After over 15 years on the mat, if I had to pick one lower body exercise every grappler should master, it would be the Cossack squat.
Not the deadlift, the squat, or the lunge.
The Cossack.
It's essentially a lateral single-leg squat and it's exactly what a grappler needs.
Here's why.
IT'S AN ACTUAL POSITION YOU NEED ON THE MAT
The Cossack squat isn't just a training movement, it's a position that shows up constantly in jiu-jitsu.
Knee cuts, knee pins, low lateral passing, guard play, scrambles. Any time you're working in a low, wide, lateral stance you're in some version of a Cossack position.
Most grapplers end up in this position without ever having trained it. But when your body hasn't been prepared for a position it's regularly forced into, that's where injuries happen and technique breaks down.
Training the Cossack means your body has been there...under load, and under control.
Exactly what you need for efficient and resilient mat movement.
BENEFITS OF THE COSSACK SQUAT FOR GRAPPLERS
The Cossack squat is one of the most time-efficient lower body movements you can train because it develops multiple qualities simultaneously.
1. SINGLE LEG STRENGTH - The loaded side is working through a deep range of hip and knee flexion while fully bearing your bodyweight. That's demanding single leg strength in a position most exercises never access.
2. HIP MOBILITY - The Cossack takes the hip into deep flexion combined with adduction and rotation. These are exactly the ranges that grappling demands and exactly the ranges that conventional training ignores.
3. GROIN RESILIENCE - The extended leg is being loaded through a long range stretch under bodyweight. Over time this builds the kind of adductor strength and tissue resilience that protects against the groin strains that plague grapplers.
4. LATERAL MOVEMENT / FRONTAL PLANE STRENGTH - Most training happens in the sagittal plane...squats, deadlifts, lunges, all moving forward and back. But a significant amount of jiu-jitsu happens laterally. Passing, cutting, transitioning, scrambling. These movements demand strength and control in the frontal plane. The Cossack squat is one of the few exercises that loads you there directly. Training it builds the lateral movement capacity that straight-line training simply cannot develop.
And it's versatile. Use it as a warmup, a mobility drill, a strength exercise, or load it with a kettlebell or club for a full loaded mobility exercise. Few movements can match this versatility.
THE PROBLEM WITH THE COSSACK SQUAT
Here's the honest truth about the Cossack squat...most people can't do it properly the first time they try.
Not because they're weak, but because they lack the prerequisite mobility in the adductors, hips, and groin to achieve a rock bottom position without compensating. What you typically see is the heel coming up, the torso collapsing forward, or the hips shifting sideways to avoid the range they don't have.
Forcing the full Cossack without the mobility to support it doesn't build resilience. It reinforces compensation patterns and loads the wrong structures.
FINAL THOUGHTS
That's why I built a six step progression in this week's YouTube video. It's a sequence that systematically opens the adductors, hips, and groin so you can earn the full Cossack position before you load it.
Each step addresses a specific restriction that keeps people out of the bottom position.
Work through all six and the full bodyweight Cossack becomes accessible for almost everyone.
From there you can load it which will make it one of the most powerful tools in your training.
If the Cossack squat has always felt out of reach, this is where you start.
Master the position first and the strength, mobility, and resilience will follow.
WHENEVER YOU’RE READY, THERE ARE 3 WAYS I CAN HELP YOU:
1. Start improving your BJJ strength with this minimalist strength program, Essential Kettlebell Strength.
2. Fortify your body for BJJ with this free course on BJJ Resilience.
3. Join the free weekly newsletter here.
4. Apply for online coaching here.
