ankles bend (plantarflex) as your knees shift forward, and how deep you squat is often limited by the amount of bend your ankles allow, especially for taller trainees with long femurs. If you reach the end range of your ankle mobility, it becomes impossible to get any deeper without compromise, so the squat is over.

With a cyclist squat, the heel elevation means your ankles won’t run out of room, even at full depth (right). Your ankles only get about as far as neutral – the same amount of bend as when standing upright (center). This results in greater knee flexion, improved depth, and a more robust training stimulus for your quadriceps.

One result of this newfound depth is that you can’t use as much weight on the bar as in a typical back squat, which is perfectly okay. Powerlifting aside, weight on the bar is always secondary to the training effect that an exercise yields.