Squat
Back squat
The most weight you can put on your legs in one movement, which is why almost every programme opens a lower day with it. It trains the whole leg and the trunk that has to hold position under it.
It is in 6 of the six splits, which is as good a signal as any that it earns its place. See which one matches your week.
Swap it for
Not lesser versions. What to do when the rack is busy, the gym has no cable station, or a joint objects to the first one.
- Leg pressQuads, Glutes
- Goblet squatQuads, Glutes, Trunk
Everything else that trains this pattern
- Front squatQuads, Glutes, Upper back
- Hack squatQuads, Glutes
Training is the easy half
You will not build anything on the wrong number of calories, and most people are eating a long way under the protein they think they are. Get your daily number, then have the week built to it — every recipe on the site is costed from gram weights, so the figures are checkable rather than rounded up to sound better.
This is not a form tutorial. There is no technique walkthrough here and no claim about the one correct way to move — a page cannot watch you lift. What it gives you is what the movement trains, how much of it to do, and what to do instead when the equipment is taken. If a movement is new to you, get someone qualified to watch your first few sessions. If you are under 18, pregnant, or managing an injury or medical condition, talk to someone qualified rather than a website.