Squatting

To use the hams / glutes in a squat, you need to widen the stance and keep your feet staight forward. Correct? When my friend is squatting he feels as if he is working his quads too much. I told him to widen the stance, keep the feet pointed more or less straight forward, and to sit back into the squat. Am I correct with this analysis?

This is a common misconception. using glutes and hams in the squat, no matter how wide you’re squatting, just demands a little coordination. In the hole, concentrate on tensing your butt and hamstrings to blast up. Especially with a narrower stance, this will help to take some strain off the knees. Pushing your chest up and out, thus tilting you pelvis forward, helps to activate the glutes and hams by putting them on a little more stretch at the bottom. This is old-school Oly Lifting technique, supposedly popularized by eastern europeans.

If you do squat wide, foot placement depends on if you have a huge gut and whether or not it hurts your knees to have your feet forward. The foot placement things may be more pertinent to box squatting. I don't know anyone who squats with their feet straight forward. I think that the most important point is to always be pushing your feet to the outside to get solid hip activation. This is all Westside stuff. Go to Strength Online and read the archives for more on squat technique.

-Eric

i used 2 feel the same way about the wide stance until i used ian kings 12 weeks o pain…it teaches you 2 recruit those muscles in a normal stance…i was amazed…give it a try

that is sound advice, but what your friend might be experiencing is the following: his gluts and hamstrings may be stronger than his quads, so while squatting he only has to recruit 50 % of his ham/glut strength while having to do 90% of his quad strenght, so he will feel it more in the quads.

Widen your stance to about shoulder width. Point your toes out about 30 degrees or about 10:00 and 2:00 on a watch. When you squat, go hamstrings to calves and you will really feel it in your hamstrings, glutes and hips. You may have to cut down some of your weight initially, but in a relatively short time, you will be back on top again. Why not also try romonian dead lift (stiff leggeds) for your glutes and hams. Tremendous.