maratoolWide Stance Squat with Barbell
How to do the wide stance squat with barbell
- Lifting a barbell off of a weight rack, position it on your shoulders.
- Stand with your feet wider than shoulder width apart (about 30 inches apart) with your toes pointing out.
- Drawing your abs in descend slowly by bending at the knees and hips as if you are sitting down (squatting).
- Lower yourself as far as you can control without letting your body shift towards your toes (this will cause you to loose balance).
- Pause in the downward position and slowly return upright to the starting position.
- Note: A pad on the bar or towel on your shoulders can help improve your grip and reduce the discomfort of the bar against your back. Practice the squat without any weight to allow yourself to become comfortable with the movements.
Muscles worked
The prime movers are the quadriceps across the front of the thigh, which straighten the knee and, just as importantly, control it on the way back down.
Because more than one joint is moving, the work does not stay in one place: the calves control the ankle and hold the heel position; the hamstrings assist hip extension and slow the knee down; the glutes finish hip extension.
The lower back take a share of the work as well.
Every exercise for:QuadricepsCalvesHamstringsGlutesLower back
How this movement works
The working muscles shorten as they drive the load away from you, and more than one joint changes angle to do it. Load spreads down a chain instead of sitting on one muscle, which is why a compound push handles more weight than any single-joint alternative — and why joint position, not the muscle, is usually what fails first.
It is filed under strength: produce force against resistance for a countable number of repetitions, and progress the resistance over time.
What you need
A barbell locks both hands to one bar, so neither side can drift and the load climbs in plate-sized steps. That makes it the simplest way to add weight and the least forgiving thing to bail out of.
Every exercise using:Barbell
These train the quadriceps too, using equipment this one does not:
- All Fours Quad Stretchbody only
- Bicycling, Stationarymachine
- Cable Deadliftscable
- Dumbbell Lungesdumbbell
- Front Squats With Two Kettlebellskettlebell
Difficulty
Listed at intermediate level. It assumes you already own the underlying pattern and can hold position under load — if the position breaks before the target muscle tires, drop back to a beginner variation until it does not.
Of the 173 quadriceps exercises in this database, 62 are listed at intermediate level.
Illustration: Everkinetic — CC BY-SA 4.0 — license. Modified versions are shared under the same license. Full attribution →
ⓘ Informational only — not a substitute for professional fitness or medical advice.