Getting the Right Stance for Squats

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Doing squats is one of the best ways to increase your overall lean body mass and power. Squats involve more muscle groups than almost any other exercise, and if you’re not already doing squats, adding them to your routine can help you to add strength quickly.

Learning the correct squatting stance will go a long ways in helping you to avoid injury. Lower back and knee injuries can happen if you’re not careful to use correct technique, and having the correct stance is necessary to help prevent these injuries. If it’s done correctly, the squat can be a very safe exercise.

Taking the correct stance

One mistake that you should avoid is to place your feet directly forward when you take a shoulder-width stance. This causes your knees to travel directly forward and makes it very difficult to squat all the way down. Take a look at the picture below.

This is about as far down as you’ll probably get with a narrow stance and the knees straight forward. The awkward stance causes the weight to shift forward and away from your correct center of balance. This is bad for both your lower back and your knees.

To get into the proper position, your heels should be about shoulder width apart and pointed out at about a 30 degree angle as shown below. This is a general rule of thumb, but squat stances can vary from person to person.

For example, people who generally have long legs and narrow shoulders compared to the rest of their body will probably need a slightly wider stance in order to feel comfortable. On the other hand, if your legs are shorter compared to your upper body, a slightly narrower stance may work a little better for you.

The same principle goes for people whose toes naturally point in or out. If your toes naturally point outward as you walk, you may need a slightly wider angle for your feet, and the opposite is true if your toes point inward.

Positioning the knees

Keeping your knees in the right position is also very important. The angle of your toes should match the angle of your knees throughout the entire movement. The wider your stance is, the more your toes and knees will have to point outward.

[Please don't take this drawing too literally. I'm not a great artist, and this isn't drawn to scale and isn't meant to show proper width for your feet. It only illustrates the principle discussed below.]

See the illustration on the left. This is a top down view of your bone structure as you squat. Notice the narrower angle on the left with the feet pointed in a similar angle as the legs. In the illustration on the right, a wider stance is used which causes the knees and toes to angle outward more.

You can see how this works right now. Sit on the edge of your chair and place both of your feet in front of you with your toes pointing forward. Now, lift up one of your feet and widen your stance by pointing your knee out. When you set your foot back down, your toes should be pointing in the same direction as your knee.

Keeping this angle throughout the whole movement is very important to helping you avoid injuries. As mentioned above, an all-to-common mistake is to allow your knees to point forward or buckle inwards as you press upward against the bar.

This takes power away from the lift, places stress on your knees, and causes your feet to roll inward. Make sure you don’t look like the illustration below.

Pay attention to where your knees are at. Try using a light weight for a few sets and watching your knees as you squat. Make sure the angle of each of your femurs matches the angle of your feet, and be sure to keep both of your feet flat on the ground. Keeping your knees out at a wider angle may leave you a little sore in your groin muscles if you’re not used to this position, but stretching out your muscles will help.

Very wide stances?

Now that we’ve covered the correct stance for the squat, you may have a valid reason for deciding to take a wider stance. Many powerlifters use a very wide stance to help them squat tremendous amounts of weight.

This can be useful depending on what your goal is. If you are a powerlifter, or if your goal is to squat as much weight as possible, this stance is probably for you. For the rest of us, this stance really isn’t so great.

Taking such a wide stance removes most of the stress from the quadriceps. In addition, this type of movement is seldom used in sports and real-life activities. So, if your goal is to squat massive amounts of weight, then go ahead and use the wider stance, but if your goal is to develop athletic power and muscular looking legs, stick with the advice given above.

Related posts:

1. What You’re Missing With Half Squats
2. When You Should Point Your Toes Out on Calf Raises
3. How to Squat Properly

Tags: back, exercises, form, lower back, squat, squats, tips, training