Exercise Spotlight: Landmine Belt Squat

A useful lower body exercise with minimal required equipment

The landmine belt squat is basically a minimalist leg press or hack squat, but with some differences. I use it with rowers to load the legs and hips without stress or strain on the torso, especially when we can’t squat or deadlift due to a back, rib, or other injury. I also use it with healthy rowers to gain leg strength and muscle mass during an off-season phase with less impact on the low back.

The landmine belt squat requires just a barbell, weights, and a belt with an adjustable strap or chain to attach to the bar. A normal weight-lifting belt can be modified with a strap or chain, but a loadable belt for dips and chin-ups is even better (I have this one from Ironmind – no affiliation). The landmine rack attachment or floor base is more secure, but not strictly necessary if you can wedge the barbell into a solid corner.

I prefer the belt squat to a leg press for the reduced back stress. The athlete is also still working to move their body through space, instead of sitting or lying on a bench and moving the weight around them. I like the hack squat machine more than a leg press, but it is expensive and takes up a large amount of floor space. The affordability and efficiency of the landmine belt squat for a simple lower body workaround exercise can’t be beaten!

Key technique pointers:

• Plan to experiment with it a bit to find the right length of strap or chain, best stance or foot position, and best forms of loading. Don’t expect it to just work right away like a squat or deadlift.

• Try to keep the movement as similar to a squat as possible. Sit back, keep the weight toward the heels, and emphasize the knee movement more than the hip movement. Once this is mastered, it is possible to do it more like a deadlift, emphasizing the hinge, for another variation.

• Focus on the muscular action of the exercise, not just moving weight. Control the lowering tempo and pause at the floor without bouncing the weights at the bottom position.

The simplest set-and-rep scheme is to just replace the normal squat or deadlift with the belt squat and do the same sets and reps. This is what we most often do with an athlete using the belt squat to work around a torso injury, but who is mostly completing the rest of the training session as normal.

Athletes who want more challenge from the belt squat can use a few more creative methods, especially if they are very restricted in the rest of the training session and this is one of a few tolerable movements. Just do one of these methods per training session, as they are quite challenging and fatiguing and will likely result in increased next-day muscle soreness.

A “load dropset” increases the challenge of the exercise with one longer set of many effective reps. The athlete works up to a heavy weight and does a single set of 5-12 reps to failure or near-failure. Immediately remove a weight increment and do another set of 5-12 reps to failure or near-failure. Immediately remove another weight increment and do another set of 5-12 reps to failure or near-failure. Done correctly, a load dropset is essentially a single set of 15-36 very challenging reps. Make it easy and quick to remove weights by using one larger plate (a 45lb or bumper plate) as the bottom plate, and then smaller plates (10-35lbs) as the additional plates.

A “cluster set” keeps the weight the same and modifies the reps and rest interval to increase challenge. Work up to a heavy weight and do a set of max or near-max reps for 10-20 reps. Take 3-5 deep breaths while dividing the number you did by two. This number is your target for subsequent sets. Do one subsequent set to that target number. Take another 3-5 deep breaths for rest, then do another subsequent set. Repeat this until you cannot achieve the subsequent set target number with good technique. Done correctly, the “activation set” should be between 10-20 reps and you should get in 3-5 subsequent sets of half that number. More than 5 subsequent sets means you went too easy on the activation set, and fewer than 3 means you went too hard on the activation set, so you can dial it in for the next session.