I am 5' 8" and have only been doing squats for a short amount of time.

I have read many different descriptions on how to do squats properly. Obviously, there are many different types of squats (sumo, deep squat, blah blah).

I am just a newb, so I am only trying to do a regular squat.

I find that unless I put my feet VERY far apart, I can *NOT* squat without lifting my heels. By very far apart, I mean 26" apart (I stood on a measuring to see how far apart my feet were!).

If I do put my feet closer together, my heels rise off the ground and I feel like I may fall forward. Which wouldnt be too good...

Is this normal? I feel a tiny bit of tightness in my hips, but thats it. I do several hip flexor stretches (thanks vore performance!) so I hope that will go away, but even without that tightness, I dont think I can bring my feet much closer together.

I still feel the exercise working my muscles, but I am worried I am working my way to an injury here or something...

Any advice?

when you squat you wan't the middle of your knee to travel over the line of your second toe. hope this makes sense its kinda difficult to explain, i was shown by my physio.

maybe someone knows how to explain it in text form.

~v

Hmmm, I think from that description then my form is incorrect. Cuz that would require my feet to be about 12" apart - less then shoulder width even.

Hmmm, confusing.

well my feet are about 20" apart and i am 6'0

when you are squatting your knees should travel over the line of your second toes.
the line being from your toe to your eyes on both sides.
thus don't try to do one knee then the other, thus both knees at the same time.

~v

Tightness in your hip flexors may not be the problem. It just may be a lack of flexibility in your ankles and tight muscles in your lower legs. Keep on working on it. My feet are shoulder width when I squat. Never measured it myself.


Is this normal? I feel a tiny bit of tightness in my hips, but thats it. I do several hip flexor stretches (thanks vore performance!) so I hope that will go away, but even without that tightness, I dont think I can bring my feet much closer together.

I still feel the exercise working my muscles, but I am worried I am working my way to an injury here or something...

Any advice?

I am 5' 8" and have only been doing squats for a short amount of time.
I have read many different descriptions on how to do squats properly. Obviously, there are many different types of squats (sumo, deep squat, blah blah).
If I do put my feet closer together, my heels rise off the ground and I feel like I may fall forward. Which wouldnt be too good...
Is this normal? I feel a tiny bit of tightness in my hips, but thats it. I do several hip flexor stretches (thanks vore performance!) so I hope that will go away, but even without that tightness, I dont think I can bring my feet much closer together.


You're correct about the different types of squats...Proper body mechanics has your feet directly inline with your hips, with your feet pointed foward, not angled out. Feel where your hip bones are in the front, and use this as your guide to where you want your heals.
As far as your heals lifting off the floor...as somebody else stated, is caused by tightness through your calfs, limiting the range of motion of your ankles. I'd suggest doing some static stretches for your calfs, as well as the hip flexors before and after training.
After you get the above nailed down with proper body mechanics throughout the entire movement...then I'd say it'd be ok to try some other stances.

When I first started squats, like 4 weeks a go I had the same thing going on- I had to have feet wide to keep good form. Now I have my feet about shoulder width, as I guess I have become more flexable. When u go wide just make sure, like vovo said, that your knee stays in-line with your middle toe-or that your knee stays over your foot while u come down, otherwise u will be putting too much of a staring on the knee joint.

hmmm, guess I was right in thinking my feet were too wide apart.

Sad thing is, I do a wide variety of stretches every morning after I ride and I also stretch before and after a workout. Heck, I even stretch DURING a workout! I put a lot of focus on my ankles, as I play squash regularily and believe the majority of my speed on the court comes from the calf muscles.

I think I need to reduce the stance by about 6". I'll just keep working on it. Thanks guys.