CrossFit Squat Workout: 9 WODs to Strengthen Your Lower Body
When it comes to CrossFit, lower body strength plays a crucial role in not just your performance but also your overall fitness journey.
Strong legs are foundational for lifting weights, jumping, running, or tackling various movements in a WOD (Workout of the Day).
Strong lower body muscles improve your power, stability, and endurance, allowing you to perform at your best and reduce the risk of injury.
The best way to build a stronger lower body is with the squat. This compound exercise incorporates almost every muscle in the body and multiple lower body joints, making it extremely effective. (1)
As a physical therapist and CrossFit coach with over twelve years of experience helping CrossFit athletes optimize their performance and prevent injuries, I’m excited to share these effective squat workouts that have proven to build lower body strength and muscle mass and enhance overall fitness.
In this blog, you’ll discover nine effective CrossFit squat workouts designed to strengthen and condition your lower body.
Each workout not only targets your quads, hamstrings, and glutes but also enhances your overall athletic performance.
You’ll learn how these workouts can improve your strength, conditioning, and functional fitness, equipping you with the tools you need to excel in CrossFit and everyday life.
What Is The Best CrossFit Squat Workout?
1. Cindy
Format: Complete as many rounds as possible (AMRAP) in 20 minutes of the following:
- 5 Pull-Ups
- 10 Push-Ups
- 15 Air Squats
- Wear a weight vest if possible.
Benefits:
The Cindy workout is an excellent full-body, body weight-only CrossFit WOD that engages multiple muscle groups.
It not only targets your lower body with air squats, a bodyweight squat variation, but also incorporates upper body movements with pull-ups and push-ups.
This combination improves overall strength and builds muscular endurance, making it a comprehensive workout.
Additionally, the high-repetition nature of the workout enhances your cardiovascular endurance, pushing your limits while keeping your heart rate elevated.
Coaches Insight:
By effectively incorporating air squats into the routine, Cindy showcases how squats can be integrated into a full-body workout.
This format encourages continuous movement, which is vital for improving both strength and conditioning.
2. Tabata Squats
Format: Perform 8 rounds of:
- 20 Seconds of Air Squats
- 10 Seconds of Rest
Benefits:
Tabata Squats leverage a high-intensity interval training (HIIT) approach that challenges your muscular endurance while simultaneously boosting your cardiovascular fitness. (2)
The quick bursts of activity followed by short rest periods help you maximize your effort and push your limits.
In Tabata intervals, the goal is to perform max reps within the twenty-second window to achieve the highest total number of reps possible for the workout.
This workout is perfect for anyone looking to improve their stamina and lower body strength in a short amount of time.
Coaches Insight:
Studies indicate that HIIT workouts, like the Tabata format, can significantly enhance your overall fitness levels. (2)
By focusing specifically on air squats during these intervals, you can effectively target your quads, hamstrings, and glutes, all while maintaining an elevated heart rate.
This approach not only builds lower body strength but also enhances your ability to recover quickly, making it a valuable addition to your CrossFit training.
3. CrossFit Total
Format: Perform one repetition maximum (1RM) for the following lifts:
- Back Squat
- Shoulder Press
- Deadlift
Benefits:
The CrossFit Total is a foundational strength workout that tests your overall strength across three major lifts.
It has also ben featured in the sport of fitness at the CrossFit games as a strength event.
In this workout you will attempt to lift the most weight possible in the three lifts.
This workout is great for understanding your current strength capabilities and identifying areas for improvement, making it crucial for optimizing your CrossFit performance.
Coaches Insight:
Studies have shown that performance in the back squat is closely correlated with higher scores in CrossFit workouts. (3)
The strength you develop through this movement translates directly into your ability to perform other CrossFit exercises with light and heavy loads effectively, demonstrating the back squat’s importance in a well-rounded training program.
4. Squat + Burpee Ladder
Format: Complete 10 rounds of descending repetitions:
- Back Squats (60-70% of 1RM)
- Burpees
Benefits:
The Squat + Burpee Ladder combines heavy weights with metabolic conditioning, making it a highly effective workout.
As you decrease the number of back squats while maintaining a consistent burpee pace, you challenge both your muscular endurance and cardiovascular capacity.
This format encourages efficient transitions between strength and aerobic efforts, helping you build a well-rounded fitness base.
