Bulgarian split squat: how to do it for glutes or quads

Muscles the Bulgarian split squat works

The Bulgarian split squat works the front of the thigh (quadriceps) and the glutes of your front leg hardest. The hamstrings help. The muscles at your sides (obliques) and the smaller glute on the side of your hip keep you from tipping over.

The front leg does almost all the work. In a study of 26 trained men and 715 reps, the front foot made about 84% of the force against the floor. The back leg mostly holds your balance.

Compared with a two-leg squat, the hamstrings worked harder in 2 studies, by 63% to 77% in one of them. In that study of 15 trained men, the obliques worked 58% to 62% harder, and the big quad muscles about as hard. These studies measure electrical activity with sensors on the skin (EMG), in 9 to 21 people each. That shows which muscles fire, not which ones grow.

We found only one study that measured muscle growth from this lift. In 24 trained men, 6 weeks of 4 sets of 10 at 80% of their max grew the outer quad by 9.3%. We found no study that measured glute growth from it.

Is it better than the back squat? A review of 9 studies found no difference in muscle growth between one-leg and two-leg training. In 18 young rugby players, 5 weeks of only rear-foot-elevated split squats raised their back squat max as much as back squats did.

How to do a Bulgarian split squat

1. Stand with your back to a flat bench at knee height or a little lower, about one long stride in front of it.
2. Hold a dumbbell in each hand, arms hanging straight at your sides.
3. Reach one foot back and rest the top of it on the bench, laces down. If that hurts your ankle, tuck your toes onto the edge.
4. Set your feet about hip width apart side to side, not on one line.
5. Do one slow rep without weight. If your front heel lifts at the bottom, move the front foot forward.
6. Brace your trunk and lean your chest slightly forward from the hips, with your back flat.
7. Bend your front knee and lower your hips straight down, until your back knee is just above the floor.
8. Push through your whole front foot to stand up, with your front knee in line with your middle toes.
9. Finish all your reps on one leg, then do the same number on the other.

Breathe in and brace at the top, and breathe out as you stand.

Glutes or quads: what your stance changes

You can tilt the Bulgarian split squat towards your glutes or your quads, but never all the way. Four things move the balance.

• Foot distance: a longer step works the glutes more. In a split squat study of 20 men, glute activity rose with step length. The steps ran from half a leg length to 1.2 leg lengths. The load on the knee fell slightly. The authors suggested a step about as long as your leg.
• Torso lean: leaning forward works the glutes and hamstrings more. In 21 trained female athletes, a forward lean raised glute and hamstring activity in the Bulgarian split squat. Staying upright does not switch the glutes off. In 9 trained men doing the lift with body weight, the back leg pressing into the bench made up most of the load on the front hip.
• Depth: go deep. In 20 trained women at 80% of their max, the glutes, hamstrings and quads all worked hardest in the bottom third of the rep. At the bottom, the front hip worked 44% harder than each hip in a back squat, in 8 rugby players lifting their 10-rep max.
• Back foot height: no study ties bench height to glutes or quads. One small study of 21 men found no clear difference between a box at shin height and one half as high. Pick the lowest bench that lets you reach full depth.

Most of this is EMG from small groups. A longer step and a slight lean are a reasonable way to bias your glutes, but no study shows they grow them more.

For the most glute work, pair it with a hip thrust. In the study of 20 trained women, the hip thrust worked the glutes hardest at the top and the split squat at the bottom. Over the whole rep, the split squat worked the outer quad harder: 59.4% of a maximal contraction against 43.6%.

Where the advice differs

Most Bulgarian split squat technique is coaching habit, not tested in studies. A review of 20 studies found that even researchers set the lift up in many different ways and rarely described how.

Common mistakes and how to fix them

Sets, reps and rest for the Bulgarian split squat

There is no single right number. The table is a starting point built on the research on lifting in general. Count reps and sets per leg.

Do one leg, then the other, and take the full rest after both. On Strength Level, a site where lifters log their sets, 3 sets of 10 is the most logged workout for this lift.

What the studies show:

• Heavy weights build more strength. Muscle grows about as well with light or heavy weights, if the sets go close to failure.
• More weekly sets bring more muscle, up to a point. Strength gains level off sooner.
• With the same weekly sets, training a muscle more often does not add size.
• You do not need to reach failure. On this lift, the last grinding reps are where balance slips and the front knee caves in, so stop a rep or 2 short.
• In trained men, 3-minute rests built more thigh muscle than 1-minute rests. A review of 9 studies found little extra muscle from resting longer than about 90 seconds.

For longer answers, read how many sets and reps build muscle and how long to rest between sets.

Warm-up sets before your Bulgarian split squats

Do 2 or 3 lighter sets per leg before your working sets:

• body weight for 8 to 10 reps, which also checks your foot position
• dumbbells about half your working weight for 5 reps
• dumbbells about 80% of your working weight for 3 reps, before heavy sets

Only one part of that has studies behind it, and they tested the squat, the bench press and the leg press. In 2 of them, a warm-up set at about 80% of the working weight helped the sets that followed more than lighter warm-ups did. A third found that the kind of warm-up made no difference. The bodyweight set and the exact numbers are habit, and no study shows that warm-up sets prevent injury.

After squats or deadlifts, one bodyweight set per leg to find your stance is usually enough.

How much weight for Bulgarian split squats?

No strong standard exists. No sport competes in the Bulgarian split squat, so there are no meet results to build one from. The one table we found comes from what gym app users log, with no check on depth or form.

