Dragon Squat Guide: Muscles Worked, How-To, Benefits, and Alternatives – Fitness Volt (2023)

According to a veteran athletics coach I used to know, a workout is not a workout without squats. Invariably, he meant front or back squats. Still, there are plenty of other similarly effective leg exercises you can do instead, including leg presses, dumbbell lunges, and high step-ups.

But what if you are a calisthenic fan and only do bodyweight exercises? How do you overload your lower body with such limited resistance?

One way to train your legs with calisthenics is high-rep training. Sets of 50-100 bodyweight squats and lunges will leave your quads, glutes, and hamstrings pumped, burning, and screaming for mercy.

Or, you can make the shift to single-leg or unilateral leg exercises, such as shrimp squats and pistols. Both of these exercises involve as much balance and flexibility as they do strength, making them very functional movements.

But where do you go once you’ve mastered pistols? We think we’ve found the answer!

Take your calisthenic leg workout to a higher level with dragon squats. We explain why and how to do this ultra-challenging leg exercise.

Dragon Squat – Muscles Worked

Dragon squats are a unilateral compound exercise, meaning they train one leg at a time and involve several joints and muscles working together. The main muscles that you train during dragon squats are:

Quadriceps

The quadriceps, or quads for short, are the muscles on the fronts of your thighs. There are four quadriceps muscles: the rectus femoris, vastus lateralis, vastus medialis, and vastus intermedius. The quads work together to extend your knees, and the rectus femoris is also a hip flexor. Most people feel dragon squats in their quads more than any other muscle group.

Hamstrings

The hamstrings are a group of three muscles located on the back of your thighs. There are three hamstrings: the biceps femoris, semimembranosus, and semitendinosus. These muscles work together to flex your knees and extend your hips.

Gluteus maximus

The gluteus maximus is the largest muscle in the human body, and you’re currently sitting on yours! Known as the glute max, or just the glutes, this muscle is primarily responsible for extending your hip. However, it also plays a lesser role in hip external rotation and abduction.

Hip abductors

The hip abductors lift your legs out and away from the midline of your body. During dragon squats, they help prevent your supporting knee from caving inward. The hip abductors are gluteus minimus, gluteus medius, and tensor fascia latae, which are located on the outside of your hips and thighs, respectively.

Hip adductors

Located on the inside of your thighs, the hip adductors draw your legs into the midline of your body. During dragon squats, they help stop your knees from falling outward. The three adductor muscles are longus, brevis, and magnus, meaning longest, shortest, and biggest.

Gastrocnemius and soleus

These two muscles make up your calves and are collectively known as the triceps surae. While dragon squats are not an obvious calf exercise, you’ll need to use your lower legs to stabilize your ankles and maintain your balance.

Core

Core is the collective term for the muscles that encircle your midsection and support your lumbar spine. These include the rectus abdominis, obliques, and transverse abdominis. You’ll need to use your core to keep your lumbar spine stationary and in good posture, as you do each rep of dragon squat.

How to Do Dragon Squats

Get more from dragon squats while keeping your risk of injury to a minimum by following these guidelines:

1. Stand with your feet together and your arms slightly raised out to the sides for balance. Brace your core and pull your shoulders down and back.
2. Shift your weight over onto one leg.
3. Standing on one leg, squat down and cross your non-weight-bearing behind your supporting leg. Next, swing your non-weight-bearing leg forward to the front without letting it touch the ground. Keep this leg straight. Move your arms for balance as required.
4. Descend as far down as you can, then hold the squat for 3-5 seconds.
5. Drive your foot into the floor and stand back up.
6. Do another rep on the same side or switch legs as preferred.

Dragon Squat Benefits

Not sure if dragon squats are the right exercise for you? Consider these benefits and then decide!

No equipment required

As you don’t need any weights or a power rack to do dragon squats, you can do them anywhere and anytime. Dragon squats are an excellent option if you prefer to work out with calisthenics instead of training equipment.

A very challenging exercise

If you can do bodyweight squats by the hundred and pistols no longer present much difficulty, you’ll enjoy the challenge of learning and mastering dragon squats. Doing the same exercises over and over is a good way to get stuck in a workout rut, so take your leg workouts to a new, higher level with dragon squats.

Good for mobility and balance

Mobility is your ability to actively move your joints through a large range of motion, while balance is your ability to keep your center of mass over your base of support. Dragon squats require and develop both of these fitness components. Balance and mobility are critical in most sports, and also tend to decrease with age and lack of use.

Because they exist!

