The Cossack squat is a deep squat to one side. From a wide stance you sit down over one leg while the other stays straight, toes pointing at the ceiling, then come back up and go the other way. The coaches cited here teach it as both a squat and a stretch.
Nobody is credited with inventing or naming it; a web search on October 30, 2026 found no originator. Jenn Pilotti traces the name to the hopak, a dance the Cossacks are said to have improvised after battle, in which the squat was a passing position rather than something repeated for reps. Brolic lists it as Cossack Squat (Bodyweight), with “Bodyweight Cossack Squat” as an alias, and Cossack Squat (Dumbbell), with “Dumbbell Cossack Squat”. Both are logged per side: one set covers both sides, and reps are counted per side.
Muscles worked
Brolic tags the quadriceps as the primary muscle group for both entries, with the abdominals, glutes and hamstrings as secondary; the dumbbell entry adds the adductors.
The coaches talk more about what it stretches. Tom Morrison names the hips, the ankles and the stretch on the straight leg; Daniel Vadnal of FitnessFAQs uses it to open up the hips and hamstrings before squatting. Brian Campbell, a physical therapist, wants it felt in the glute and the lower abdominals, not as a pinch at the front of the hip.
No published study measures it: a PubMed search for “Cossack squat” on October 30, 2026 returned one paper, on rhythmic gymnasts, in which “Cossack” names a leap, not this squat.
Set the stance
Stand with the feet wider than shoulder width. Turn the squatting foot out, about 30 to 40 degrees for Vadnal, 45 for Campbell, and keep that heel on the floor.
Keep the other leg straight, toes up. Vadnal and Campbell both lift the straight leg’s toes toward the ceiling.
Brace before you move. Campbell tightens the lower abdominals before the first rep and keeps the trunk rigid; Vadnal wants a tall spine, chest up.
Squat to one side
Sit down over the bent leg, knee out. That is Vadnal’s cue. Campbell keeps the weight on the inside of the foot, big toe down, and pushes down through that foot to stand.
Do not round or tip forward. Vadnal names upper-back rounding at the bottom and leaning too far forward as the faults.
Go down slowly. Vadnal’s rule is not to load yourself into a position you cannot handle. Campbell controls the descent and rises a little faster.
Coaches differ on the knee. Vadnal calls knees drifting forward a bad transition and drives the knee back until it sits vertically over the ankle. Campbell lets the knees travel as far forward as they want to go, and Morrison works the knee further over the toe as a mobility goal.
Stand up or stay low. The figure in the loop at the top stands up between reps. Morrison’s “low Cossack switches” stay down and drive from one side to the other.
| Cossack squat | Low Cossack switch | Two-legged squat | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Working leg | One, then the other | One, then the other | Both at once |
| Between sides | Stand up | Stay low and shift across | Not applicable |
| Other leg | Straight, toes up | Straight, toes up | Bent the same way |
No trial compares it with a squat or a lunge, so the table ranks nothing.
Make it easier or harder
Hold on. Morrison has you hold a doorframe or post to take the balance out and walk yourself down as far as you can, five minutes at a time, then let go and try the full version.
Tap a bench. Campbell has beginners touch a bench behind them to control the range, then remove it. Vadnal starts beginners on what he calls the four-point Cossack squat.
Let the heel rise for now. If ankle range is the limit, Morrison has you lift the heel, sink as close to it as you can, then work it back to the floor.
Hold a weight in front. Vadnal finds it keeps the upper back extended and acts as a mild counterbalance; Campbell loads it heavier when that suits the purpose. Vadnal’s advanced step is sitting down and back to a small box, weight in front, then progressing toward the floor and finally dropping the weight.
Reps. Campbell uses 10 to 15 per side for a couple of sets, or timed sets of 30 to 60 seconds.
Logging
Brolic logs both entries per side: one logged set covers both sides, and the rep count is per side, so 8 reps means 8 to the left and 8 to the right, as in the B-stance Romanian deadlift. The bodyweight entry has no weight field; Brolic counts part of your logged body weight as the load. For the dumbbell entry, enter the weight of the dumbbell. For Campbell’s timed sets, count the reps on each side.
In the set’s note, write any support (bench, box, post or a raised heel) and whether you stood up between sides or stayed low; a bench-tap rep and a full-depth rep are not the same set. The free workout log has room for it, and the weekly set tally shows how these sets add to your quadriceps work.
Common questions
Stretch or strength exercise? Both, by these coaches’ account: Vadnal and Morrison teach it mainly for hip mobility, and Campbell also loads it for reps. Nothing establishes that it builds more muscle than a two-legged squat.
My knee or hip hurts. Shorten the range and use the bench or a post. If it still hurts, stop; pain is not a cue to work through.
Sources and method
- FitnessFAQs: How to Cossack squat — Daniel Vadnal on the stance, foot angle, knee and chest cues and the progressions; the channel’s own captions.
- Tom Morrison: Learn how to Cossack squat — low switches, post support and the heel lift; automatic captions.
- Dr. Brian Campbell, Performance PT: How to do Cossack squats — toe angle, the bench, the big-toe and bracing cues, the knees, reps and timed sets; automatic captions.
- Jenn Pilotti: Cossack squats, an origin story (2023) — the hopak and the passing position.
- PubMed search for “Cossack squat” on October 30, 2026 — one result, Di Cagno et al. (2009), on gymnastics leaps.
- Brolic catalog — names, aliases, per-side logging and muscle tags for both entries.
Foot angles, rep counts and durations are the coaches’ starting points, not optima established by a trial.
