Stop F*cking Up Bulgarian Split Squats (PROPER FORM!)

Do you know how to do a bulgarian split squat? If not, you’re in luck. In this video, I am going to show you exactly how to perform a dumbbell bulgarian split squat so that you can perform the exercise every time without making a mistake. Remember, it’s not just what exercise you do, but how you do them that matters the most and I want to make sure that you get your bulgarian split squats form right every time you do them.

Step 1 of this bulgarian split squat tutorial is getting the setup right:

When doing a dumbbell bulgarian split squat, you are going to need a pair of dumbbells and an adjustable or flat bench. I would say that 90 percent of the problems with the exercise and the mistakes made during split squats is on how we position the feet in front of the bench and on top of the bench. Let’s start with the foot placement in front of the bench.

Step 2 of this bulgarian split squat how-to is your front foot position:

Sit down on the bench with the dumbbells held on your thighs. From here, extend one leg out until the knee is straight and the heel is positioned on the ground. This will represent the position of your heel when you stand to do the leg exercise. Before you do anything else however, move the foot out to the side another 2-3 inches.

Step 3 of this bulgarian split squat form guide is your back leg and foot positioning:

With the front heel in the place that you measured in step 2, you will know put your back foot up on the bench. The way you place the foot is critical however. If you put just your toes down on top of the bench then you are likely going to have balance difficulties. The toe is just not enough of a contact point with the bench to keep stability once the movement of the exercise starts. Instead, allow the ankle to fold in naturally and increase your foot/bench contact area by involving the outer portion of the foot and ankle.

Step 4 of this bulgarian split squat how-to is the torso angle:

This is where you get to target the muscles of the legs that you want to focus on with this versatile dumbbell leg exercise. If you want to hit more of the quads then you will want to make sure you keep your torso upright throughout the entire movement. If you want to make this more of a glute focused exercise then you would want to angle your body forward (without rounding your low back) and maintain this slight lean throughout the set.

Step 5 is how low should you go on a bulgarian split squat

This one is easy. You want to be sure that you go low enough that the dumbbells make contact with the floor without fully resting them on the floor. Many people will go low enough but remove the tension from their legs temporarily by disengaging and letting them rest even momentarily. This isn’t correct. You want the dumbbells to make contact but you want to feel their weight in your hands at all time to ensure that they are at no point resting.

Step 6 of how to do dumbbell bulgarian split squats is the intensity techniques that you apply to your sets:

There are so many ways that you can intensify a set of bulgarian split squats to further improve their ability to help you grow bigger legs. The first is by incorporating a pause rep at the bottom of the reps. This will increase the tension in the stretch position of the quads and glutes leading to a better hypertrophy response. The second thing is to take it one step further and perform them as one and a half reps. This will require that you lower to the bottom, come up just half way, go back down and then come back up to the top. This is just more stretch tension on the reps making for an even greater growth stimulus. Finally, you can perform this leg exercise without any dumbbells at all and do them explosively as a plyometric bulgarian split squat.

Now that you know how to bulgarian split squat properly, you will not only be able to set a good example for other gym-goers, but you will eliminate any risks that comes along with the traditionally performed version of this exercise. When it comes to form on a dumbbell bulgarian split squat, how you do it is going to determine whether you are setting yourself up for injury or if you are going to build bigger quads and glutes without that risk.

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Jeff Cavaliere MSPT, CSCS served as both the head physical therapist and assistant strength coach for the New York Mets. Jeff earned his Masters of Physical Therapy and Bachelor’s of Physioneurobiology from the College of Health Sciences University of Connecticut Storrs. He is a certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist by the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA).

