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Split squats two ways – Rear foot elevated vs Front foot elevated.
Split squats can be performed MANY different ways. We can change them via foot position or elevation and how we load them. So, before we dive into the brain gains…
Important things to note in this post:
🦵🏽A split squat, by nature, is stationary – meaning the feet are in fixed position, and the body moves up and down in said stance.
🦵🏽There can be WIDE variance within both of these movements when it comes to stance depth and width, shin angles and chest angles, as well as where and how we load them.
🦵🏽You could do either movement with a barbell, front rack, back rack, with two dumbbells, one dumbbell, so on and so forth.
All of these variations would feel slightly different.
I used to do Bulgarians with a much more vertical shin angle, now I prefer knee over toe.
And remember, one size does not fit all.
Swipe for all the brain gains:
If you work with me you’ll often see them abbreviated, so FFESS = front foot elevated split squat and BFESS/RFESS = back foot or rear foot elevated split squats. Also known as Bulgarian split squats.
As I mentioned before, you can adjust your stance within the movement to feel or work different muscles. For examples, both FFESS and BFESS can be quad OR glute dominant depending on your position.
Technically both are fixed movements but you can also perform FFESS like a step back lunge. For BFESS it is always in a fixed position, but you can adjust your back foot to be dorsi or plantar flexed.
Drop questions below and tell me WHICH YOU PREFER >> front foot or rear foot split squats? You already know I LOVE the devil that is rear foot.
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I'm an adventurous introvert from Vancouver, Washington who lives on sleep + "me time." I'm a lover of lifting weights, dinosaurs, real talk and traveling with my husband. I am here to help you move better, lift more, bust the myths of the fitness industry, and inspire you to love the process.
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