Overview
Two exercises that share one position: standing on the floor inside the frame, one to two steps back from the headrest, both hands resting on the shoulder rests, hips sent back and down into a squat. The machine is a support, not a load — the carriage does not move in either exercise.
From that base they go in opposite directions:
- Squat Triceps Pulls bends and straightens the elbows to lower and lift the body, so the triceps and the legs work together.
- Squat Baby Swan presses the hands down and lifts the chest into a small thoracic extension — the supported squat as a counter-shape to all the flexion a session carries.
They are a useful pair for the same reason: the squat position is familiar and stable, so the client can put their attention on the arms or on the spine without also managing a moving carriage.
Setup
- Both run on a single medium spring; footbar down, headrest down.
- Stand on the floor inside the frame facing the footbar, one to two steps back from the headrest, and rest both hands on the shoulder rests.
- Send the hips back and down into a squat with the feet hip-width apart and flat. The chest stays lifted, the knees track over the second toes, and the elbows tuck close to the ribs.
- Check the distance before you start: too close and the squat becomes a knee bend, too far and the hands carry the body weight.
Key Teaching Cues
- The hips keep their height through the whole rep of the triceps pulls. If the hips rise as the arms straighten, the legs are doing the work and the triceps are not.
- Keep the elbows tucked close to the ribs and stacked under the shoulders — no flaring, and no driving them behind the body.
- Press the hands down into the shoulder rests to rise, and resist the way back down rather than dropping into the shoulders.
- For the baby swan, lengthen the tailbone down and forward first, then press the hands down and lift the sternum forward and up. The length comes before the lift.
- Keep the ribs connected and the neck long in the extension; the gaze stays slightly down.
- Exhale on the effort in both — the press-up in the triceps pulls, the lift in the swan — and inhale on the return.
Common Faults
- Squat Triceps Pulls: the hips rising and falling with the elbows, so the rep becomes a squat rather than a triceps press.
- Squat Triceps Pulls: the elbows flaring out, or travelling behind the body where they narrow the space at the front of the shoulder.
- Squat Baby Swan: cranking the neck and leading with the chin instead of lifting from the upper back.
- Squat Baby Swan: lifting too high and taking the extension into the low back rather than the thoracic spine.
- Both: the knees travelling forward past the toes, or the heels lifting as the squat deepens.
- Both: letting the hands take the body weight because the client has stepped too far back from the shoulder rests.
Variations
- Regression: take a shallower squat and a smaller range — a shorter elbow bend, or a chest lift of an inch or two. Keeping the hips higher in the squat is the shared regression, because it reduces how much body weight travels through the arms and how much extension the spine has to find.
- Progression: slow the elbow bend to a three-count and hold at the bottom for a breath; hold the baby swan for two full breaths and reach the crown forward to lengthen the spine further.
- Programming: a good supported block for a client who is not yet ready to load the arms on a moving carriage, and a good counter-shape after a long flexion block. Place them after the standing warm-up and before or after the standing lunge family, depending on whether the session is leg-led or upper-body-led.
Safety
Keep the knees tracking over the second toe and limit the depth of the squat — the whole family is a standing knee load. For the triceps pulls, keep the elbows tucked and the range small for shoulder impingement, and skip with active pain — see the Shoulder Impingement Protocol. For the baby swan, keep the lift small and the ribs connected for extension-sensitive backs and for spinal stenosis — see the Spinal Stenosis Protocol.