How to Do Pause Squat: Muscles Worked & Proper Form

Benefits of Pause Squats

The pause squat is a variation of the squat where you add a pause somewhere in the lift, usually at the bottom.

By pausing the movement for a few moments before you finish the squat, you accentuate the hardest part of the lift but also multiply its potential rewards.

Below, we list some of the biggest benefits you can get from incorporating paused squats in your training, as well as how to program them.

1. Better Depth

Are you struggling to squat deep?

Then the pause squat is your friend!

Begin with a light weight, plop down, and try to get deeper and deeper.

2. More Consistent

Are some of your squats deep but some high?

By spending more time in the bottom position, you get a better idea of how that depth feels in your body and engrain the behavior of squatting to a consistent depth.

3. Gain Squat Confidence

Are you scared of squatting deep?

The paused squat is your exposure therapy! 

Once again, begin with light weights, get down there, and get used to it. Gradually add weight and see your confidence soar.

4. More Control

By slowing things down, you get more control and more time to feel how your body is moving.

This can help you address and correct issues in your technique.

If you don’t want your hips to shoot up faster than the bar, for instance, the paused squat can be a tool to address that.

5. Keep the Useful

By pausing in a challenging position, you force your body to optimize and effectivize your muscle recruitment.

Your body will strive to contract only the muscles necessary for the job and relax in the other muscles to save energy.

Keep what is useful; discard the rest.

6. Starting Power

Even after just a few weeks of pause squats, you’ll feel a different kind of leg strength.

Pausing at the bottom will increase your rate of force development from a static position, which is useful in all sorts of situations.

7. Do More With Less

If you are going through some injury issues or, for other reasons, want to keep the load down, the pause squat is a great way to keep training and increasing your strength while using a little less weight than in the regular squat.

This effect is compounded by the fact that pause squats slow things down and offer more control, which is an excellent thing in rehabilitation.

8. Better Carryover to Deadlifts?

This is speculation on my part, but for me, the pause squat feels much more similar to the start of a deadlift.

I think there is a chance that pause squats will carry over more to deadlifts than regular, dynamic squats. Perhaps because both have a dead start?

How to Get Started With Pause Squats

If you want to start adding pause squats to your training program, here are some tips:

• Begin with really light weights to get a feel for the exercise.
• Use mostly lower rep sets, around 1–5 reps per set.
• As you get more proficient with them, expect to pause squat around 90% of your regular squat, depending on your particular squat style and your strengths and weaknesses.

How Long Should You Pause?

Long enough for it to work its magic. 

This means long enough for your body to be forced to effectivize the position and muscle recruitment pattern.

How long is that?

From my experience, at least one second.

With regard to how time seemingly dilates when you hold a paused squat, this means that you should probably count to at least three before standing up.

It is a good idea to record a few of your sets when training paused squats. The camera might show you that your pause isn’t nearly as long or crisp as you thought.

Want to delve deeper into the science of the squat and how to train it?

Check out our guide on how to squat.

>> Return to exercise directory.

---

Text and graphics from the StrengthLog app.