There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t see 
someone performing my favorite leg exercise, the Bulgarian Split Squat, and it makes my heart 
sing. But the problem is they’re fucking it up and that’s not good. So, I have to make sure that I 
do my job as a coach and show you exactly how to do this exercise right. And the problem is, 90% of 
the problems with the exercise and the things that you get wrong happen because you don’t set up the 
proper way. So how do you set up? Well, there’s a couple things you can do right from the beginning 
before you even sink down into a single rep. And that is, sit down on the bench with the dumbbells 
on your thighs and extend one leg out. And when you do, move it just a little bit more 
to the outside, because that heel position is where your foot is going to go if you want to do 
this exercise properly. So, I put my dumbbells down just like that, I stand up, maintain that 
same heel position, nothing’s moved. Now, I take my back foot and I put it back on the bench. Now 
how do you put it on the bench? Because this is where people get this wrong too. A lot of times 
people will just put their toe right up on top of the bench like this. And the problem is you’ve 
got very little point of contact on the bench, meaning you have a lot harder time balancing.
If you could just turn your foot like this, now you’ve got more contact area with the foot, 
which gives you more balance. The second thing is by getting into this position here, rather than 
straight down on the bench like this, you don’t have to have that plantar flexion requirement in 
range of motion that you might need to do this this way you get that more natural supination 
of the foot that gives you a chance to get it done a little bit more easily from here.
Remember, the dumbbells are already in place, so all I have to do is drop down and pick 
them up. And by putting that leg out to the side just a little bit, I create a little 
bit of a widening of my base of support, a little width between this leg and that leg, 
which further increases your balance. Now, for those of us who don’t want to do it on a 
bench, you can break out that pussy pad, you know, the one that people shamed you out of using and 
put it around a barbell in a rack. And what this does is it gives you a rotating placement 
for that back leg, which will actually allow you to smoothly go up and down without having to 
worry so much about that back foot placement. But regardless of whether you use that option 
or the traditional bench, what comes next is your torso angle, and that determines what part 
of your leg you’re actually working. Because if you want to work your quads, you ve got to stay 
very upright the entire time that you perform the exercise. Because staying upright is going to 
force that knee flexion to occur in this angle, which is going to make the quad do most of the 
work in terms of getting you back to the top. If I wanted to ship this focus to the posterior 
chain, all I have to do is angle my torso forward so that when I go down to the bottom, I look 
more like I’m in the beginning of a sprinter starting block here. And what that does is 
it shifts the focus to the back side into the glutes. And when I come out of that, I 
maintain that same angle of the torso. Now, as far as depth goes, you want 
to make sure that you’re going down to the ground with the dumbbells, but 
you don’t want to rest down there. So, if I get down to the bottom and I let go, 
we don’t want that because you’re taking the tension out of the working leg. So, I 
just want to be able to make contact here, but still support the entire weight of the 
dumbbell in my hands and then push up. Now, if you want to give yourself a little bit of a 
cheat mechanism, especially if you’re starting to get a little bit more fatigued, you tilt the 
front of the dumbbells down. So, what this does is it shortens how far I have to go before I make 
contact with the ground and come out of it. That gives you a chance to do an abbreviated 
repetition without having to rely on doing quarter reps or half reps, because I find that 
when you start to do the quarter and half reps, that you start to alter the mechanics of the 
exercise, and you never really dig into the quads or the glutes enough to stimulate 
them. So, utilizing this little tilt of the dumbbells doesn’t alter the mechanics of the 
exercise, it just marginally alters the depth. Finally, when it comes to intensity techniques, 
this exercise is tailor made to allow you to really, really start creating growth because you 
can do so many interesting things. First of all, paused reps in this stretch position. The 
second thing you can do one and a half reps, which is going to accentuate the time that you 
spend under tension in that stretch position. Thirdly, you can do explosive repetitions. You 
can even drop the weight altogether and perform these as one legged plyo Bulgarian Split 
Squats. The options are endless, guys. The fact is it is my favorite leg exercise for 
a reason because of how multi-dimensional it is. If you want to know how to do not just 
this, but a Face Pull or a Lat Pull Down, you can check those videos out here. Click 
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guys, good luck. I hope this helps. See you.