A lot of calisthenic practitioners like to do exercises because they’re so challenging. For example, planch and handstand push-ups, front and back levers, and pistol and dragon squats.

They treat these movements almost like gymnastic skills and do them less for their training effect but just because they’re there to be mastered. They want to train to do these moves cleanly and with good style.

There are lots of more straightforward ways to train your legs. Still, if you want to test your skills, balance, and mobility, dragon squats are like the Mount Everest of calisthenic leg exercises!

Drawbacks

While dragon squats are a mostly beneficial exercise, there are also a few drawbacks to consider:

Technical difficulty

Make no mistake, dragon squats are a very challenging exercise. Pulling off even one clean rep may take weeks or months or practice. You’ll need excellent mobility, flexibility, and balance to do them. If you haven’t mastered pistols and shrimp squats, you should avoid trying dragon squats until you do. Dragon squats are NOT suitable for beginners!

Risk of injury

The difficulty of dragon squats means a lot can go wrong when you’re doing this exercise. For starters, you could lose your balance and fall on your butt! Your knees and hips are also under a lot of stress, and balancing on one leg challenges your joints more than bilateral or two-legged exercises. This is not a good exercise for anyone with pre-existing hip or knee injuries.

That said, injuries can happen during any exercise, even fundamental movements like two-legged bodyweight squats and regular push-ups. That said, dragon squats are probably riskier than most other calisthenic leg exercises.

7 Dragon Squat Variations and Alternatives

Dragon squats are a highly effective bodyweight leg exercise, but that doesn’t mean you need to do them all the time. They may even be too demanding for you right now. The good news is that there are several variations and alternatives you can use to develop your strength and keep your workouts productive and interesting:

1. Pistol squat

Pistol squats are a pre-requisite for dragon squats, so if you can’t do pistols, you should start your single-leg-squat odyssey here! Pistols are a big step up from regular two-footed squats. So, just because you can do 100 bodyweight squats, don’t expect to be able to start doing pistols right away.

Steps:

1. Stand with your feet together, arms by your sides. Shift your weight over onto one leg and raise your arms in front of you.
2. Extend your non-weight-bearing leg in front of you and squat down until your hamstrings are resting on your calf. Lean forward and extend your arms to the front to maintain your balance. Keep your non-weight-bearing leg off the floor.
3. Drive your foot into the floor and stand up.
4. Do another rep on the same leg, or swap sides and repeat.

Muscles Targeted:

Primary: Quadriceps, hamstrings, gluteus maximus.

Secondary: Abductors, adductors, core.

Benefits:

• A good training exercise for dragon squats.
• An excellent way to overload your legs using just your body weight.
• Develops high levels of balance and stability.

Tips:

• Lower your butt down to a chair or box if you cannot descend all the way without losing your balance.
• Hold a small weight in your hands and extend your arms in front of you to make balancing a little easier.
• You can also do this exercise with a TRX or suspension trainer for assistance, like this:

Related: How To Do The Pistol Squat For Jacked Legs

2. Shrimp squat

The shrimp squat is a little easier to master than pistols. So, if you can’t do pistols, make shrimp squats your new go-to unilateral leg exercise. This move will develop the strength and balance you need to do pistols and dragon squats, but you don’t need the mobility of an elite gymnast to do them.

Steps:

1. Stand with your feet together, arms by your sides. Pull your shoulders down and back and look straight ahead.
2. Bend one leg and pull your foot up to your butt. Grab your ankle with the same side hand.
3. Extend your other arm out in front of you for balance.
4. Bend your supporting leg and descend until your rear knee lightly touches the floor.
5. Drive your foot into the floor and stand back up.
6. Continue for the required number of reps and then switch sides. Try to do the same number of reps on each leg.

Muscles Targeted:

• Primary: Quadriceps, hamstrings, gluteus maximus.
• Secondary: Abductors, adductors, core.

Benefits:

• More accessible than dragon and pistol squats.
• An excellent way to develop strength and balance, even if your mobility is a little lacking.
• A very lower-back-friendly exercise.

Tips:

• Stand on a raised step to increase your range of motion and make this exercise more challenging.
• Make this exercise more comfortable by lowering your knee to a foam pad or folded mat. Rest your knee on the pad between reps if required.
• Like pistols, you can also do shrimp squats using a suspension trainer for assistance:

3. Curtsey lunge

The curtsey lunge is so-called because, when you do it, you look a little like you are greeting royalty! Cutesy-sounding names aside, this is a great exercise for getting used to taking your non-dominant leg behind you. However, you are allowed to ground your foot, so it’s nowhere near as demanding as dragon squats. Still, you’ve got to start somewhere, right?!

