Foot position during squatting depends on a number of factors, including your size and goals. If you compete in weightlifting, your feel will usually remain closer than if you compete in powerlifting. If you wish to improve your vertical jump, your feet will remain closer than if you desire to work your inner thighs more. Regardless of style and foot position, squat as deeply as possible with good technique. Consult a health care practitioner before beginning any strength-training program.
Width
If you are squatting just to work your legs, select a foot position that is comfortable and that allows you to achieve a deep squat. This position will usually be roughly in line with your hips. Keeping your feet directly under your hips allows you to squat and keep your knees in line with both your hip and ankle joints. Regardless of the width of your stance, you do not want your knees to move in or out when you are moving up and down with a bar on your back.
Effect of Stance Width
Regardless of stance, foot position has little effect on the recruitment of your quadriceps, or the muscles on the front of your thighs, according to a 1995 study published in the "Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research." Stance width will affect the recruitment of your adductors, or the muscle groups on the insides of your thighs. According to a 2001 study in "Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise," squatting with a wide stance increases the recruitment of your adductors when compared to a close-stance squat.
Purpose
If you compete in weightlifting, you should squat with a narrow stance, your feet no wider or only slightly wider than your hips. Your toes should point out very slightly. Your goal is to squat with a form and foot position as close to the snatch and clean as possible. If you are a powerlifter, you should squat with a wider stance. This position not only increases your ability to recruit power from your adductors, but decreases the depth to which you must squat to meet the rules of competition.
Sport-Specific Squatting
For most athletes, training with a shoulder-width stance, with the toes pointing out slightly allows a more comfortable squat. This stance also closely mimics the position of your vertical jump and the starting position in many types of sports, including coming up off the line in football. Squatting with a wider stance may require more flexibility in your hips and hamstrings, but if you participate in a sport that features a great deal of wide-stance effort, such as sumo wrestling, you may get more out of a wide stance squat.
References
- "Starting Strength (2nd edition)"; Mark Rippetoe, et al.; 2007
- "Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research"; Effect of Foot Position on the Electromyographical Activity of the Superficial Quadriceps Muscles During the Parallel Squat and Knee Extension; Joseph F. Signorile, et al.; August 1995
- "Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise"; Effects of Technique Variations on Knee Biomechanics During the Squat and Leg Press; R.F. Escamilla, et al.; September 2001
- "The Weightlifting Encyclopedia: A Guide to World Class Performance"; Arthur J. Drechsler; 1998
- International Powerlifting Federation: Technical Rulebook
