Legs · Bodyweight
Counterbalanced Skater Squat
How to do the counterbalanced skater squat, the muscles it works, and the mistakes to avoid. Pulled straight from the Kovo app's exercise library.
- Equipment
- Bodyweight
- Difficulty
- Advanced
- Logged as
- Weighted reps
- Movement
- Squat
- Mechanic
- Compound
How to do it
Stand on one leg holding a light weight out in front of you at chest height as a counterbalance. Bend the standing knee and reach your back leg behind you, lowering until that rear knee nearly taps the floor, then drive up through the front heel to stand. The weight out front lets you sit back and stay balanced through the descent.
- 1Quad and glute of the standing leg loading deeply
- 2The counterbalance weight helping you sit back and stay upright
- 3Controlled descent until the rear knee lightly taps
Common mistakes
- Crashing the back knee into the floor
- Letting the front knee collapse inward
- Falling forward instead of sitting your hips back
Muscles worked
The counterbalanced skater squat mainly works the quads and glutes, with the hamstrings, lower back, lower abs, and calves assisting.
- QuadsPrimary
- GlutesPrimary
- HamstringsSupport
- Lower BackSupport
- Lower AbsSupport
- CalvesSupport
- ForearmsMinor
- Upper AbsMinor
- ObliquesMinor
- Front DeltsMinor
- AdductorsMinor
- Hip FlexorsMinor
- Tibialis AnteriorMinor
Kovo programs the counterbalanced skater squat for you and tracks it every session.
We build your whole program, drop the right lifts into each workout, and adjust your weights as you get stronger. Free on iOS and Android.
More quads exercises
- How to do the resistance band squat
- How to do the resistance band squat to press
- How to do the resistance band thruster
- How to do the resistance band squat walk
- How to do the barbell squat
- How to do the barbell bulgarian split squat
Last reviewed June 2026.