Essomio™

← All exercise guides

legs

1.5 Rep Bodyweight Squats

A bodyweight squat where you come halfway up, go back down, and only then stand all the way up. Doubles the time your legs spend working at the bottom.

intermediatebodyweight

1.5 Rep Bodyweight Squats, start position
START
1.5 Rep Bodyweight Squats, end position
END
BEFORE YOU START1
  1. Find a spot with room to hold your arms out in front.
HOW TO DO IT

Get into position

  1. Set your feet shoulder-width apart with your toes turned slightly out.
  2. Hold your arms straight out in front at shoulder height.
  3. Tighten your stomach.

Check: You are standing tall with your arms out in front.

Sit down

  1. Push your hips back and bend your knees at the same time, as if sitting into a chair.
  2. Keep your chest up and your back straight all the way down.
  3. Keep your knees pointing the same way as your toes.
  4. Stop when your thighs are level with the floor.

Check: Your thighs are parallel to the floor, your heels are flat, and your knees point over your toes.

Come halfway up and back down

  1. Push up until your thighs are about halfway to standing.
  2. Lower back down slowly until your thighs are level with the floor again.

Check: You are back at the bottom of the squat without having stood up.

Stand all the way up

  1. Push the floor away through your whole foot to stand up. Drive your hips and shoulders up at the same speed.
  2. Squeeze your buttocks at the top and stand tall.

Check: You are standing tall again in the same spot.

That is one rep: down, half up, down, all the way up. Repeat for your set.

Breathe in and brace before you go down; lower for 2 to 3 seconds; breathe out as you stand up in about 1 second.

MUSCLES WORKED
1.5 Rep Bodyweight Squats: muscles worked, front view
1.5 Rep Bodyweight Squats: muscles worked, back view

quadsglutescorecalvesfront delts

Red marks the muscles doing the work; amber the assisting ones. Same body for every exercise, so guides compare at a glance.

COMMON MISTAKES5
  • Knees caving in toward each other. Strains the knee joints. Fix: Push your knees out so they stay in line with your toes.
  • Heels lifting off the floor. Fix: Keep your weight over the middle of your feet; try a slightly wider stance.
  • Rounding the lower back at the bottom. Fix: Stop a little higher until you can go deeper with a straight back.
  • Hips shooting up first so the chest drops. Fix: Lead with your chest; hips and shoulders rise together.
  • Coming all the way up on the half rep. Fix: Stop about halfway; the point is to stay low.
SAFETY1
  • Stop the set when your form breaks; this exercise burns fast.
RELATED EXERCISES

easier: bodyweight squat

variants: bodyweight squat

© 2026 Essomio LLC. The illustrations, muscle charts and guide text on this page are works of Essomio LLC, all rights reserved. They are for your personal use and may not be copied, redistributed or used to train models without written permission — see Licensing.