The squat is one of the best exercises we have for building strength, power, and lower-body muscle. But that doesn’t mean it has to stay the same every time you train.
A resistance band can completely change how a squat feels and what it does for your body. By adjusting how the band is attached, you can shift the resistance curve, challenge different muscles, and even improve your technique.
Let’s break down exactly what banded squats are and explore three powerful variations you can use to unlock new benefits from an exercise you already know.
What Are Banded Squats?
Banded squats are squats performed with resistance bands added to change how the movement feels.
Instead of lifting the same amount of weight through the entire range of motion, bands let you manipulate where the squat is hardest, how your muscles fire, and how stable your body needs to be.
This can make the squat more challenging, more controlled, or more supportive, depending on the setup.
There are many variations of banded squats, changing not only the direction of the resistance but also your stance, posture, tempo. But in this article we’re going to look at three core variations, differentiated by the position of the band.
Loop Banded Squats (Band Around Your Thighs)
With this variation, you’ll attach a small loop band around your thighs, just above your knees.
As you squat, the band tries to pull your knees inward, and your hips have to work harder to keep everything aligned. This variation focuses less on adding weight and more on improving technique, glute activation, and knee stability.
Banded Squats Anchored Above (Reverse Banded Squats)
Here, long resistance bands hang from the top of a squat rack, a pull up bar, a doorway – anything above you.
The band can be attached to the barbell, or you can hold onto a set of handles and do bodyweight squats.
With this variation, as you squat down, the bands assist you by pulling upward. The bottom of the squat becomes easier, while the top feels heavier; helping you train with heavier loads safely and confidently.
Banded Squats Anchored Below (Traditional Banded Squats)
This setup attaches bands to the floor or bottom pegs of a rack and loops them over the bar, or over your shoulders.
As you stand up, the bands stretch and add more resistance. The bottom of the squat feels like a regular squat, but the top becomes significantly harder, making it great for building power and lockout strength.
Differences in Resistance from Banded Squats
With a typical squat, there’s one form of resistance: a heavy weight being pulled towards the ground by an invisible force called gravity.
With banded squats, you pile on additional forms of resistance. This changes the difficulty in certain parts of the movement, making your muscles work differently (and providing different kinds of benefits).
Let’s take a look at the differences now.
Loop Banded Squats
With the loop band, the new form of resistance isn’t down or up; it’s inward.
As you lower into your squat, the band tries to collapse your knees toward each other. Your hips have to fight that by pushing outward.
This creates lateral resistance rather than vertical resistance.
The deeper you go, the more tension you’ll feel pulling your knees in, and the more your glutes have to work to keep your legs aligned.
Compared to a regular squat, the overall weight doesn’t change. But the stability demands do.
Reverse Banded Squats (Anchored Above)
When the bands are attached overhead, they help lift the bar.
This means the resistance is lowest at the bottom when the bands are stretched the most, giving you the most assistance when you’re in the hardest part of the squat.
As you stand, the bands lose tension, and the resistance becomes less near the top.
Compared to a regular squat, this approach:
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Makes the bottom easier
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Makes the top feel heavier
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Lets you lift more total weight safely
It’s like having a spotter who helps only when you truly need it.
Traditional Banded Squats (Anchored Below)
When the bands are attached to the floor, the opposite happens.
At the bottom, the bands are slack, so resistance feels similar to a normal squat. But as you stand, the bands stretch and add more tension.
This means the squat gets harder as you rise, creating more resistance in the top half of the movement.
Compared to a regular squat, this variation:
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Challenges your speed and power
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Forces you to drive upward aggressively
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Overloads the strongest part of the lift
It turns a standard squat into a variable-resistance power movement.
Do Banded Squats Work Different Muscles?
No matter which variation you choose, all squats rely on the same major muscle groups: your quads, glutes, hamstrings, adductors, and core.
But how hard each muscle works can shift depending on the type of banded resistance you use.
Each variation places a different challenge on your hips, knees, and torso, which changes the emphasis.
Here’s how the three versions differ.
Loop Banded Squats
This variation doesn’t add weight, but it requires more hip stability.
Your hips have to fight against the band pulling inward by activating the muscles that keep your legs aligned.
That means stronger activation of:
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The gluteus medius
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The gluteus minimus
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The deep external rotators around the hip
Your quads, glute max, and hamstrings still work as they would in a regular squat, but these stabilizing muscles have to fire much harder to maintain proper knee tracking. This is why loop bands are so popular for improving form and warming up.
Reverse Banded Squats
Reverse bands allow you to handle heavier loads than usual, especially in the top half of the squat. This means the quads and glute max take on more total tension throughout the lift.
Because the bottom position is supported, you can often squat deeper and maintain better posture.
