The squat pattern is knees travelling forward and hips dropping between them — sitting down and standing up, with weight. It builds the legs that carry you up Lonsdale's hills, off the couch, and up the Grouse Grind without a handrail.
Almost everyone here starts with a goblet squat, because holding the weight in front teaches an upright trunk faster than any cue can. From there the ladder runs to front and back squats for load, and sideways into the lunge family, where single legs do the work they do in real life.
How the pattern progresses
Position first, then range, then load — in that order, and we do not apologize for it. A deep, controlled goblet squat with modest weight beats a shallow, wobbly barbell squat every time, and it is also how knees stay happy for decades. When a squat variation stops suiting a body, the pattern does not get dropped; it changes shape. That is what the ladder on each page is for.
Common questions
How deep should I squat?
As deep as you can control with your heels down and your trunk long. Depth you cannot control does not count, and depth beyond what your hips allow today is borrowed from your lower back.
Which squat should a beginner learn first?
The goblet squat, almost without exception. The counterweight does half the coaching for you.
