Legs · Bodyweight
Wide Bench Air Squat
How to do the wide bench air squat, the muscles it works, and the mistakes to avoid. Pulled straight from the Kovo app's exercise library.
- Equipment
- Bodyweight
- Difficulty
- Beginner
- Logged as
- Weighted reps
- Movement
- Squat
- Mechanic
- Compound
How to do it
Stand in front of a bench with your feet set wider than shoulder-width and toes turned slightly out. Push your hips back and bend your knees to sit down lightly onto the bench, then drive through your feet to stand back up. Use the bench as a depth target rather than resting on it.
- 1Your glutes and quads loading as you sit back to the bench
- 2Your knees tracking out over your toes through the wide stance
- 3A strong drive through your heels and midfoot to stand tall
Common mistakes
- Crashing down and fully relaxing onto the bench each rep
- Letting your knees cave inward as you descend
- Rounding your lower back instead of keeping your chest up
Muscles worked
The wide bench air squat mainly works the quads and glutes, with the adductors, lower back, lower abs, and hamstrings assisting.
- QuadsPrimary
- GlutesPrimary
- AdductorsSupport
- Lower BackSupport
- Lower AbsSupport
- HamstringsSupport
- Upper AbsMinor
- ObliquesMinor
- CalvesMinor
- Hip FlexorsMinor
Kovo programs the wide bench air 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.