How to Do a Cossack Squat for Improved Strength and Mobility

10.10.2024 21:40

If you often dedicate gym time to leg workouts, you likely consider squats the gold standard for building size and strength. The back squat is a tried-and-true strength-training exercise for functional health and athleticism. But its many variations provide even greater benefits—especially unilateral (one-sided) variations. Bulgarian split squats help correct imbalances and Cossack squats boost mobility. In fact, we think the Cossack squat is one of the most underutilized exercises.

This squat variation is perfect if you don't have access to a gym and want to do an at-home workout or hotel workout. Sure, you could throw an old squat rack in the garage to do heavy back squats, but without the correct safety equipment, your risk of injury skyrockets. Not to mention, pre-existing injuries, limitations, and biomechanics can make conventional back squatting a nightmare.

The Cossack squat exceeds at simultaneously building mobility, flexibility, and strength in your legs. Here's how to embrace the world of unilateral training.

What Is a Cossack Squat?

At its core, a Cossack squat simply shifts the weight of the body nearly entirely to one leg at a time, bringing a lateral component to the squat. Given its unilateral nature, most people think of the Cossack squat as an alternative to the pistol squat. But because both legs stay on the ground throughout the entirety of the movement, it’s not quite as demanding as a true pistol squat, which offers zero assistance from the other leg. While they're different movements, they have a few things in common: Both exercises play a big demand on mobility, control, and joint stability.

Directions

Start with 3 to 4 sets of 6 to 8 reps per leg. As you learn the movement, remember to move slowly, using just body weight to start. Quality repetitions are king here, so stay focused on the technique cues outlined below.

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How to Do a Cossack Squat

Assume a very wide stance—even wider than the setup for a sumo deadlift, to start.
Turn your left foot out so the back of the heel is on the floor and the toes are pointed up. Shift your weight toward your right side.
Squat on your right leg, keeping the right foot glued to the floor.
Keep your back flat (never let it curve at the bottom), maintain a lower center of mass, and make the length of your hamstrings cover your calf.
The other leg will stretch to a fully straight position.
Drive through your planted foot to stand.
Complete all reps on one leg before switching to the other side.

Pro Tip

If you're just starting out with this movement try doing it with your bodyweight first. After two weeks, hold a medicine ball or kettlebells close to your chest.

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How to Do a Typewriter Cossack Squat

Assume a very wide stance—even wider than the setup for a sumo deadlift, to start.
Turn your left foot out so the back of the heel is on the floor and the toes are pointed up. Shift your weight toward your right side.
Squat on your right leg, keeping the right foot glued to the floor.
Keep your back flat (never let it curve at the bottom), maintain a lower center of mass, and make the length of your hamstrings cover your calf.
The other leg will stretch to a fully straight position.
Drive through your planted foot to stand.
Instead of doing all reps on one leg, move from one leg to the next in a fluid motion.

Pro Tip

This is referred to as the “typewriter” method, and it can be a good teaching tool to understand the flow and groove of the movement and to make the legs express their mobility with minimal adjustments.

What Muscles Do Cossack Squats Work?

Think you can only build strength in your lower body with a barbell back squat? Think again. The Cossack squat works tons of muscles in your lower body and improves your mobility too. While it might not have the same strength benefits as a barbell back or front squat, it can increase the strength in the connective tissue between your hip, knee, and ankle joints, which can keep your lower body healthier and reduce the risk of injury.

Quads

Given the nature of the movement pattern, this exercise places a good amount of focus on the quads (trust us, you'll feel the burn almost immediately). Even if you're just doing Cossack squats temporarily, strengthening your quads can help with knee pain, hip flexion, knee stability, and an array of other issues that may be keeping you from a back squat. But it doesn't stop there.

Adductors

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Adductors

Given you're squatting down with one leg out at a time this movement also opens the door for lots of activation from the adductors (inner thighs), which are responsible for stabilizing the pelvis and trunk, flexing the thigh, and beyond.

Glutes

Given the Cossack squat is a unilateral movement, it puts a lot of emphasis on the glutes, specifically the gluteus medius. Because the gluteus medius muscle is connected to the hip abductors, it can help stabilize the pelvis and move the legs away from the body's center.

