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SQUAT Foot Spacing and Toe Angle

SQUAT: Heel width and Toe angle (tick TWO)

  • Heels 7" or less apart

    Votes: 1 1.6%

  • Heels wider than 7" but less than 14" appart

    Votes: 13 20.6%

  • Heels 14-20" wide

    Votes: 30 47.6%

  • Heels over 20"

    Votes: 11 17.5%

  • TOES STRAIGHT

    Votes: 11 17.5%

  • TOES OUT less than 35 degrees

    Votes: 34 54.0%

  • TOES OUT 35 degrees & more

    Votes: 13 20.6%
  • Total voters
    63
musketeer

musketeer

New member
My osteopath recommends:
heels 7" appart (directly beneath hips) with toes pointed STRAIGHT forward.

Strongmen in Competition:
seem to have their heels over a yard apart with toes past 45 degrees .

Most magazines:
Say 12-16" heels and toes 45 degrees outward turn.

They cant all be right!
 
ive never actually measured my stance
i will say its prolly close to 40 inches maybe even more??? i dont fit in the power racks or squat racks which makes it a tremendous pain in the ass to squat..

i flare my toes out slightly and sometimes my feet are straight
 
I always start with straight toes but somewhere along the line my feet flare out on their own...Whatever is comfortable is the way to go, your body will tell you if there is a problem.
 
Sugarplum said:
here;s a pic of pwrlftrscott...
20523.jpg

a bit wider than 7"...
Click to expand...

hey, i know that guy.
 
Sugarplum said:
you're osteopath is obviously a bodybuilder because the close stance is a bodybuilder thing.
magazines: geared toward bodybuilding, not strength.

pick up a powerlifting usa or pure power or monster muscle and you'll see most people squatting with feet spread FAR and toes pointed slightly out.
Click to expand...

LOL

My osteopath (a Doctor of Osteopathy) is built like a paperclip!

I think that he's teling me that my knee joints are best served in that position: heels directy under pulvis, toes straight forward.
 
wnt2bBeast said:
use a stance that doesnt cause you any pain..
ths is my stance..ive also been doing puase squats with a close stance and as someone who has had knee surgery this close stance seems to give me some knee pain..i can squat twice as much with a wider stance and have zero pain

http://asp.elitefts.com/images/upload/qa/chuck .jpg
Click to expand...

hey wntb, your making me look bad putting a pic of chuck squatting in the same thread as mine, i can't squat his gym bag :worried:
 
Dang you guys use a pretty narrow stance. I might give a narrower stance a try tonight and see how it feels.
 
musketeer said:
LOL

My osteopath (a Doctor of Osteopathy) is built like a paperclip!

I think that he's teling me that my knee joints are best served in that position: heels directy under pulvis, toes straight forward.
Click to expand...

Your osteopath is correct. Those that have their legs wide and feet everted are furthering along joint dysfunction.
 
I narrowed my feet to about shoulder width. Felt pretty good but I had to use about 20lbs less for my working sets. Actually had 2 people compliment me on my form.. thats a first.
 
Debaser said:
Your osteopath is correct. Those that have their legs wide and feet everted are furthering along joint dysfunction.
Click to expand...

lol.. no way... please, show me proof.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Ish
heels 17-18" apart. 35 degree toe flare

7" apart? That is a JOKE. Try squatting like that. Your range of motion will be nill. Your osteopath doesn't know jack about lifting bro. I do full squat reps with 265, but using the 7" stance I can only get about 3-4" above parallel and I could probably do reps with 405 that way. Not necessarily better because I'd be losing the whole bottom half of the squat.

If i was gonna go REAL heavy with max weights my total goal then I would squat like a powerlifter with probably a 30-40" stance with 35-45 degree toe flare.

And since my ass is starting to develope some shape to it when unflexed, I think I'll keep my full squats up haha.
 
I can do front squats with heels 7" apart and toes very nearly straight. For this i can go up to 275lbs for 5 reps.

I do find that foot positioning ridiculously awkward but I can get full ROM with practice on the front squat. With the heavy back squat the narrow stance with toes staright is impossible for me.
 
Front squat ya, back squat no.

Physically, not many peopel have the build or flexibility to do a full back squat with heels 7" apart and straight forward.

And even if everyone could I still think it isn't good because it spreads your base too thin.
 
Something I don't understand: with a narrow stance your knees need to go past your toes in order to keep balance

Is that good for the knees joints?
 
musketeer said:
Who fucking knows? I'm sick of this shit!

My knees are killing me today and I just want them to get better!

:bawling:
Click to expand...

IMO 7" is rediculous. No one uses this. OLs will use shoulder width or a bit wider, roughly in whatever position they receive the clean. Knees will go beyond the toes, this is not a "horrible" thing just natural. PLs will use a wider stance with the bar lower, this will allow greater total weight to be carried and will also shift emphasis off the quads (and knees) towards the hips/back/hams.

