Everything You Need To Know About Goblet (Goblin) Squats
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| Everything You Need To Know About Goblet Squats |
The Goblet Squat has three main benefits, and today we're going to look at each of those in detail to help you to decide if and when the goblet squat belongs in your program.
What is Goblet Squat?
To get everybody on the same page let's look at what a goblet squat is. The goblet squat is of course a squat, and it's one where you hold a kettlebell or dumbbell vertically right up against your sternum and you complete a normal squatting motion.
Where does the Goblet Squat name come from?
The name comes from the position of the hands, which as you can see form a goblet shape.
The benefits of squatting
I'm going to be focused specifically on the benefits of the goblet variation of the squat, this is not the same as the benefits of squatting.
Any squat is going to develop lower body strength and squats are an important movement that should be in your program unless there's a reason not to.
The benefits of Goblet Squats
The benefits of squatting are not up for debate. Perhaps the greatest benefit of the goblet squat is its value as a teaching tool.
Simply put,
Goblet Squat is the best way to help a beginner learn and get comfortable with the squatting movement.
Believe it or not, a goblet squat is actually easier than a bodyweight squat. Most of the time, particularly beginners, have a tendency to lose their balance and fall towards the back when they first start learning bodyweight squats.
The weight in a goblet squat provides a useful counterbalance to help the lifter stay solid on their feet.
Yes, there's an additional load, but in my experience, even untrained senior adults are able to do at least a few reps holding a 10 or even a 20-pound dumbbell on their very first workout session.
Remember that in a bodyweight squat you're not squatting anything, you're squatting your body weight so that 10 or 20-pound dumbbell is actually a fairly small percentage increase in load for most people, since the weight is well tolerated and helps new lifters feel solid on their feet, and get used to moving under load.
Goblet squats for beginners
The goblet squat is the best choice to get a beginner started with squatting once the pattern is in place, and you have some confidence in the movement.
It's quite easy to progress the weight. Many of my clients will go from 10 pounds in their first session to 50 or 60 pounds in just a couple of weeks.
I like to push things as far as possible with the gobbled squat, before progressing to barbell variation.
Barbell squats are great, but they are more technically complex, and they involve more load through the spine and the body which is not inherently bad.
But it is something that we need to be aware of and manage how far exactly you should push things with the goblet variation before moving to a barbell, depending on the person, if there's no reason not to.
Set your targets
I like to set a target of 100 pounds for 10 reps with the goblet squat. Before we look at barbell squats, however for many people such as a smaller person or somebody with a possible wrist or forearm issue holding a dumbbell that big might not be possible.
But the general principle of pushing things as far as is reasonably possible with the goblet squat still applies.
Goblet Squats for Advanced Bodybuilders
Are Goblet Squats Any Effective?
So, we've established that goblet squats can be very useful for teaching a beginner how to get started on their squatting journey, but what about more advanced lifters?
Well, one example of how a more advanced lifter might use a goblet squat is as a regression.
Let's take the example of somebody who's very highly trained and fully proficient in all barbell variations of the squat.
Well, let's say this person gets injured. Whether it's in the weight room or out of it, they might not be able to squat for a while, but need to do a gradual return to squatting.
The goblet squat can provide a useful step on a rehabilitation journey helping that person go from rest to lighter stages of rehab to eventually returning to hopefully their pre-injury form.
Another way that a goblet squat can be useful for a more advanced lifter is by providing more squatting volume with the minimal additional systemic load.
If we're considering a more advanced lifter, whether they're a bodybuilder or a powerlifter or really just anybody doing a heavy lower body training session, they might have built their training day around squats.
So after a thorough warm-up and some ramp-up sets, maybe they're doing a few heavy sets say five sets of five barbell back squats.
That would be a pretty standard protocol for your main lift of the day. What are you going to do next is you're going to do some accessory lifts, and whether that's good mornings or lunges or step-ups or leg curls or anything else, you're going to have some accessory movements that you do to round out your program.
In that example, the goblet squat can be a great choice for some additional lower body volume. A few sets of 10 to 20 reps after some other more intense lower bodywork is a great way to drive further adaptation in the lower body and to get more practice in the movement.
In a way, that's still fairly low intensity, and more transferable to sport or other athletic tasks than some other movements you might choose for your accessory work.
Is Goblet Squat Worth It?
It is certainly worth considering as an accessory lift on a lower-body focus session at least at some points throughout the year.
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