This means:
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More glute max through deeper hip flexion
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More quad tension through the mid-range
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Strong core bracing due to the heavier bar load
The lift stays technically similar to a regular squat, but the increased load potential means greater overall muscular recruitment.
Traditional Banded Squats
With bands pulling from below, the resistance increases as you stand. This forces you to accelerate the bar and work harder through the upper two-thirds of the squat.
This variation increases activation in:
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The glute max during hip extension
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The quads at terminal knee extension
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The posterior chain as you stabilize against rising tension
Because the lift becomes hardest at the top, your body recruits more fast-twitch fibers, which is why athletes use this setup for power development.
Banded Squats Benefits
Each banded squat variation offers its own unique advantages.
Even though the basic movement stays the same, the way resistance is applied can improve stability, strength, power, or technique in very different ways.
Here are the top benefits of each version:
Loop Banded Squats
Loop bands are great for improving your squat mechanics.
Because they challenge your hips to keep the knees aligned, they strengthen the muscles that stabilize the pelvis and femur. This leads to better knee tracking, improved balance, and reduced risk of collapsing inward under heavier loads.
They also help “wake up” the glutes (especially the gluteus medius) which is essential for both strength and long-term joint health.
This variation is often used in physical therapy and athletic warm-ups because it builds the foundation for a stronger, safer squat.
Reverse Banded Squats
Reverse banded squats essentially give you assistance where you’re weakest and remove it where you’re strongest.
There are two parts of a lift: eccentric and concentric.
Eccentric is the part where your muscles lengthen (such as lowering into a squat), while concentric is when your muscles contract (like curling a dumbbell up).
We have 20-40% higher force and strength capacity during eccentric movements. Reverse banded squats increase the load during this part of the lift, forcing you to work harder (delivering bigger gains as a result).
The best part? It does so without putting extra strain on your back or your knees.
Traditional Banded Squats
Traditional banded squats are all about power and force production.
Since the lift gets harder as you stand, your body has to accelerate through the entire range of motion (if you go too slow, you risk stalling).
This increases neural drive, recruits more fast-twitch muscle fibers, and helps you develop explosive strength.
This style also reduces the stress at the bottom of the squat while still overloading the top, making it a smart choice when you want to train hard but avoid excessive joint compression in the deepest position.
When To Do Banded Squats (Each Variation)
Each banded squat variation is ideal for different goals. Perhaps you want to improve your squat technique, build more strength and size, or develop explosive power.
Here’s when each version makes the most sense.
Loop Banded Squats
Loop banded squats are great for improving how you squats, not just how much you can squat.
They’re ideal for:
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Warm-ups and activation drills
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Learning proper knee tracking
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Improving hip stability and reducing knee pain
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Reinforcing squat mechanics before adding heavy load
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Athletes who need better single-leg stability
If your squat form needs improvement, this is the easiest and most effective banded variation to start with.
Reverse Banded Squats
Reverse band squats let you lift heavier and get bigger gains. The idea is to boost the resistance during the part of the squat where you can handle it the most, thus increasing the gains for strength and hypertrophy, with less risk of injury (or stalling at the bottom).
They’re ideal for:
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Strength phases where you want to push heavier weights
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Lifters dealing with hip or knee discomfort at the bottom
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Improving squat depth and technical consistency
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Powerlifters practicing heavy singles safely
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Transitional phases after injury or high-fatigue cycles
This is also a great way to level up bodyweight squats. I do this variation at home, by attaching a resistance band to the top of a doorway and holding on to each end as I do bodyweight squats.
The band adds more tension and resistance on the down part of the squat, making you work harder, and it’s much more versatile and portable than adding resistance via weights.
Traditional Banded Squats
This setup is great for developing power, speed, and explosive leg drive. Because the resistance ramps up as you rise, your body has to accelerate through the movement, which builds explosiveness and power.
They’re ideal for:
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Building speed and power for sports
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Improving bar acceleration for stronger lockouts
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Lifters who hit plateaus in the mid-range or top-range
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Advanced strength training phases
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Sessions where you want high intensity without heavy bottom-end loading
If you want to move more explosively and develop better force production, this version is perfect.
Final Thoughts
Banded squats are an awesome way to change up your typical squats; helping you build better technique, achieve better gains, or focus your gains in a slightly different area.
Regular squats are great too. But once you understand how slight differences in resistance change how an exercise works, you can start customizing your workouts to fit your goals.
The best part, like all resistance band exercises, is versatility. Banded squats let you get more from your squats, even if you have limited equipment to work with, even if you’re traveling and working out from a hotel room.
Small hacks like this can make a huge difference for your progress. Try these banded squat variations, and see how they help you get more out of your workouts.
