The Ultimate Guide to Elevated Goblet Squats at Home

If you have the desire to develop the lower part of your body in an impressive manner, there is hardly anything as effective as squats. In fact, squats are known to be the king of exercises. But if you only keep doing squats in order to build your body, they might not remain much effective in the longer run. That’s why you need to go for some other special exercises that will work as great supplements to squats, and an elevated goblet squat can be a really effective one in this regard. 

Elevated goblet squat will help you progress towards your bodybuilding and strength-building goals. It will particularly help you with leg-building. This quid-dominant move, also known as cyclist squats, will work on your thighs excessively.

In this article, we will talk about the process of doing elevated goblet squats, what muscles are worked on with this exercise, and finally, the benefits of this exercise. 

Read on to know more about this exercise.

Process of Doing Elevated Goblet Squats

If you want to go through elevated goblet squats in an effective manner and at the same time, you want to remain safe and free from the risk of injuries, then you will need to follow the guidelines mentioned below-

• At first, you will need to place two bumper weight plates about hip-width apart on the floor. You can also try using a length of wooden plank for this. Then try standing while keeping your heels raised and keeping the balls of your feet on the floor at the same time. 
• After that, hold a dumbbell or kettlebell under your chin and just before your chest. Then you can brace your core by pulling your shoulders down and back and make sure to keep looking straight ahead while doing this.
• Also, bend your knees, keep your torso upright, and then squat as deeply as possible. Don’t round the lower back while doing so.
• You got to stand up after stopping just short of locking the knees to keep the tension on the muscles.
• After standing up, start descending again and repeat the whole procedure as often as required.

Muscles That Get Worked During Elevated Goblets Squats

Since the elevated goblet squat is a compound exercise, it includes multiple joints and multiple muscles working together. The muscles that get trained in this exercise are-

Hamstrings

Hamstrings help extend your hips and flex your knees. Doing goblet squats while keeping your heels elevated will greatly help work on your hamstrings. 

Quadriceps

The elevated goblet squat is a quad-dominant exercise in the first place. As a result, this exercise helps work on your quadriceps or quads the most, which are four muscles situated on your thigh’s front. Of the four muscles on your thigh’s front, the vastus medialis is the most active one. It’s also known as the teardrop quad. These muscles help extend the joints of your knees.

Gluteus Maximus

Gluteus Maximus is also known as the glutes, and these muscles help work with your hamstrings so that your hips can be extended. This muscle doesn’t get much action while going through this exercise, but it’s still beneficial for this region.

Core

In order to stabilize the lumbar spine while conducting elevated goblet squats, you will need to brace your core or the midsection of your body. Your core muscles work together to create intra-abdominal pressure, which supports your spine from within. 

Adductors and abductors

These muscles are respectively located on the inside and outside of your thighs. They help stabilize your hips while you are conducting the elevated goblet squat. They help prevent your knees from dropping out of proper alignment.

Elevated Goblet Squat vs Goblet Squat

The elevated goblet squat is a variation of the goblet squat that involves placing one foot on an elevated surface, such as a box or step. This variation increases the range of motion of the squat and places greater emphasis on the quads and glutes.

The goblet squat is a basic squat exercise that can be performed with a dumbbell, kettlebell, or other types of weight. The weight is held at chest level with both hands in order to stabilize it. This exercise primarily works the quadriceps, hamstrings, and glutes.

Elevated Goblet Squat Benefits

Here are some of the benefits of elevated goblet squats-

Quad-Centric

During elevated goblet squats, your quads will remain highly active, way more than your hamstrings. You won’t be isolating your quads here, unlike leg extensions. They will remain the main event of this exercise. So, this exercise is for you if you need to work on your quads more than your legs or hamstrings. 

Less Weight Can be Used

You might have a sore lower back or banged-up knees after leg presses or heavy squats. In that case, it will feel better to go for elevated goblet squats to work on your quads by using a lot less weight. This exercise doesn’t require much weight to be effective. A modest amount of weight will work well on your quads with knee-dominant movements and a large range of motion. 

Safe Failures

You can fall victim to serious injuries if you fail to do back or front squats properly, as you might get pinned under a heavy bar. In the case of the elevated goblet squats, you can just easily lower the weight on the floor in front of you.

Great for Home Exercisers

This exercise is perfect for people who like to work out at home. You will need minimal equipment for elevated goblet squats, as all you’ll need is a kettlebell or a dumbbell and something that will help you raise your heels. You can even use a couple of books and rest your heels on them to complete this exercise. 

Disadvantages of Elevated Goblet Squats

There are a few drawbacks to this exercise. Let’s have a look at them.

Doesn’t Work Well for Building Strength

This exercise is really good for muscular hypertrophy but isn’t much practical for building your strength. In the goblet position, you will have a limit on how much weight you can hold. Many gyms have kettlebells and dumbbells that only weigh up to 100 to 125 lbs. Back squats will be much more helpful in this regard. 

Knee Issues

This exercise might cause pain in your knees, as the combination of a large range of motion and raised heels can cause problems for someone who already has issues in their knees. So, make sure to adjust the range of your movement based on the flexibility and health of your knees. 

Final Words

If you want to work on the lower part of your body, you must go for squats. And it’s better if you don’t limit yourself to only back and front squats. There are lots of variations of squats you can go for instead, as all of them are highly effective. You can particularly go for the heels elevated goblet squat, as you can do this without using a high amount of weight. Also, very few exercises apart from this will help you work on your quads. So, you can keep this in your workout routine, as this will help you a lot with your lower body, and it’s also ideal for conducting at home.

Frequently Asked Questions