The Squat Project

Home strength and mobility built around one target: sitting in a full deep squat, heels down, knees comfortable, for as long as you like. Bands, one kettlebell, a pull-up bar, a floor. Sessions capped at 20 minutes.

If you read nothing else

The resting squat is a frequency adaptation, not a workout adaptation. The elders you’re picturing never trained for it — they’ve sat in that position several times a day for sixty years. Nobody stretches their way there in three sessions a week.

So the single highest-value thing you can do is accumulate 5–10 minutes a day in the bottom position, in any form, propped up however you need at first. On the phone. Brushing your teeth. Watching something. Everything below exists to make that position available to you — the daily sitting is what makes it permanent.

Why your knees hurt down there

Almost always, the knee is the victim rather than the culprit. Three things gate a deep squat, and for most desk-bound adults they fail in a predictable order:

1. Ankle dorsiflexion — how far your knee travels forward over a flat foot. The number one limiter by a distance. A resting squat wants roughly 35–40°; years of sitting and cushioned shoes leave most people around 20–25°. Short ankles mean your heels lift or you fall backwards, and you compensate by grinding the knee.
2. Hip flexion and external rotation — you need about 120–130° of hip flexion to fold into the bottom. Stiff hips push the work down into the knee.
3. End-range knee tolerance — if your knees never go past 90°, the tissue there is simply untrained. Not damaged, unfamiliar. Load it gradually and it adapts.

Which is why the fix isn’t more stretching. Passive stretching buys range you have no strength in, and your body politely refuses to use it. You want strength in the positions you can’t currently hold — loaded, gradual, boring, effective.

Measure first

Knee-to-wall test. Bare feet. Kneel on one knee facing a wall, front foot flat. Slide the foot back until, driving your knee straight forward, the knee just touches the wall without the heel lifting. Measure big toe to wall.

Retest every two weeks. This number moves before anything else does, and watching it climb is what keeps you doing the boring ankle work. Also note how long you can hold a supported bottom position today — 20 seconds is a normal starting point.

Daily mobility — 10 minutes

Every day, including keto week one. Costs nothing systemically, and it’s the part that actually delivers the squat. Shoes off.

Heel elevation is a legitimate starting point, not cheating. If your heels lift, stand them on a 2–3 cm book. Every fortnight, use a thinner one. That’s the progression — loading the range you have while slowly buying more.

On strength days, do the first three of these as a 5-minute warm-up instead of the full block. Don’t try to stack 10 minutes of mobility on top of a 20-minute session.

Strength — two 20-minute sessions

Everything is supersetted — pair 1, pair 2, then a carry. You move straight from the first exercise to the second, rest about 60 seconds, and repeat. That’s what makes 20 minutes enough. Alternate A, B, A, then B, A, B.

Day A — squat & push

• Goblet squat — kettlebell at the chest. The counterweight lets you sit far deeper than a bodyweight squat, so it trains strength and depth at once. Your main squat lift.
• Split squat — the knee builder. Start bodyweight, hand on a chair. Later, let the front knee travel further forward; that’s the bit that makes deep knee bend feel safe.
• Push-up — hands on the kitchen counter if the floor isn’t there yet. Lower the surface over the weeks.
• Band row — band round a door handle. Pulls your shoulders out of desk posture.
• Suitcase carry — one bell, one hand, walk tall and don’t lean. Brutal for the core, looks like nothing.

Day B — hinge & pull

• Kettlebell deadlift — bell between the feet, hinge at the hip, back flat. Learn this properly; it’s the foundation the swing is built on.
• Negative pull-up — jump or step to the top, lower yourself over 5 slow seconds. How you get a first pull-up without owning one yet.
• Farmer carry — heavy in both hands, walk. The most honest strength exercise there is.

Kettlebell swings come in at week 4, replacing the deadlift as A1 at 4 × 12. Hold them back until the hinge is automatic. A swing is a hinge done fast; done as a squat, it’s a lower-back problem. The power comes from snapping the hips, not lifting with the arms.

How it lands on the calendar

This runs alongside the keto restart rather than replacing it. Fat adaptation takes about three weeks, and training hard through it just teaches you that keto feels awful.

Kit

Two rules

Sharp pain inside the knee joint is a stop sign, not something to push through. Muscle burn, stretch discomfort and next-day soreness are all fine and expected. Sharp, pinpoint or joint-line pain — especially if it lingers or swells — means a physio, not more reps. That distinction matters more than anything else on this page.

Never make two changes at once. If something starts hurting, you want to know which thing caused it.

Coaching, not medicine. Built to run alongside the keto restart starting 3 August 2026.