Strength Level builds its dumbbell Bulgarian split squat table from 482,453 lifts its users logged from 2019 to 2026. After checks for implausible and duplicate entries, 103,979 results remained. It lists one-rep maxes (1RM, the most weight you can lift once) for one dumbbell:

The weight is one dumbbell, and you hold one in each hand. An intermediate woman's 20 kg means a 20 kg dumbbell in each hand, 40 kg in total. For an adjustable dumbbell, the handle counts too.

The table also scales with body weight. Intermediate starts at about 0.4 times body weight for men and 0.35 for women: 33 kg for an 80 kg man and 20 kg for a 60 kg woman, per dumbbell.

To pick a starting weight, begin with body weight. Once 2 to 3 sets of 10 to 12 per leg feel steady, pick up dumbbells. Choose ones you can lift 10 to 12 times with 2 or 3 reps to spare. Add reps until every set reaches the top of your range on both legs, then move up. Gym dumbbells usually go up 2 to 2.5 kg (5 lb) at a time, a big jump on one leg. The dumbbell-only plan covers that jump, and progressive overload the idea behind it.

Under 18? The table is for adults and sets no target for teenagers. Steady balance and slow progress matter more than any number on it.

Find your Bulgarian split squat max

You do not need to test a max on this lift. Type the weight of one dumbbell and the reps you did on one leg, and the calculator estimates your max with 7 formulas. Sets of 10 reps or fewer give the closest estimate.

On a one-leg dumbbell lift, use the number to compare your own sets over time. Balance can end a set before your legs do, and a different bench changes the lift, so keep your setup the same. For more detail, open the 1RM calculator.

Balance, the bench and the dumbbells

A failed rep on this lift is usually a wobble, not a weight stuck on your back. Set up so that a wobble does no harm.

• Use a solid bench that will not slide or tip. Standing on a foam cushion cut the weight people could lift by 7% to 10%.
• Learn the setup with body weight, holding a rack upright with one hand until you stop wobbling.
• Dumbbells are the safe default: if you lose your balance, you drop them and step down. A barbell on your back is harder to escape. Use a Smith machine, or a rack with the safety arms set just below the bar's lowest point.
• Lifting straps help when your grip gives out before your legs. They also tie your hands to the dumbbells, so use them once your balance is steady.
• To end a set, step your back foot down before you put the dumbbells down.

When the Bulgarian split squat hurts

Pain is a reason to change something, not to push through. Diagnosis and treatment belong to a physiotherapist or a doctor.

• Front knee: move your front foot further forward, go a little less deep and use lighter dumbbells for a few weeks. In 20 trained men, the Bulgarian split squat bent the knee less than the back squat, and both worked the hip more than the knee.
• Front of the back hip or thigh: lower the bench and shorten your step a little. The front thigh muscle of the back leg (rectus femoris) works hard here. In a computer model of 11 people, it carried more force in split squats than in deadlifts or good mornings.
• Top of the back foot: put a folded towel under it, or tuck your toes onto the edge of the bench.
• Lower back: lean a little less, brace before each rep, and check that the bench is not so high it arches your back.
• A sudden sharp pain, a pop or a knee that gives way needs a doctor soon.

For lasting pain, read what to do when a lift hurts.

Bulgarian split squat variations and alternatives

In Trackist's exercise library, the Bulgarian split squat sits in one group with 12 other one-leg movements: the bodyweight Bulgarian split squat, the bodyweight split squat, the walking lunge, the reverse lunge, the bodyweight lunge, the curtsy lunge, the lateral lunge, the sandbag lunge, the dumbbell step-up, the bodyweight step-up, the pistol squat and the shrimp squat. The app's Bulgarian split squat page lists them as similar movements. When you swap it for one session or for the rest of your plan, the picker puts that group first, then other quad exercises, starting with those your equipment and joints allow.

How Trackist runs your Bulgarian split squat

Trackist is an AI personal trainer for the gym. It writes your plan, and the Bulgarian split squat gets this from the app:

• The card asks for reps per side and the weight per side, so you log each leg the way you train it.
• From your second session of the split squat, Trackist suggests what to try from the last time you logged it. When every set at your top weight reached the top of the rep range, it adds 2 kg (5 lb). Inside the range, it keeps the weight and asks for more reps. There is no suggestion in a deload week.
• When you fall short of the reps, it keeps the weight, takes about 5% off or leaves the call to you, depending on how far short you fell and how hard the sets felt.
• From your second session, it logs a personal record when you beat your heaviest weight, your most reps at a weight or your best estimated max.
• The exercise page shows 4 form cues, the muscles worked and the joints the split squat loads: the knee and the hip. From your second session, it adds a chart of your estimated one-rep max.
• When your knee hurts on the Bulgarian split squat, you report it and rate it from 1 to 5. Trackist swaps it for a quad exercise without a deep knee bend, such as the leg extension. Your profile remembers that deep knee bends hurt, so later plans leave out squats and lunges that load the knee, and keep hip hinges such as the Romanian deadlift.
• When your hip hurts, Trackist swaps in another one-leg exercise that leaves the hip out, such as the reverse lunge or the step-up. Later plans leave out the squats and split squats that load the hip in a deep bend. The walking lunge, the reverse lunge, step-ups and hip hinges stay.
• The Bulgarian split squat does not count towards your Strength Score, which Trackist works out from squats, hip hinges, presses and pulls.