Narrow Squats

To execute narrow squats, begin by initially positioning yourself as would for standard squats. Your stance should be much narrower however, with your feet placed only about 2-10 inches apart. Arch the lower back and contract the core to avoid rounding the back, then slowly bend your knees to lower your thighs towards the floor.


Lower yourself as far as you are comfortably able to (note that you will not be able to lower your thighs to horizontal with such a narrow stance), then extend your legs to raise yourself back up to the top.

Tips

* See the page on classic squats for important safety guidelines that apply to all exercises of this type.
* This exercise mainly develops the lateral muscle fibers of the legs. The main muscles that are acted upon are the quadriceps, hamstrings, gluteal muscles, lower back muscles, as well as the core.
* With the feet placed only a few inches apart it becomes impossible to safely lower the thighs until they are parallel to the floor. If you attempt to do so, you will find that you will be forced to pull your chest forward. This is obviously unsafe considering it will place a significant amount of tension on the spinal muscles, not to mention the fact that you could easily lose control of the weight in such an awkward position. For these reasons, you should only aim to perform a half-squat when using a narrow stance. You will not be able to work as many total muscle fibers with this movement as you could with regular squats, however this remains a good exercise to throw into the mix from time to time. Use this exercise when you want some variety and you want to work your legs in a different way than usual.


Return from Narrow Squats to view more exercises for the Legs

Return to Home Workout Routines