Foot Placement?

[Joey Smith]

Greg, how does foot placement change or help or hinder your squat....such as toes in, toes out, toes straight ahead?....never asked and do not know or does it even make a difference?.... ....got any pics for a proper stance?....

[stupidasso]

Well I am not Greg but I might can help here.

Toes in causes you to bring close your knees more and throws more of the weight on the quadricep, and less on the glutes and hams. Toes out is just the opposite. Feet close places a heavy load on the front of the quads and on the outside. Feet wide gets the upper and inner quads. Toes out feet wide opens the knees, causes the glutes to drop low and back into the hole. Toes in feet close causes glutes to be high and drops the knees forward over the toes. Bodybuilders and folks wanting to work on their quads should focus more on toes in feet close, and not deep in the hole style squats. Powerlifters and people looking to strengthen their glutes and upper quads should focus on toes out feet wide. Sometimes for whatever reason some people feel more compfortable with a combination of the two. Wide or narrow to a certain extent is about like asking how high is up. Generally speaking anything shoulder width and below is close, shoulder width and wider is wide. Toes at 10'oclock and 2'oclock and closer is narrow, and of course you can guess what wider would be.

[Greg Crook]

Joey sorry it's taken so long to answer, me & Sharon just moved and haven't set up her computer yet.
Wade handled all the technical stuff for me, and to be honest I really didn't know all that anyway. Thanks for picking up my slack! When I started I just went as wide as I could comfortably and still be able to push my knees out. As far as my feet I let them do what ever they wanted. Wade pointed out that there's alot of different muscles to be work depending on how you place the feet. I just wanted to be comfortable. I don't think theres a right or wrong because everyone is built so differently. Thursday night when we squat I'll take pictures and describe in detail the stance of each lifter and why they chose it. Everyone in our group is different so there will be great variety. Thanks for the question.

[shank]

gregcrook said:

I just wanted to be comfortable. I don't think theres a right or wrong because everyone is built so differently.

I think this part is key and so true. My squat stance is very wide. Shoot, my 5'11 308 training partner's feet are basically in the same spot as mine (5'2" ~180). Main difference between us is that my feet are pointed out a lot. Anyway, it's what I've found is most comfortable and within that comfort, I tend to maintain better form.

Greg- hope the move went well.

[Greg Crook]

Shank, as long as your comfortable then go with it! The only thing I've been told as far as foot placement is that you can turn your toes out to help in getting depth, but you can also just bring your stance in a little. I chose to but more weight on the bar. The move when well but will be unpacking for months.

[shank]

gregcrook said:

Shank, as long as your comfortable then go with it! The only thing I've been told as far as foot placement is that you can turn your toes out to help in getting depth, but you can also just bring your stance in a little. I chose to but more weight on the bar. The move when well but will be unpacking for months.

I was told when I started that your toes should be at no more than a 45 degree angle... is this right? Or is this more of a guideline and you should start there, tweaking it to fit you?

I will say that, in my normal posture, my legs are turned out more than most. It's in my hips -- femoral retroversion. Hence why I'm probably comfortable there. I feel like I'm secure/seated/locked in the hips at lockout. But, I do have a little concern though. I didn't have balance problems when I was squatting 365 (pre-injury), but I'm still a little concerned that it may be an issue that'll develop as I go heavy. You know, with the narrowed base of support in the anterior-posterior direction. Should I try to not toe-out as much now or worry about it later if there is even a problem?

Since I'm kind of restarting, I want to try fixing form now, rather than later when I'm (re)set in my ways.

Thanks for the information you've given me/us so far and all that you may give me/us in the future.

And, I'm glad the move went well. The unpacking process sucks... good luck.

[Greg Crook]

Shank, the 45 degree thing I feel is just a guide line that should be tweaked to suit the lifter. As far as your balance concerns don't turn your toes out as much as if you were pulling sumo but other wise keep everthing the same if it was working before. How did you get injured?

[shank]

gregcrook said:

How did you get injured?

Thanks for the help. I do at this point pull sumo, so I'll definitely do that. And, I did get injured but not in lifting. It was a car accident that resulted in my truck being totaled, surgery on both my shoulder and wrist and 3 cortisone shots plus continuous problems with the thumb.

[Greg Crook]

Damn girl, I hate the hell out of that.

[shank]

gregcrook said:

Damn girl, I hate the hell out of that.

This has only slowed me down. I love this sport and am very motivated to get on that platform... I want to kick some butts and turn some heads.... hopefully.... but mainly I just want to lift heavy and hit PRs.

[stupidasso]

You WILL get better. I have been hurt pretty bad a few times. As far as stability goes you may want to look into bar placement.

[shank]

stupidasso said:

You WILL get better. I have been hurt pretty bad a few times. As far as stability goes you may want to look into bar placement.

Thanks for the confidence in my return.

As for bar placement... that is key to stability, no doubt, but right now, my bar fits nicely in my "shelf." I think any potential for instability would come from my stance and core strength first. Working on the latter of the 2. Thank you for the suggestion and I'll certainly keep it in mind.