Barbell Back Squat
The barbell back squat is a loaded squat with the bar across your upper back, training your quads and glutes, with your hamstrings and abs working to stabilize. It lets you load your legs heavily through a long range of motion, which makes it a main lift for lower-body strength and size.
Muscles worked
The barbell back squat trains the quadriceps and glutes, with hamstrings, abs helping.
Primary
Helpers
Weekly sets for quadriceps
Hard sets per week that Swole.fit plans for quadriceps, counting every exercise that trains it. Start a cycle near the growth line and climb toward the recovery limit before a deload.
How to do the barbell back squat
- 01Place the bar on your upper traps for high bar or across your rear delts for low bar, hands just outside shoulders.
- 02Unrack, step back, and set your feet about shoulder width with toes turned out slightly.
- 03Take a big breath into your belly and brace your trunk before each rep.
- 04Sit down by bending your hips and knees together, knees tracking over toes, to at least parallel.
- 05Drive up through your whole foot, keeping your chest and hips rising at the same rate.
Coaching cues
- Spread the floor with your feet.
- Knees out over your toes.
- Chest and hips rise together.
Common mistakes
- Letting your knees cave in on the way up leaks force, so push them out in line with your toes.
- Cutting depth short with heavy weight shortchanges your quads and glutes, so lower the load and reach at least parallel.
- Shooting your hips up first turns the squat into a good morning, so lead with your chest and drive up evenly.
How Swole.fit programs it
Log it once and the app plans the next session for you.
- Most sets land between 8 and 15 reps, the range the plan steers compound lifts toward for size.
- Week one starts around 2 to 3 reps in reserve. Each week you train a little closer to failure, ending around 0 to 1 in reserve before a deload week.
- Hit the top of the range on every set and the next session adds the smallest real jump in weight, rounded to the plates, dumbbells or stack you actually have.
- Sets for this exercise count toward your weekly volume for every muscle it trains: a full set for the primary muscles, half a set for the helpers.
The full method, with the maths, is in how mesocycles work.
Barbell Back Squat alternatives
Same muscles, different tool. Swap in one of these when the equipment is taken or your joints want a change.
Free programs that use it
Ready-made splits from the Swole.fit library. Pick one and the app runs the progression.
- Arm Blaster3 days a week, biceps, triceps, shoulders
- Athletic Power3 days a week, quadriceps, hamstrings, shoulders, back
- Beach Emergency3 days a week, chest, shoulders, biceps
- Core Four3 days a week, chest, back, shoulders, quadriceps
- Deadlift Religion3 days a week, back, hamstrings, glutes
- Full Body Power3 days a week, chest, back, quadriceps, hamstrings
Log it. Let the app plan the next one.
Track your barbell back squat free. Swole.fit picks the next weight, counts your weekly sets and tells you when to deload.