Steps:

1. Stand with your feet together and your arms by your sides. Hold dumbbells if you wish. Brace your core and pull your shoulders down and back. Look straight ahead.
2. Step back and across, so your foot travels outside your weight-bearing foot.
3. Bend your legs and lower your rear knee down to the floor.
4. Push off your rear leg to return to the starting position.
5. Repeat on the other side and then alternate legs for the remainder of your set.

Muscles Targeted:

• Primary: Quadriceps, hamstrings, gluteus maximus.
• Secondary: Abductors, adductors, core.

Benefits:

• Easier to learn than dragon squats.
• Scalable by adding more weight or doing as a bodyweight exercise.
• An excellent glute-building exercise.

Tips:

• Do this exercise with or without weights as preferred.
• Start each rep standing on a raised platform to increase your range of motion and increase glute engagement.
• Take care not to twist your hips or knees, which could cause joint pain or injury.

Related: Curtsy Lunge Exercise Guide

4. Lateral box step downs

While this exercise might not look much like dragon squats, it actually shares some major similarities. For starters, you’ll be lifting and lowering your body weight using mostly one leg. However, in terms of mobility and balance, it’s a lot easier. Use this exercise to prepare your muscles and joints for the demands of dragon squats.

Steps:

1. Stand on top of a high step on one leg. Extend your arms in front of you for balance.
2. Bend your supporting leg and descend until your opposite foot lightly touches the floor.
3. Using your opposite leg as little as possible, drive your supporting foot down and push yourself back up to standing.
4. Repeat for the desired number of reps.

Muscles Targeted:

• Primary: Quadriceps, hamstrings, gluteus maximus.
• Secondary: Abductors, adductors, core.

Benefits:

• This exercise requires minimal balance or mobility, so it’s a good choice for beginners.
• Start developing the single-leg strength necessary to perform more demanding unilateral exercises, including shrimp, pistol, and dragon squats.
• Easy to progress or regress by adjusting how much you use your non-supporting leg.

Tips:

• Pull up your toes on your non-working leg so you can’t push off with it, and more work goes to your supporting leg.
• Hold dumbbells in your hands to make this exercise more demanding.
• The higher the step, the harder this exercise becomes:

5. Deficit reverse lunge

This is another exercise that looks very little like dragon squats but still works many of the same muscles. However, unlike most other unilateral leg exercises, not all your weight is on one leg. In fact, you should have 60% of your weight on your front leg and only 40% on the rear.

Steps:

1. Stand with your feet together on a four to eight-inch box.
2. Take a large step back, bend your legs, and lower your rear knee down, so it’s below the level of your front foot.
3. Push off your back leg and return to the starting position.
4. Repeat on the same side or alternate legs as preferred.

Muscles Targeted:

• Primary: Quadriceps, hamstrings, gluteus maximus.
• Secondary: Abductors, adductors, core.

Benefits:

• Very little balance is required.
• A very knee and lower-back-friendly exercise.
• Provides an excellent glute and quadriceps workout.

Tips:

• You can also do this exercise with dumbbells or a barbell to make it harder.
• The higher the step, the more demanding this exercise becomes.
• Pause for 2-3 seconds at the bottom of each rep for a more intense workout.

6. Smith machine pistol squats

The hardest thing about pistols, dragons, and other single-leg squats is balancing. Most intermediate and advanced exercisers have the strength to perform these movements, but staying on one leg is a different challenge. Doing pistols with a Smith machine is like having training wheels!

Steps:

1. Stand with your feet together in the Smith machine and rest the bar across your upper back. Hold it in place with a slightly wider than shoulder-width grip.
2. Brace your core and shift your weight over onto one leg.
3. Bend your supporting knee and extend your non-weight-bearing leg out in front of you.
4. Squat down until your hamstrings touch your calf.
5. Stand back up and repeat.

Muscles Targeted:

• Primary: Quadriceps, hamstrings, gluteus maximus.
• Secondary: Abductors, adductors, core.

Benefits:

• No balance required – the Smith machine does all the balancing for you!
• A great way to develop unilateral strength.
• A very safe exercise; just twist the bar to lock it off if you cannot complete a rep.

Tips:

• Do not put any weight on the bar at first. Instead, just use it for balance rather than overload.
• Move your supporting leg slightly forward if you find it hard to do this exercise without losing your balance.
• Place a bench behind you and descend until your butt touches it if full range of motion reps are too hard right now.

