Home > Fitness Training > Exercise Database > Home > Bucket Squats

This exercise is part of the home fitness program, fitness you can do at home with minimal equipment.

Equipment Required: 2 x buckets

Technique

1. Fill each bucket with water to an appropriate level (mark the bucket so you can replicate the same level next time).
2. Position your feet flat on the floor, about shoulder width apart (toes slightly turned out), with a bucket in each hand.
3. Keep looking straight ahead.
4. Slowly descend until the thighs are parallel to the floor, hold for a second, then push back up to the starting position
5. Maintain the body in an upright position and avoid leaning forward.
6. Always inhale your breath on the way down, and exhale as you stand up.

Key points to remember

• Use a nice fluid motion and don’t bounce at the bottom.
• Keep the abdominals tight and the lower back straight and your head up, looking straight ahead.

Alternatives

• Instead of a bucket of water you can also increase the workload by holding weights in your hands, such as a shopping bag with tinned food in it.
• If the bucket technique is too hard, you can do it without any weights and hold onto something to give you some support, i.e. a desk or chair.
• Increase the intensity by pausing for a longer period in the lowered position.
• See also the similar Single-Leg Squat and the Wall Squat Exercise.

Related Pages

• More of fitness at home
• Bodyweight Squats
• Gym Exercises - the Squat
• Hack Squat Exercise
• Free weights for sale in the fitness store
• Squats with dumbbells
• Squats at the beach
• Squats during pregnancy
• Are squats bad for your knees? - the squat myth

Any comments, suggestions, or corrections? Please let us know.