1. Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart. 2. Hold a dumbbell in each hand, with your arms extended down by your sides. 3. Keep your chest up and core engaged. 4. Bend your knees and lower your hips back and down into a squat position. 5. Lower your body until your thighs are parallel to the ground. 6. Push through your heels and extend your knees and hips to return to the starting position. 7. Repeat for the desired number of repetitions.

How to perform the Dumbbell Squat

  1. Set up. Set up in a stable, balanced starting position appropriate for the Dumbbell Squat using your dumbbell.
  2. Brace and execute. Brace your core, control the descent, and move through a full pain-free range of motion while emphasizing your hamstrings.
  3. Reset. Reverse the movement under control and reset between repetitions, keeping your form crisp on every rep.

Coaching cues

  • Move with intent — every rep should feel deliberate, not rushed.
  • Drive force through your hamstrings rather than momentum.
  • Keep your breathing steady: exhale on the hard part, inhale on the reset.

Common mistakes

  • Using too much weight and losing positional control.
  • Cutting the range of motion short and missing the target muscle.
  • Letting your spine round or hyperextend instead of staying neutral.

Detailed cues, common mistakes, and demonstration video are available in the Fitly app.

Build a free routine

Stage exercises here, then sign up to save them as a real Fitly routine — synced to web and mobile.

View staged routine (0)

Related exercises

0 exercises staged Save your routine — sign up free.