Do you vary your squat stance?

[euco09]

Hi everyone

Is it a good idea to vary your squat stance sometimes? I prefer a wider stance and it feels quite comfortable but a PT at the gym yesterday said I should vary my stance and do some narrower squats to hit different parts of my legs. Is this good advice?

[freebirdmac]

A wider stance is the stance that gives you more bang for your buck. More glute and ham involvement specifically. If you want to hit your quads differently I'd use the leg press, extension, or hack squat machines instead. Now if you have plateaued on wide stance squats, changing things up for awhile might help you bust through.

[kimm4]

My stance varies, depending on the type of squat I'm doing.

[MaLiBu24]

My trainer has me do close stance squats on the smith machine once a week to hit different parts of my legs. I've seen great improvement so they seem to be working

[thors5]

I never do, but I might start now lol.

[euco09]

A wider stance is the stance that gives you more bang for your buck. More glute and ham involvement specifically. If you want to hit your quads differently I'd use the leg press, extension, or hack squat machines instead. Now if you have plateaued on wide stance squats, changing things up for awhile might help you bust through.

Thanks. Wide stance just feesl way better for me. I feel like I can barely get past parallel when doing narrow stance. I am actually really trying to work aon technique atm and have lowered my weight a bit to make sure my back isnt rounding like it was when I was being stupid and only thinking about lifting more instead of better form.

[illiniStrive]

Over time, yes. It's taken me awhile to find my sweet stance, so to speak. I'm sure 3 years from now my stance will have changed as well.

Day-to-day, no. I use assistance work to hit whatever areas don't get as much love during squats.

[rdferguson]

Over time, yes. It's taken me awhile to find my sweet stance, so to speak. I'm sure 3 years from now my stance will have changed as well.

Day-to-day, no. I use assistance work to hit whatever areas don't get as much love during squats.

I'm in the same boat as this.

[Romina81]

I use a slightly wider than shoulder width stance for all of my warmup/working sets....but sometimes go even wider for the last or heaviest set since less ROM thus a bit easier

[kjake55]

Thanks. Wide stance just feesl way better for me. I feel like I can barely get past parallel when doing narrow stance. I am actually really trying to work aon technique atm and have lowered my weight a bit to make sure my back isnt rounding like it was when I was being stupid and only thinking about lifting more instead of better form.

I use wall squats to work on stance variations. It's helped me with the narrower stance but I still can't use as much weight as I normally would with a narrow stance.

[PoukieBear]

I find that I have a slightly wider than shoulder stance when I'm lifting with a barbell on my shoulders, an even wider stance when I'm holding a weight plate or dumbell to my chest, and if I'm doing just body weight squats it's a little narrower than shoulder width.

[gwnorth]

My PT has me do a variety of squat stances - regular/hip distance, quad/narrow stance, and sumo/wide stance. I have flexibility issues, so the wider the stance the easier it is for me.

[elainedeluca]

I tend to keep a relatively wide stance when squatting as it provides me with the best balance, especially when going heavy. If I want to target different leg muscles, I will vary the width of my feet when doing heavy leg presses. For instance, this past Monday, I went with a really wide stance on leg press and my inner thighs are still sore! And I have to compete TOMORROW!

[kjake55]

I tend to keep a relatively wide stance when squatting as it provides me with the best balance, especially when going heavy. If I want to target different leg muscles, I will vary the width of my feet when doing heavy leg presses. For instance, this past Monday, I went with a really wide stance on leg press and my inner thighs are still sore! And I have to compete TOMORROW!

Good luck tomorrow!

[nacersusaf]

I can definitely go heavier with a wider stance, but I change it up quite a bit and change the positions of my feet as well. Sometimes I'll do a very wide stance with toes pointed outward and other times I'll put my feet together with toes pointing forward... and every combination in between.

I'm sure it helps with my overall development but honestly I do it just to keep myself from getting bored. I like to change things up a lot.