Coaches Insight:
This workout effectively utilizes the back squat to enhance strength while integrating burpees to elevate your heart rate.
The combination of these two movements not only improves your overall fitness but also prepares you for the varied demands of CrossFit competitions and workouts.
The descending reps add an element of mental toughness, pushing you to maintain your effort even as the workout progresses.
5. Front Squat EMOM
Format: For 10 minutes, perform 5 front squats at 60-70% of your one-repetition maximum (1RM) at the start of each minute.
Benefits:
The Front Squat EMOM workout emphasizes key aspects of strength training, including technique, consistency, and endurance.
By focusing on the front squat, you engage your core and improve your posture while developing your lower body strength.
The every-minute-on-the-minute (EMOM) structure allows you to build strength progressively while reinforcing proper movement patterns through frequent practice.
Once you build to a working weight of 60-70%, you’ll perform five reps at the top of the minute and rest for the remainder. Then, prepare yourself for another set at the start of the next minute.
Coaches Insight:
This structured interval training method has been shown to enhance strength over time.
The EMOM format encourages you to maintain high-quality reps while giving your body adequate time to recover between sets, making it an effective way to increase both muscular endurance and overall performance in CrossFit.
The EMOM format is also a great way to train your “battery” or your ability to repeat high-intensity efforts with little rest.
By consistently practicing the front squat, you’ll not only see improvements in your strength but also in your ability to execute other complex movements within your training.
You can also modify this workout with any other squat variation you’d like, such as back squats, box squats, etc.
6. Squat Clean + Burpee
Format: Complete 5 rounds for time of:
- 3 Squat Cleans at 60-70% of your one-repetition maximum (1RM)
- 6 Burpees
Benefits:
The Squat Clean + Burpee workout incorporates Olympic weightlifting, providing a comprehensive approach to fitness that enhances strength, power, and endurance.
The squat clean challenges your ability to transition from a pull to a squat position effectively, promoting overall coordination and agility.
Adding burpees increases the metabolic demand along side the weight of the bar, making this workout not only strength-focused but also a test of your conditioning.
Coaches Insight:
Research indicates a strong correlation between Olympic lifts, such as the squat clean, and overall CrossFit performance. (3)
Developing proficiency in these lifts enhances your explosiveness and strength, translating directly to improved performance across various workouts.
Additionally, this combination of lifts and bodyweight movements prepares you for the dynamic nature of CrossFit, ensuring that you’re well-equipped to handle a range of physical challenges.
7. Fran
Format: Perform 21-15-9 reps for time of:
- Thrusters (95 lbs for men, 65 lbs for women)
- Pull-ups
Benefits:
The Fran workout offers a comprehensive full-body challenge that effectively combines squatting and pressing movements.
Thrusters, which require a deep squat followed by a powerful overhead press, are excellent for building leg strength while also engaging your shoulders and core.
This workout not only develops muscular strength but also pushes your cardiovascular endurance as you move quickly between exercises, making it a staple for anyone looking to test their overall fitness.
Coaches Insight:
Fran is one of the most popular benchmark workouts in CrossFit, frequently used to assess progress and performance.
The high-intensity nature of this workout demands both strength and speed, providing valuable insights into your conditioning level.
By completing Fran, you can gauge improvements in your squat mechanics, overall strength, and endurance, making it a critical element of your training repertoire.
8. Death by Air Squat
Format: Start a timer and perform air squats:
- Minute 1: 1 squat
- Minute 2: 2 squats
- Minute 3: 3 squats
- Continue adding one squat each minute until failure.
- Complete the required reps and rest the remainder of the minute.
Benefits:
The Death by Air Squat workout is a unique and challenging approach to testing both your muscular endurance and mental toughness.
As the workout progresses, the number of required reps increases each minute demanding a higher level of strength and stamina, pushing you to maintain form and technique under fatigue.
This workout emphasizes the importance of pacing and strategic breathing, making it an excellent tool for improving your overall conditioning.
Coaches Insight:
This innovative format offers a distinct take on conditioning, as it encourages gradual increases in intensity.
Research indicates that such incremental challenges can effectively enhance muscular endurance while promoting mental resilience.
The mental aspect of this workout cannot be overlooked; as the repetitions increase, you’ll need to maintain focus and determination to continue, which can translate to improved performance in more traditional CrossFit workouts.