Core

Because you have to keep your upper body in an upright position as you move from side to side, your core muscles have some work to do, too. When braced correctly, your core stabilizes your body as you move, which is especially helpful during Cossack squats.

Who Should Do the Cossack Squat?

The good thing about the Cossack squat is that just about anyone who can squat down can perform the movement. While it might be difficult for some athletes to get down into the starting position, the fact they're most often done with just your body weight makes them easier to manage than a barbell squat.

Strength athletes like powerlifters can benefit from Cossack squats as they not only improve your range of motion, but strengthen the adductors, which can up your squat and deadlifts 1-rep max. Strengthening these muscles isn't just good for strength athletes either. Research published in Nature suggests that hip adductor strength plays a major role in both balance and ankle mobility, two things runners benefit from each time they hit the pavement.

Not to mention, anyone who walks and moves on a regular basis (regardless of whether they go to the gym or head out for a 5 a.m. run) can benefit from improved hip and ankle mobility, increased lower-body strength, and enhanced balance and coordination. So whether you're a strength athlete, a marathon runner, or just someone who likes to take walks with your dog without pain, Cossack squats can be a great addition to your routine.

Benefits of Cossack Squats

Overall, the Cossack is a more athletic unilateral variation that promotes the body moving through space with load in a totally different vector. That can be a welcome departure from classic sagittal plane movement patterns such as the front squat, which can lend itself to more injury resilience and healthier joints. And don’t think you’re stuck doing Cossack squats to full depth as an all-or-nothing directive. If you can’t yet reach the range of motion or skill shown above, set up a low box or target to squat to in order to achieve perfection through a shallower range. No shame in making regressions!

Improved Mobility

If you've been doing heavy squats for years or tend to sit for long periods of time throughout the day, there's a good chance you're range of motion is fairly limited, especially when it comes to your hips. Much like other squat variations, the Cossack squat develops hip, knee, and ankle mobility, reducing injury and improving range of motion in other movements.

Injury-Friendly

Whether you had a back injury years ago or struggle with chronic hip pain, there are tons of reasons why people can't do traditional back squats. But that doesn't mean you have to lose out on strength gains. Because they don't require you to load anything on your back they can be more accommodating for lifters who may not have the strength, proportions, or mobility to perform great full-range squats.

Increased Strength

When you think of bodyweight movements, there's a good chance you picture a bunch of Instagram fitness influencers who try to feed the general public a bunch of BS about gaining strength. While it's safe to say nothing adds muscle quite like heavy lifting, there's a time and a place for progressive bodyweight movements like Cossack squats. Because the Cossack squat primarily targets muscles like the adductors, hamstrings, and quads, it promotes balanced development that can help with anything from everyday movements like walking to hitting your next big squat. Plus, once you get the movement down pat you can add weight with dumbbells or kettlebells to continue to progress.

Cossack Squats vs. Lateral Lunges

While they might be similar movements that target multiple lower-body muscles, there are a few distinctions to be made between Cossack squats and lateral lunges.

Lateral Lunge

The main difference is that the lateral lunge shifts from being what’s referred to as a “closed chain” to an “open chain.” Simply put, since a lunge pattern asks for one foot to leave the ground, plant, then assume the bottom position, it can be a little harder on the joints as far as stability, impact, and deceleration are concerned.

Lateral Lunge Benefits

Similar to squats, lunges are compound movements that can help you gain strength in your lower body. While many lifters turn to forward and reverse lunges as a workout finisher guaranteed to grow the muscles in their hamstrings, quads, and glutes, lateral lunges have a few unique benefits of their own. Given the lateral (side-to-side) motion, lateral lunges engage the hip abductors (outer thighs), a part of the leg that's often overlooked in training. Because many hip and knee problems occur due to weak adductors and abductores, strengthening these muscles is key in injury prevention.

Cossack Squat

A lifter with cranky knees may find the lateral lunge a bit less forgiving on their joints in comparison to the Cossack squat, which keeps both feet planted in place the entire time. This makes the Cossack squat easier to control with pinpoint accuracy. The straight-legged stretch the Cossack squat achieves under load is a bit more aggressive than the classic lateral lunge, where the non-lunging leg tends to keep a slightly bent knee. This means less activation for the adductors group and a lesser stretch for the hamstrings.