If you are in knee pain you might find a change over to PL style squats helpful for a time. To be honest, whenever you see one of these guys you want to make sure they have significant experience in sports and sport related injuries, otherwise you get stupid recommendations and answers. Sadly for me, this is one of the first things I look for when I move to a new community although I was a bit lucky this time and I'm at what is arguably one of the best in the world. If it's in both knees can you describe the symptoms? It sounds more like an overuse issue. Another factor can be drug use, many times people gain a lot of strength on-cycle and only later suffer the tendon inflamtion and other issues coming off (tendons not strengthening at the same rate as the mucles). I don't know whether this is a factor for you or not but it's not uncommon so I figured I'd throw it out. If it does end up being overuse, you will likely have to adjust training around it (not sure how much - could be bad), use anti-inflamatories, ice is helpful.

Hope something in there helps. I've had my share of issues so I can empathize.
 
box squats should help your knees no end, with a moderate stance.

unfortunately they irritate the fuck out of my damaged hammie tendons.
 
I squat the way I stand normally with feet shoulder width apart.
 
Thanks madcow.

When I posted I had just gotten back from the gym. Id taken 20 mins to warm-up and stretch my back, hips and legs. I'd squatted bodyweight 20 times, heels close toes almost straight; 95lbs x 10, 135 x 6 (hurt knees), lots of stretching, 185 x 6 hurt knees, 225 x 11 - terminated set (was going for 30 and my muscles were feeling great) knees were getting more unbareable with each rep.

I'd had some problems with my left knee. Some patellar tendonitis and instability that I had sorted out. The last few weeks both knees have started to flare up again. I think it's just overuse causing tendonitis again. I'll probably just leave them for a few weeks. It's tough because I stress my knees doing:

Push Press, Deadlift, squat, Bent Barbell Rows

Thants half of my routine!
 
Musketeer,

There's actually a debate on the benefit of stretching BEFORE lifting and many gurus advise against it

Warming up = OK
Stretching = non OK
 
Anthrax said:
Musketeer,

There's actually a debate on the benefit of stretching BEFORE lifting and many gurus advise against it

Warming up = OK
Stretching = non OK
Click to expand...

Yeah, I dont do anything like developmental stretches before training, just make sure that all of the angles are a little losser. I wouldn't dream of stretching a cold muscle. I do things like hip stretches and lower back stretches to make sure that everything is in the correct alignment before I start going heavy. Sometimes if I finish a set of squats and my knees hurt I just stretch the quads out with a simple standing stretch and my knees feel a lot better.

Cheers anthrax.

I'm just really pissed because I thought that I was getting over the tendonitis and today it killed me.
 
My toes point slightly out. Stance is about 60" apart from heel to heel.

Body feels great in this position...

B True
 
my toes go in the exact direction of my kneecaps to maintain that all joint angles are bending in the same direction. the last thing i want to do is put torque on my lower leg. i still spread the floor, but i cant have my feet parallel with such a wide hip angle (PL squat) when i OLY squat my feet are closer in, but wide enough so my pelvis has room to drop into the "bucket" so to speak. but either way there is toe flare in the direction that my femur is going, and ultimately my kneecap.

just my take on how joints should function. i understand the whole knees and toes ahead, close stance model, but under load, you have to distribute weight through the hips, thats why you can take a wide stance. so you can lift more! also bringing the adductors into it.

i can argue either sides of the coin on this situation...but again it all depends on THE GOAL.
 
when I sq i like my knee's not to flare straight out, so i kick my toes out...i got as wide as my rack allows
 
i have a slightly wider then shoulder width stance, toes out a bit, prolly 15 degrees.

i was wondering, whats the widest you can go where the weight will still be on the quads?

i wanna try a wider more 'powerlifting' stance, but dont wanna lose the quad action..

any help?
 
TheOak84 said:
i have a slightly wider then shoulder width stance, toes out a bit, prolly 15 degrees.

i was wondering, whats the widest you can go where the weight will still be on the quads?

i wanna try a wider more 'powerlifting' stance, but dont wanna lose the quad action..

any help?
Click to expand...

Try it and see. My stance is VERY wide compared to everyone elses on here...and I can still feel it in my quads when I go REALLY intense.

B True
 
keep mine where they feel comfortable and my ass fits inside when im ATG, shoulder width or slightly more. Im guessing 18 inches. Toes just out from straight.
 
http://www.exrx.net/ExInfo/Squats.html

Ive been experimenting alot with foot placement latley. I have been watching alot of squatting vids on youtube and various other sites. I had been going pretty wide for a while maybe 30+ but had seen pics and vids of people going just a bit wider than shoulder and they were able to get much lower. So ive been experimenting and realized that i am able to get much lower with a narrower stance although im able to do less weight. I dont know whats better though
 
Feet slightly wider than shoulder width and feet slightly flared out (40 degrees).

Reminds me of Tom Platz.

I have short legs (1.78cm) so I find it difficult to spread em wide :(
 
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