9. Nancy
Format: Complete 5 rounds for time of:
- 400-meter run
- 15 overhead squats (95 lbs for men, 65 lbs for women)
Benefits:
Nancy is a classic CrossFit benchmark workout that beautifully combines cardiovascular endurance with a challenging weightlifting movement using relatively light loads.
The 400 m run elevates your heart rate, requiring you to maintain pace and stamina while the overhead squat tests your strength, stability, and mobility.
This combination ensures that you’re not only working on lower body strength but also enhancing your aerobic capacity and overall fitness.
Coaches Insight:
As a staple benchmark in the CrossFit community, Nancy effectively tests your running capacity and overhead stability as you make your way through the total number of rounds.
The workout’s structure encourages athletes to push their limits while maintaining proper form, providing valuable feedback on their fitness progression.
Incorporating overhead squats helps improve core stability and shoulder stability, which are essential for a well-rounded fitness regimen.
If your overhead squats are still a work in progress, consider scaling up to other squat variations, such as the front squat or goblet squat.
Benefits of Squat Workouts in CrossFit
Overall Strength Development
Squat workouts are essential for building total body strength, and they serve as a cornerstone of your CrossFit training regimen.
When you incorporate various squat exercises, you engage multiple muscle groups, including your legs, core, and back, creating a solid foundation of strength. This compound movement not only enhances muscle growth but also increases your overall power, which is vital for other exercises in your CrossFit repertoire.
Moreover, your squat performance is directly correlated with your CrossFit workout scores.
Research has shown that athletes with higher back squat performance tend to achieve better scores in WODs.
By focusing on improving your squat, you’re not just enhancing one area but effectively boosting your overall CrossFit performance.
Improved Endurance and Conditioning
In addition to building strength, high-volume squats significantly enhance your cardiovascular fitness and muscular endurance.
Many squat workouts, such as AMRAPs or high-rep schemes, elevate your heart rate, providing a cardio benefit alongside strength training.
This combination is what makes CrossFit so effective; you’re not only lifting heavy but also conditioning your body to sustain effort over longer periods.
When you perform squats, especially in a high-intensity setting, you’re challenging your muscles to adapt and grow stronger.
As your endurance improves, you’ll find that you can push through longer WODs and maintain your energy levels, ultimately leading to better overall performance in both training and competition.
Functional Movement Patterns
Squats are more than just an exercise; they’re a fundamental movement pattern that translates to everyday activities.
By regularly performing squats, you develop the strength and stability needed for various functional movements, such as lifting objects, climbing stairs, and maintaining good posture.
This functional strength is crucial not just in CrossFit but in your daily life.
Furthermore, effective squat mechanics are essential for other athletic movements.
Whether you’re jumping, running, or performing Olympic lifts, a solid squat foundation can improve your efficiency and effectiveness across the board.
In essence, the benefits of incorporating squats into your routine extend beyond the gym, enhancing your overall physical capabilities and quality of life.
Final Thoughts On The 9 CrossFit Squat Workouts
Incorporating squat workouts into your CrossFit routine is vital for developing a strong and conditioned lower body.
Each workout presented, from the high-intensity Cindy to the endurance-focused Nancy, offers unique benefits that contribute to overall strength, cardiovascular fitness, and functional movement patterns.
By consistently engaging in these squat-focused workouts, you’re not only improving your lower body strength but also enhancing your performance across various CrossFit movements.
As you explore these nine effective squat workouts, take the time to assess your own lower body strength goals.
Whether you aim to improve your squat technique, build muscular endurance, or enhance your overall fitness level, there’s a workout here for you.
So, gather your gear and challenge yourself—try out these WODs in the gym today and start building your squat!
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References:
1. Schoenfeld B. J. (2010). Squatting kinematics and kinetics and their application to exercise performance. Journal of strength and conditioning research, 24(12), 3497–3506. https://doi.org/10.1519/JSC.0b013e3181bac2d7
2. Schlegel P. (2020). CrossFit® Training Strategies from the Perspective of Concurrent Training: A Systematic Review. Journal of sports science & medicine, 19(4), 670–680. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7675627/
3. Meier, N., Schlie, J., & Schmidt, A. (2023). CrossFit®: ‘Unknowable’ or Predictable?-A Systematic Review on Predictors of CrossFit® Performance. Sports (Basel, Switzerland), 11(6), 112. https://doi.org/10.3390/sports11060112
