Boost Your Total-Body Fitness With the Squat Thruster

If you think of squat variations as different types of salsa, the air squat might be your average mild option — and the squat thruster, aka dumbbell thruster, is the spiciest of the mix. This full-body exercise takes your squat dreams to new heights by incorporating an overhead press.

That means the squat thruster not only targets your lower half but also works your upper body. Here's everything you need to know about squat thrusters and how to do them with effective form.

• ‌What is a squat thruster?‌ It's a compound exercise that involves holding weight (often dumbbells, a barbell or kettlebells) by your shoulders and then squatting down and pressing the weight overhead in one fluid motion.
• ‌What muscles does the squat thruster work?‌ The squat thruster primarily targets your quads, glutes and shoulders, says Patrick Bryan, CSCS, a certified strength and conditioning specialist and regional fitness manager at Orangetheory Fitness. But it also activates your core and works your triceps, too, when doing the overhead press, says Zach Ray, DPT, SCS, a physical therapist and founder of Live Athletics.
• ‌Who can do squat thrusters?‌ Nearly anyone can do this exercise, however, those who have pain squatting or pressing overhead should avoid it. "Usually, the thruster's limiting factor is the weight selection. Because of this, most people can do this exercise if they choose the appropriate weights," Bryan says.

Because the squat thruster is a combination of a weighted squat and overhead press, it is very effective in training your upper- and lower-body muscles, including your quads, glutes, core, shoulders, upper chest muscles and triceps.

"You're using the lower half of your body to generate some of the force on the upper body, which is really good for people to understand how to do," Ray says.

That's because you're learning how to incorporate your full body in one fluid motion:

• ‌Core:‌ Throughout the exercise, you'll brace your core to help stabilize your upper body and maintain your balance.
• ‌Lower Body:‌ During the squat, you'll activate your quads and glutes, as well as your hamstrings, Ray says.
• ‌Upper Body:‌ As you press the weight overhead from the bottom of the squat, your upper chest and shoulders will assist.
• ‌Triceps:‌ You'll also engage your triceps because you have to lock out your elbows at the top of the movement.

Overhead pressing can be difficult for a lot of people because it requires good shoulder mobility and rotator cuff strength. The squat thruster enables you to recruit the muscles in your legs to generate power so that you can press the weight overhead instead of strictly using your upper body, Ray says. It also helps you learn how to stabilize weight overhead using your core.

"In this exercise, the weight will jump off your shoulders after the hips extend because we are driving through the ground aggressively with our lower bodies. For a fraction of a second, this allows the weight to move vertically without any tension on the shoulders at all," Bryan says.

"It takes the very bottom of a strict press out of the equation. Our shoulders do not start pressing until the dumbbells [or kettlebells, weight plate or barbell] stop moving vertically from our lower body's efforts."

If done correctly, the squat thruster employs three different movement patterns: the hip hinge, squat and press, which are all essential for performing daily tasks, like lifting something heavy off the ground and placing the object on a top shelf, Ray says. (FYI, you basically squat every day when you sit down from standing.) These three movement patterns target your quads, glutes, shoulders and core — important muscle groups we use regularly.

"Whether we are reaching overhead for a bowl in the cabinet or picking up a laundry basket around the house, these are muscles that we use in our everyday lives. The longer we keep these muscles strong, the longer we can live without assistance in doing daily activities," Bryan says.

The squat thruster is all about using explosive power from your legs to drive weight overhead. Everyone can benefit from learning how to generate force from the ground up. It's an essential skill not only for sports performance but also for daily life.

"When doing a thruster, not only are you working most of the muscles in your body, but you're also teaching yourself to be explosive. Thrusters are a great way to activate our fast-twitch muscle fibers that sometimes are neglected by the general population. These muscle fibers are the ones that help us generate a ton of power in a short amount of time," Bryan says.

Compound exercises with explosive movements, like the squat thruster, are going to increase your heart rate because you want to move weight down and up as fast as possible, Ray says.

"The great thing about thrusters is that they can improve your overall strength with low reps and long rests, but they can also improve your cardiovascular health with higher reps and shorter rests," Bryan says. "It only takes a few reps of thrusters to send your heart rate sky-high because you're using so many muscles at an explosive tempo. You get a high return on your overall physical fitness in a low amount of time with the thruster."

This often means that you're not engaging your core while squatting. It can also be a sign that you're lifting weights that are too heavy too soon. Use your normal squat weight, or choose slightly lighter weights to start and gradually add load as you get stronger.

You want to make sure that you're bracing your core as you descend into the squat and drive the weights upward explosively. Bracing your core helps keep your upper body stable while also taking pressure off your lower back, Ray says.

Many people may rush through their reps and not squat low enough to reap the full glute and quad benefits of this move. Ideally, you want to aim for a squat depth where your thighs are at least parallel to the ground.

According to a June 2019 article in the ‌European Journal of Applied Physiology‌, full squat training activates the gluteus maximus (largest glute muscle) and adductor muscles (inner thigh muscles) significantly more than half squat training.

If you're able to get lower than parallel, that's even better, but you should work within your range of motion and squat as deep as you can while maintaining safe and effective form, Ray says. Just remember to keep your feet anchored to the ground at all times and avoid lifting your toes and heels.

If this is happening, it usually means that your ankle and front-rack mobility could use some work, Bryan says.

"Improving ankle mobility will help the knees travel forward naturally, causing the torso to stay more vertical. Improving front-rack mobility, specifically in the lats, can help keep your elbows high during the exercise," he says.

The squat thruster is an explosive exercise where you're using power from your legs to punch the weights overhead. To increase your explosiveness, Bryan suggests envisioning jumping from the bottom of the squat. Generating force from your lower body will help you "jump" the weights off your shoulders.

Again, you want the weight to jump off your shoulders so that the transition from the squat to the press is one seamless move. Try doing a few explosive reps without incorporating your upper body. This will help you get a better sense of how it feels for the weights to jump off your shoulders, Bryan says.

If you would like to improve your squat depth and ensure you're activating your glutes, Ray recommends sitting on an exercise box or bench and starting the exercise from the bottom of the squat. This modification allows you to add load while ensuring that you're hinging your hips back and squatting deep enough to reap the glute-building benefits.

A regression of the thruster, the push press involves squatting down only a few inches by slightly bending your knees. "You could think of this as a dip of the hips rather than a squat," Bryan says.

Using one weight will challenge your balance and core strength more to help you stabilize, which makes this variation a progression of the squat thruster. "It will take a lot of stability to keep your shoulders level and avoid leaning toward one direction," Bryan says.