Hug A Ball
Also works: Calves · Glutes
A deep supported squat where you straddle an exercise ball, wrap your arms around it and let your hips sink toward the floor. The ball takes enough of your bodyweight forward that you can hold a bottom position far longer than you could unsupported, which is where the ankle and hip range actually comes from.
Own the movement
Set up first, then execute. Every cue below is something you can check on your next set.
Before the first rep
- Use a firm ball at the right height: sitting on it, your knees should be at roughly 90 degrees. A 55 cm ball suits most people under about 175 cm, 65 cm above that.
- Set the ball against a wall for the first few sessions so it cannot roll away behind you.
- Stand over the ball with feet a little wider than your shoulders and toes turned out 20-30 degrees.
- Wrap both arms fully around the ball and take a firm grip before you start lowering — a loose hug is how people end up on their backside.
Every rep
Breathing & tempo — Nothing but slow, quiet nasal breathing for the whole hold. Long exhales, and let your hips sink a few millimetres further on each one instead of pushing.
Before you load it
- Check the ball is a burst-resistant model and properly inflated before you put your weight on it. A ball that deflates under a deep squat drops you straight onto your tailbone.
How much, how often
Where to start, and what to change when it stops being hard.
No load beyond bodyweight, and the ball removes part of that. Work up to two or three holds of 60-120 seconds. Progress by letting go of the ball for 10-15 seconds at a time in the bottom, then by dropping the ball entirely for an unsupported deep squat hold — never by forcing depth on lifted heels.
What goes wrong
The errors that show up most often, and the cue that fixes each one.
Trap it against a wall and keep both forearms wrapped over the top of it, not just your hands. Reset your grip every time you resettle your hips.
Come up until both heels touch, and hold there instead. Depth on the toes trains nothing about ankle range, which is usually the actual restriction.
Deliberately relax — let the ball take your weight and your low back round a little if it wants to. Effort here works against the position.
Set a timer for 90 seconds. The first 30 seconds is just arriving; the range starts giving somewhere in the second minute.
Why bother
A deep squat hold is limited less by hamstring or hip flexibility than by the effort of not falling backwards. Hugging the ball gives you a counterweight in front, so the same range costs almost no muscular work and you can sit there for a minute or two instead of ten seconds.
That extra time is the whole mechanism. Ankle dorsiflexion and hip external rotation respond to sustained, low-effort exposure far better than to brief pulls. Two minutes in the bottom of a supported squat, breathing normally, does more for your squat depth than any amount of hamstring stretching does.
Where it fits
Either as a two-minute reset before a lower-body session — it is a held position but a low-tension one, so it will not blunt your lifts the way a hard hamstring stretch can — or as a cool-down after squats. It is also the most comfortable way to make a deep squat available to someone who has not sat in one for twenty years.
If this one isn't it
No kit, too hard, or too easy — here's where to go instead.
Same job, different kit
Asked and answered
What size ball do I need?
Pick the size where sitting on it puts your knees at about 90 degrees: 55 cm if you are under roughly 175 cm tall, 65 cm above that. Too small and it gives you nothing to hug; too large and it holds your hips higher than the depth you are trying to reach.
Can I do this without a ball?
Yes — hold a doorframe, a squat rack upright or a kettlebell at your chest and sit into the same position. The ball is more comfortable for long holds because it supports your chest as well as counterweighting you, but the counterweight is the part that matters.
Will this improve my squat depth?
It improves the depth you can reach unloaded, which is the ceiling for the depth you can reach with a bar. It will not on its own give you the strength to hold that position under load — pair it with goblet squats and light front squats to keep the new range.
My knees ache in the bottom. Should I stop?
Widen your stance and turn your feet out more first, and check your heels are down — most bottom-position knee ache is the knees being dragged inward by a narrow stance. If a wider, flat-footed hold still aches, shorten the range and hold higher for a few weeks.