Side Squat – Lateral Squat

Squats overall are an amazing workout for the legs and glutes. Every fitness professional around tends to prescribe squats for leg strength as well as for calorie burn, since working your larger muscle groups burns more calories.

Learning the basic squat is your first goal on this front, but once you have the basics, it is important to mix up your workouts and add dimension to the moves.

There are many different types of squats, each adding a different twist on the strength it provides.

Side squats do a couple things that are unique. First, they add lateral movement to your workout. It’s important that you move not only forward and back, but also side to side. Second, by moving side to side you are forcing more muscles in your legs to turn on and activate, specifically the outer and inner thighs. Total bonus!

Try this squat variation either as an unweighted option or with dumbells to increase the resistance and muscle building propensity.