What Muscles Do Squats Work?

Most people know by now that squats are an extremely powerful exercise and one of the most important moves to master if you’re taking your lifting game seriously. Squats work multiple muscle groups in one fluid movement, if you’ve ever asked yourself; what muscles do squats work? You’re about to find out.

When executed correctly a squat will primarily work your glutes, quads, hamstrings, adductors and abs. But there’s actually a little more to this story than meets the eye.

First, there is primary and secondary engagement, meaning that of the muscles targeted when you squat, some are targeted primarily and others just come along for the ride by default (secondary engagement).

Another thing to consider is squat variations, because from a muscle targeting perspective, not all squats are equal. How the weight is loaded as well as your foot position switches up the emphasis on each muscle group. In this article we will delve into the muscles worked with each squat variation.

What Muscles Do Squats Work? Contents

What Muscles Do Squats Work?

Squat Variations - Muscles Worked

Conventional Squat Muscles Worked

Sumo Squat Muscle Emphasis

Front Loaded Squat Muscle Emphasis

Hack Squat Muscle Emphasis

Bulgarian Split Squat Muscles Worked

Goblet Squat Muscles Worked

Kneeling Squat Muscles Worked

Work All The Muscles By Doing All The Squats

Improve Your Squat Depth

Build Your Own Workout Plans - Be Gym Independent

What Muscles Do Squats Work?

All squats will work the following muscles:

Quads: These front thigh muscles are heavily engaged, mostly during the upward phase of the squat.

Glutes: The glutes come into play as you sit back and push back up from the squat position, driving you back up to an upright position. Your glutes are your largest muscle group and their primary function is to keep you upright.

Hamstrings: The hamstrings, situated on the back of your upper leg, play a supporting role as you squat.

Core: Your core plays a vital role in every single standing exercise you do. With the Barbell Back Squat your core is helping you manage a much heavier load than it is used to, and it supports that load as you squat, as a result, you will get a very efficient core workout here.

Erector Spinae: These muscles that run down your spine support your overall posture during the movement, helping you to maintain good clean and safe reps.

Adductors: The adductor muscles, located in the inner thigh, assist in stabilising the legs and hips as you squat.

Abductors: The abductor muscles, located on the outer thigh, also assist in stabilising the legs and hips as you squat.

Calves: These lower leg muscles are engaged from a secondary perspective and assist in keeping you balanced throughout the squat.

All squat variations target all the above muscle groups, but what we are going to show below, is the emphasis on each muscle group depending on the variation of squat.

Each squat variation places its own unique emphasis on different muscles when you squat.

Squat Variations - Muscles Worked

Generally speaking, when the question; “what muscles do squats work?" is asked, most people are typically referring to the barbell back squat. However, as mentioned above, the way in which you load a squat contributes to the emphasis placed on each muscle group.

For example; a sumo squat stance will place additional emphasis on your quads, glutes and adductors. Whereas a front loaded squat will place additional emphasis on the anterior chain, including the abdominal muscles as well as the quads and glutes, depending on your foot position. A front loaded sumo squat also places emphasis on the glutes, whereas a front loaded conventional squat will place more emphasis on the quads—see how foot position matters?

On the other hand a hack squat will place most of its emphasis on your quads. A Bulgarian split squat can place emphasis on the quads or glutes, depending on whether you perform the squat in an upright position or with your upper body slightly leaned forward.

A goblet squat places its emphasis on the anterior chain and with a wide foot position (sumo stance) it will also place emphasis on the glutes.

And finally, a kneeling squat will place more emphasis on your quads, hamstrings and glutes while taking the emphasis off your calves and core.

See Below A Visual Representation Of Muscles Worked With Each Squat Variation

Conventional Squat Muscles Worked

In its conventional form, the squat works all of the muscle groups as listed above.

Sumo Squat Muscle Emphasis

The muscles worked when you do sumo squats are the same as all squats, except with this stance you are placing additional emphasis on the glutes, quads and inner thigh muscles (the adductors).

The sumo squat variation does still work the hamstrings, calves and core, just more from a secondary perspective.

If you also want to place even more emphasis on the abdominals and front thigh muscles, consider performing a front loaded sumo squat…

Front Squat Muscle Emphasis

The front loaded squat muscles worked, are again the same as all squats, except you are now putting additional emphasis on the anterior chain (the muscles in the front of your body).

You can perform a front loaded squat with either conventional or sumo stance. If you choose sumo stance you can put additional emphasis on the glutes, if you choose conventional stance you can put additional emphasis on your quads.

Hack Squat Muscle Emphasis

The hack squat primarily targets the quads. It is considered more of an isolation exercise and usually performed on the hack squat machine. There is a barbell alternative to the hack squat, you can learn more about it in this article: Hack Squat - Your Killer Quad Builder.

Bulgarian Split Squat Muscles Worked

Technically not a squat, but deserves a mention because it’s such a great exercise; the Bulgarian split squat. This is a unilateral exercise, meaning it works one leg at a time. Because you are working all the weight though one leg at a time, the muscles worked with this squat variation are intensified, making it a more challenging exercise.

Goblet Squat Muscles Worked

The goblet squat works all the typical squat muscles, but offers a unique upper body twist by engaging the shoulders and upper back, this intensifies more so when the weight you’re holding increases.

Kneeling Squat Muscles Worked

The kneeling squat is much like a conventional squat, but because you are on your knees you take the muscle emphasis off the calves and core almost completely, offering better isolation of the quads, glutes and hamstrings.

Work All The Muscles By Doing All The Squats

No need to perform all squat variations in one workout, or even in the same week/month of workouts. But gradually, over time, as you switch up your workouts, you should include a wide range of exercise variations in your plan. Not just squat variations, all exercise variations.

Hopefully this article has enlightened you to the fact that all squats are not equal, all weight distributions are not equal and the predominant muscles worked when you squat depend on which variation and weight distribution you use.

Using different exercise variations is essential for well-rounded results. If you continually repeat the same moves you’ll never allow yourself to develop your strength from multiple angles.

Also, and as a final note; this should get you thinking about the importance of understanding which muscle groups you are working with each individual exercise. Without this basic knowledge you’re literally taking a stab in the dark with every workout.

Improve Your Squat Depth

Besides knowing which muscles you're working with your squats, it’s also important to know how to improve the depth of your squat.

Depth matters, so check out these 9 tips to improve your squat depth.

Build Your Own Workout Plans - Be Gym Independent

Now that you know which muscles squats work, and you know which squat variations place emphasis on which muscles, are you ready to start building your own workout plans?

Or, perhaps you want to get started with some of our workouts for free?

Our goal is not just to educate women on the muscles worked with different exercises, knowing this is crucial to understanding how to build your own workout plans, and ultimately that’s what we want to teach women how to do.

Step into the gym, in confidence, knowing that you know exactly which exercises to perform in order to get the results YOU want.

Sample our “learn as you lift” process for free.

Deadlift Muscles Worked

Another power exercise worth mastering is the deadlift, check out this article that focuses on the muscles worked with deadlift variations. What Muscles Do Deadlifts Work >>>

This article was originally published in 2018 and updated in 2025