Bulgarian Split Squats

The Bulgarian split squat is a great exercise you can do for developing your quads, hip flexors, and glutes.  It's a good way to train your legs without having to have heavy weight on your back.

The Bulgarian split squat is a single-leg exercise, which will help prevent, and correct any muscle imbalances between the legs. This is one of the main benefits it has over barbell leg exercises.

How to do Bulgarian Split Squats

• Use a bench to put your back leg on the edge of the bench.
• Put your front leg forward. This will take some trial and error the first time you do this. Having your front foot too close will reduce the range of motion, while too far away from the bench will place pressure on your hip flexors. Once you find the right spot, put something down to mark it for the next sets. Having your front foot further forward will hit the glutes slightly more. A bit closer will hit your glutes more.
• Squeeze your abs and take a deep diaphragmatic breath. Hold both of these for the whole rep. Think of your foot as having 3 points of contact with the floor, the big toe, outside of the foot and the heel. You want to drive all three into the floor at all times. This will help you remain balanced. 
• You'll need to hinge at the hip slightly and then slowly lower until the knee of the leg on the bench touches the ground, or you go as low as you can. You'll need to go slow as this is being balanced under load. Don't divebomb on the way down
• Keep your chest up throughout the rep. You will lean forward a bit from the hip, but don't fold over. 
• Drive up through your front foot back to the starting position, Make sure you drive up and not back. If you're driving backward you're taking  Only use your back leg to help you balance. With either the barbell or the safety bar, you can do it in a squat rack so you have the safety bars set in case you lose balance, or fail a rep.

What to do if you Struggle to Maintain Your Balance
Some people need to start doing this I the squat rack so they can use their hands to help them maintain their balance. Once you find you can balance doing it in a cage you can practice doing it without using your hands to maintain balance.

Ways to Progress

• Elevate the front leg as well to increase the range of motion.

• Once using just your body weight isn't a challenge anymore you can start using dumbbells. Hold a dumbbell in both hands. Ensure your form is still the same with your core braced and your is chest up. People are often a bit slack when it comes to bracing with this exercise as it doesn't involve heavy weights as exercises as the squat or deadlift do. You still need to treat bracing as seriously.
• As you get stronger you might find using two heavy dumbbells to be awkward. Some people then use a barbell which is a good option. I like to use the safety bar instead. The safety bar is perfect for Bulgarian split squats as you don't even need to hold on to the handles and it will still stay in place.

What if Bulgarian Split Squats Cause Knee Pain?

• Be sure to distribute your weight evenly across the front foot. Often people will roll forward onto your toes, or back on your heel. Keep your whole foot on the floor.
• Make sure that your knee isn't moving side to side while performing the exercise. Lower yourself under control and don't rush the rep.

I'm Getting Hip Flexor Pain, What is Causing it?

• It could be that the bench you're resting your back foot on is too high. Try using a lower bench and see if that sorts out the problem.
• You're driving your back leg into the bench too hard to assist the front leg. You want your front leg to do as much of the work as you can and your back foot just lightly touching the bench to help you maintain your balance.
• Your front foot is too far forward. This could cause you to feel a strain in your hip flexor as it's in a stretched position as you squat down. Bring your foot back a few inches until you no longer feel any discomfort.

​Chris Adams 
Personal Trainer 
Nottingham