As you think about your squat stance, you might wonder whether your feet should be pointing more inward or outward. Generally speaking, you will want to take a stance that is slightly outside of shoulder-width, and point your toes outward at an angle of 15-30 degrees.
Evidence based guidelines exist for the execution of a squat, and these include foot stance of shoulder width or wider, maintaining the feet flat on the ground, and toes pointing forward or slightly outward by no more than 10° [6,7,8].
Some of you might be wondering why a forward lean is such a bad thing since you can still perform a squat, even with a load. The answer is that a forward lean places excess strain on the lower back. This strain is amplified if you are using a load and can result in injury to the spine.
It's either you have very tight calf muscles or very weak muscles in front and back of your thighs, that cannot support your squats and doing tiptoe to balance yourself.
Heels rise in the squat because you lack ankle mobility or flexibility in your calves, you're wearing the wrong shoes for squats, or you have an improper bar path when descending into the bottom. To fix, you need ankle mobility drills, proper squat shoes, and a bar path that keeps you centered over your mid-foot.
Toes. Most people jump with toes pointed slightly out, and this toes-out stance is very helpful for the deadlift. It gets the thighs out of the way of the belly, which helps set your back flatter and it gets the groin muscles and the external rotators involved in the pull.
Most Western adults cannot place their heels flat on the ground when squatting because of shortened Achilles tendons maybe caused by habit: sitting on chairs or seats.
It's crucial to have your feet flat on the ground when squatting, whether you're wearing shoes or going barefoot. If you notice that your heel lifts off the floor at the bottom of a deep squat, chances are you have limited ankle range. You'll find that simply squatting barefoot can enhance your ankle dorsiflexion.
Not Bracing Your Torso
To perform the sissy squat effectively, you need to have a stable and locked-in trunk. This means ensuring that your hips are in extension (think about squeezing your buttocks the whole time) and that you're circumferentially bracing your core.
You'll know you are squatting correctly if you can stand back up without leaning forward and using momentum to get up. You can place a chair behind you and perform your squat until your bottom connects with the chair to test if your squats are correctly done. That is about how far you should go when doing your squats.
Get on your hands and knees. Then, open your knees as wide as you can without tearing something. And once you're as wide as possible, sit back – but without rounding your back. This gives you an idea of how wide you could (theoretically) make your stance during the squats.
Use an “active foot” stance
In fact, it's usually best to think about keeping most of your weight on your heels and pushing through your heels when standing back up… And there's nothing wrong with this. But the fact is that you should also utilize your “midfoot” in the squat – and improve your strength in the process.
Generally, lifters and athletes will squat without shoes for two key reasons, 1) they enjoy feeling the ground to the fullest with their foot when training for stability purposes, and 2) they genuinely enjoy training barefoot and it feeds well into their squat movement mechanics.
Heel elevation will allow them to squat deeper by improving ankle mobility. The heel-elevated squats are also an excellent choice for people who want to build their quadriceps muscles but cannot see any progress with regular squats or by using a leg extension.
Elevating your heels when performing a squat will do two things: Increase squat depth, and transfer force and emphasis to your quadriceps. Heels elevated squats better activate the muscle fibers of your quads because it increases the range of motion at the knee while decreasing the range of motion at the hip.
Many scientists also studied the Asian ankle could be flexible over 70 degrees, so most of the Asian people can do the Asian squat easily. Most Europeans or Americans have only 30 degrees of flexible ankle joint, so they often have to stand on tiptoes when trying to sit down.