What Stance Width Is Best For Squats?

When you perform squats it is important to know what stance width is best for squats. Most of the general public doesn't know this information and therefore is very limited when it comes to learning how to maximize your squats. You can increase your squat by knowing the correct width.

This will allow you to maximize your efficiency, minimize your risk of injuring your knees and ankles, and maximize your effectiveness at squatting. So what stance width is best for squatting?

Here is the answer.

First, let's take a closer look at what squat stance width is. There are two basic stances that you can use when squatting. The first stance is called the outside-in stance, and the second is called the inside-out stance. Let's take a closer look at these two different stances.

In the outside-in stance, you stand straight up with your legs apart. Your hips are moving toward your chest while your knees stay relatively close to your feet. This allows you to have a narrower stance than in the inside-out stance, but it is still quite wide enough to generate good force onto the ground. The correct answer to the question "what stance width is best for squats" is dependent on how you will be using your legs.

If you are just going to be squatting down on a regular basis as part of your workout then you will probably want to try to get your feet hip width apart. Squatting in this width is referred to as a narrow stance. As you become more familiar with the exercise, you will probably want to try to widen it more so that you generate more knee lift, but not simply transfer all of your power to your legs.

The inside-out stance is what I refer to as a "wide stance". What this really means is that your legs are apart a bit but your knees and hips are still close to each other. This will allow you to put more of your thigh and leg strength into the activity. A narrow stance will place more focus on your quadriceps and hamstrings. This makes the knee lift you produce more of a concentric type of motion, which results in more power. You may also experience an increase in your hamstring strength.

As you can see, both of these stances can produce really great results. There are very few negatives to either of them, so if you are looking to increase your leg strength and/or improve your squats, I would highly recommend either of these exercises. They are also both incredibly effective with any type of weight that you are using. Good luck with your squats!