Research has shown that performing squats with increased load, like holding dumbbells, boosts jumping capabilities. Your quads and glutes are heavily involved with your explosive jumping power, and adding squats to your routine fires up these important major lower body muscles. You can choose from plenty of variations with or without weights to make your workout routine more interesting and fine-tune your overall functional fitness. New research reveals that a certain squatting technique is more effective for strengthening your quads. Let’s dive into the study.
The study
In a study published in The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research, the researchers set out to determine if specific squatting techniques, like changing the width of your stance, impacted the engagement of the quadriceps muscles in the front of the thighs.
They tested two stance widths:
- Narrow stance — 0.7% of your shoulder width.
- Wide stance — 1.7% of your shoulder width.
The wide stance used in the study was similar to a sumo squat, a stance more commonly adopted by competitive powerlifters.
The study results
The researchers reported that when participants performed the wide stance back squat, there were statistically smaller vastus forces compared to the narrow stance. Your vastus muscles refer to three of the four muscles comprising your quadriceps femoris in your thighs just above your knees. They suggested those looking to optimize muscle forces in the vastus muscles while performing maximum back squat training should consider a narrow stance.
In particular, a narrower stance yields more significant knee flexion and quad muscle engagement for untrained individuals. People can move their knees forward more with a narrower stance and generate higher muscle forces in the calves and quads.
You can perform a bar squat in different ways, such as a high-bar or low-bar position, which also affects muscle engagement. The study used a low-bar position for the back squat.
The takeaway
Squats are a classic and versatile exercise that activates those quads as well as other major muscles in your legs, glutes, and core. A wider stance, like a sumo squat, provides benefits, such as increasing the activation of the adductor muscles in your inner thighs and improving your balance.
This new study shows that using a narrow stance when performing a squat might be the most effective choice for beefing up your quads and maximizing your muscle-building results, which is interesting news, especially for runners. Your quad muscles help you kick, run, jump, walk, play sports, and more. Together, your quads contain more mass than any muscle group in your body.
