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How to do it
- Hold one dumbbell at chest height with both hands under the top plate.
- Stand with your feet well outside shoulder width and toes pointing forward.
- Brace your abdominals and keep your ribs pulled down.
- Shift your weight over one leg and sit the hips back and down over that foot.
- Keep the other leg straight with the foot rolled onto its heel and the toes up.
- Push through the bent leg to return to center, then repeat on the other side.
Common mistakes
- Letting the dumbbell pull the chest down, which rounds the upper back at depth.
- Arching the lower back to reach depth instead of respecting available hip range.
- Lifting the heel of the squatting leg, which signals an ankle mobility limit.
- Bending the extended leg, which removes the adductor and hamstring stretch.
Muscles worked
- Secondary
- AbsGlutesHamstrings
Same movement, other equipment
Similar exercises
Good to know
- What muscles does the Dumbbell Cossack Squat work?
- Mainly the adductors and quads. It also works the abs, glutes and hamstrings.
- What equipment do you need for the Dumbbell Cossack Squat?
- It uses dumbbells. Without it, the Cossack Squat and the Goblet Squat Prying Hold train the same muscles the same way.
- Is the Dumbbell Cossack Squat good for beginners?
- GymVim rates it intermediate. For a beginner-rated exercise on the same muscle and movement, see the Goblet Squat Prying Hold.