7. Bulgarian split squat

When it comes to overloading one leg at a time, Bulgarian split squats are hard to beat. Your back leg provides a bit of balance and support, but most of the work is performed by your front leg. So, if you want to start doing more single-leg work but are a long way from doing dragon, pistol, or shrimp squats, Bulgarian split squats are an excellent place to start.

Steps:

1. Stand with your back to a knee-high exercise bench. Bend one leg and place the top of your foot on the bench. Adopt a split stance.
2. Bend your legs and lower your rear knee down to within an inch of the floor. Lean forward slightly, but do not round your lower back.
3. Stand back up and repeat.
4. Rest a moment, swap legs, and then do the same number of reps on the opposite side.

Muscles Targeted:

• Primary: Quadriceps, hamstrings, gluteus maximus.
• Secondary: Abductors, adductors, core.

Benefits:

• An excellent introduction to unilateral leg training.
• Good for hip mobility and balance.
• A very effective lower-body exercise.

Tips:

• You can do this exercise with dumbbells, a barbell, or a weighted vest to make it more challenging.
• Place your front foot on a raised step to increase your range of motion and the difficulty of this exercise.
• You can also do this exercise with your rear foot in a suspension trainer or gymnastic ring, like this:

Dragon Squat FAQs

Do you have a question about dragon squats? That’s okay because we’ve got the answers!

1. How many reps of dragon squats should I do?

The answer to this question is, how many reps CAN you do? Because dragon squats are a bodyweight exercise, you can’t change the load to do a specific number of reps. So, just do as many as it takes to get your muscles close to failure. Work on doing more reps per set over the coming weeks and months, so you continue to make progress and get stronger.

2. Are dragon squats good for building muscle?

While dragon squats have the potential to build muscle, you are more likely to reach technical failure before your muscles are stimulated enough to grow. In other words, you’ll probably lose your balance before your muscles are sufficiently tired.

In general, simpler, more stable exercises are better for hypertrophy because they let you train to failure without loss of technique. Better bodyweight exercises for hypertrophy include regular squats, Bulgarian split squats, and lunges.

3. Are dragon squats safe?

While you may be able to perform dragon squats safely, your risk of injury depends on your mobility, stability, strength, and joint health. Dragon squats are a very technically challenging exercise, and, as such, there is a lot that can go wrong while you are doing them.

Potential areas of risk are the knees and hips, which are exposed to lots of rotational and shearing force.

That said, if you are in good shape and have no musculoskeletal issues, you should be able to do Dragon squats with very few issues. However, there are definitely safer lower-body exercises you can do!

4. Which are better – shrimp, pistol, or dragon squats?

In terms of overload, there isn’t much to separate these exercises as they all involve lifting your body weight with one leg. However, regarding technical difficulty, shrimp squats are the easiest, dragon squats are the hardest, and pistols fall somewhere in between.

But does this mean that one exercise is better than the others? Probably not.

The best exercise is the one you enjoy, that’s right for your body type and that matches your training goal. For some, that may be dragon squats, while for others, it will be shrimps or pistols.

So, try them all to see which is best for your needs and goals.

5. Do I have to do single-leg exercises?

You can build plenty of strength and muscle size with bilateral leg exercises like squats, leg presses, and deadlifts. However, if you train with just your body weight for resistance, you may find that leg training becomes too easy to build muscle if you only do two-legged exercises. That is unless you enjoy doing very high-rep sets. Even then, easy workouts aren’t effective for muscle growth.

Unilateral or single-leg exercises let you load your legs with more weight without having to use barbells, dumbbells, or machines. They also provide a way to identify and fix any left-to-right strength imbalances.

Finally, unilateral leg exercises are usually more functional than their bilateral counterparts. Many everyday and athletic activities happen one leg at a time, e.g., running, kicking, jumping, etc., and two-legged training may not have much of an impact on your performance.

So, while you don’t HAVE to include single-leg exercises in your workouts, there are several compelling reasons that you should.

Closing Thoughts

There is no denying that dragon squats are a challenging exercise. However, at least some of that challenge comes from the technical difficulty of the movement rather than the overload on the working muscles. Dragon squats are almost as much a gymnastic move as they are a leg workout.

If you want an exercise to build quads that’ll make the Quadfather Tom Platz jealous, the dragon squat is not for you. However, suppose you want a move that challenges your balance, coordination, mobility, and strength and could take many workouts to master. In that case, the dragon squat could be just what you’ve been waiting for.

Personally, I like to work my legs hard without feeling like a gymnast, so I’ll be sticking to pistols and shrimp squats for the foreseeable future.