Squats: the significance of foot stance for leg development
A wide stance emphasises buttocks, hamstrings and inner thighs development. This style of squatting is common in powerlifting circles as it allows you to lift more weight than other styles of squatting.
A narrow stance (hip width to heels touching) and keeping the torso as upright as possible focuses growth stimulation on the middle and outer quads.
This style is also favoured by Olympic weightlifters for strengthening their legs.
Some people have trouble maintaining balance on narrow stance squats. Common remedies include:
Putting a weight plate or a one inch thin block of wood under your heels
Use Olympic weightlifting shoes which have heels
Or squat in a Smith machine
Some people object to elevating the heels by using wood claiming it increases knee stress. You should do your own research and make up your own mind. I believe that if this were true, Olympic weightlifters, who routinely use heeled shoes with much heavier weights than bodybuilders use and with more knee jarring, would have a high occurance of knee injuries compared to other sports. However, the statistics I’ve seen suggest otherwise.
January 27, 2008 at 8:15 am
I started doing front squats regularly within th elast 6 months and my quads love them!!
January 27, 2008 at 12:55 pm
Very informative. I have always used a wide stance on squats and then used a narrow stance with toes pointing out on hack squats. I may try some variety!
September 6, 2009 at 1:39 pm
Was Googling "squat stance, olympic" and this blog appeared in the results. Kudos!