Squats Best Done with FEET APART!

[Blondie_Bombshell]

Doing squats with your legs spread apart will give you a better training effect on your glutes and hamstrings. Sports scientists at Illinois State University discovered this over ten years ago when they did an experiment with 9 experienced strength athletes.

When they measured the electrical activity in the muscles, the researchers noticed that for the quadriceps muscle it made no difference how the subjects positioned their feet.
So the best way to do squats is with your feet spread. It doesn’t make any difference for your quads, but for your gluteus and hamstrings the wide stance is the best.

A more important factor than the position of your feet is the amount of weight you train with. Training with a high load will always provide a bigger stimulus than training with a low load. Which means that heavy squats in wide stance will have a tiny bit better effect than heavy squats with your feet together.

FITNESSPARADISEWORLD

 

[Mr P]

excellent thread BB this should be a sticky around here, I benefit from squatting with feet apart. I see the results... Hmmm I think mrs P is going to be all up in this post.

 

[numba1scrapper]

I feel it like crazy when I spread my feet wide apart however when I get heavy it fucks up my groin area lol.

 

[DADAWG]

I feel it like crazy when I spread my feet wide apart however when I get heavy it fucks up my groin area lol.

try pointing your toes out more and see how that works.

 

[Mr. Humdiddly]

I have always done two work sets wide two work sets narrow (2 sets warm up sets I don't count). But if i am reading this right narrow is a waste of time?

 

[RJ]

I've always squatted wide. The key for me is like Dawg said. I try to let my knees follow the direction of my feet. Feels much better pointing them out a bit and going wide.

On another note, I've read its much better during anal for the woman to spread her butt cheeks apart.

 

[Mr. Humdiddly]

Bump are narrows useless then?

 

[THE-DET-OAK]

i wouldnt say useless, i understand keeping your feet square and closer doesnt work quads better, but i like working my glutes and hams with SLDL so if i do wide squats my SLDL are affected.

 

[DADAWG]

i wouldnt say useless, i understand keeping your feet square and closer doesnt work quads better, but i like working my glutes and hams with SLDL so if i do wide squats my SLDL are affected.

throw in some sumo deads from time to time to shake things up and break the boredem.

 

[Dragula]

what is best stance for TALL people im 6'4 and squats no matter what i do they just feel akward

 

[shaggz]

I disagree. I dont think they are useless at all. Wider stance may be more anatomicaly comfortable, but narrow stance has its place.

for example, if a professional body builder particularly wants to emphasize the thickness of his Vastus Lateralus muscle(outer quad), which might be lagging behind the rest of his quad neighbors,he would want to do narrow squats or narrow leg press.

Wide squats work more of the medial and inner quads. narrow squats work more the medial and outer quad.

I dont have a relevant source for this following info - its my own educated guess (Sport medicine major)..but
I also beleive that wide squats incorporate more hamstring support and strength.
Narrow squats will should emphasize a lil more quad and distal thigh develpment

Personally I do 1 set wide, 1 set narrow, 1 set wide.

 

[Teutonic]

as an ex powerlifter I alway s went wide with toe s pointed out as dadawg said..better stability with big weight and less bar travel to break parrallel when in competition.

 

[jawbreaker1]

squat narrow and wide. I too am a sports medicine major. My theory for getting best results is to work every muscle at every angle. wide and narrow grip bench. wide and close grip pull ups and so on. the larger the variety of angles, the more recruitment of all the fibers getting hit.

 

[simpllyhuge]

what is best stance for TALL people im 6'4 and squats no matter what i do they just feel akward

Maybe buy a pair of lifting shoes, they will allow your knees to travel forward.