We may need a wider grip if we have mobility restrictions with the upper body and/or we feel that a wider grip is more comfortable and we can still create tension in the upper body.
Wide stance squats recruit more hip musculature, activating more glutes and hamstrings, whereas narrow stance squats recruit more knee musculature, emphasising the quadriceps.
In HIGH BAR squats, your hands should be close to your shoulders. The close grip allows you to build a big "shelf" of muscle for the bar to rest on. If you're squatting with a LOW BAR position, your hand position will be on the bar ring - or even wider. Shoulder and thoracic mobility will affect the width of your grip.
Pronated (or Overhand) Grip
The pronated grip is generally the most common grip used during resistance training. You place the hand over the bar, dumbbell, or kettlebell with your knuckles up. Your thumb can either be wrapped around the bar (closed grip) or not wrapped around the bar (open or false grip).
The narrow stance squat requires more ankle mobility compared to its wider stance counterpart. You need adequate ankle mobility so you can squat parallel or deeper while keeping a neutral spine.
Most powerlifters will also assume a wide (shoulder width or, in some cases and for larger athletes, much wider) stance when they squat. This limits their range of motion and often improves leverage. On the other hand, there's no specific foot position that qualifies as “narrow” — it's a general visual descriptor.
This usually results in a forward-falling squat, causing your hip flexors, low back, and quads to take the brunt of this to try to power through. You may also experience instability in a wide stance because your base of support (although wide) extends laterally—from side to side, not from front to back.
The wide squat has an edge, especially if you have poor balance, are a beginner, have knee issues, or want to target your glutes more. But whether you use a narrow stance when you squat or a wide one, you're building a stronger, more functional lower body. Regardless of the stance you use, focus on your form.
Front squats are more difficult than back squats because of the mobility and technical demands in maintaining upper body stability. In addition, the front loaded position challenges muscle groups like the back and core and are often the limiting factor in front squatting as much as you back squat.
Wide-Grip Chest Presses Have a Shorter Range of Motion
If you want to feel super strong, you'll love wide-grip bench presses. Because of the angle you have your arms, the range of motion for the exercise will be smaller.
Stance width and degree of toe-out can also be optimized for those who suffer from knee pain during squats. Generally speaking, gravitating towards a wider stance with a larger degree of toe-out (20-30°) tends to be more tolerable in this case.
If your goal is to lift as much weight as possible, you should try out various grip widths and techniques to see which one you can lift the biggest amount of weight in. The odds are that you will be slightly stronger with a wider grip than a closer grip.
When the hands are placed in a wider position, greater emphasis is placed on the lats and other back muscles and not the biceps or pecs, which makes it the more challenging of the two variations as less muscles are being used.
There are narrow squatters and there are wide squatters. That may have nothing to do with tight muscles or "tight" joint capsules, but have more to do with bony hip anatomy. Very few people are at the end range of their hip motion, so hip mobility drills are definitely a good idea.
It's worth trying to make your abs bigger because 1) bigger muscles have greater force potential and 2) more muscle mass under the bar gives you better leverage.
The deeper you can squat and the more you allow your knees to travel, the more your quads will work in the exercise execution. The highest activation occurs during the ascent of the narrow stance squat execution. Narrow stance quads can make the quads sorer than wide stance squats.
Leslie Kaminoff explains the issue at hand as he investigates squat pose in his nicely illustrated book, Yoga Anatomy: "The inability to dorsiflex the ankle deeply enough to keep the heels on the floor can be due to shortness in the Achilles tendon; however, restriction can also be in the front of the ankle.
Lack of spine mobility can also hinder you from getting deep with your squats. Again, this is because of the movement pattern of squats. When you squat, your hips move back and down while your knees bend. This action requires a lot of mobility at the ankles, knees, and hips.
Your Back Is Too Upright
A common mistake many novices make when learning how to squat is that the cue “keep your back flat” is misinterpreted as keep your back fully upright. Generally, everyone will need to lean to some degree when squatting down, especially if you aren't extremely mobile.
What is a Good Grip Strength for a Man? The average healthy man can give a squeeze that applies 72.6 pounds of pressure. If you're not there, you've got some work to do. A strong grip is one that can apply at least 90 pounds of pressure.
Grip strength is typically measured in pounds, kilograms, or Newtons by squeezing a type of muscle strength testing equipment, known as a dynamometer, about three times in each hand. The average healthy grip strength for men is a squeeze of about 72.6 pounds while women typically measure around 44 pounds.
Other research supports the superiority of an overhand grip (regardless of grip-width) if your goal is to maximize lat muscle activation [2]. (As a side-note: A common piece of bro-science is the idea that choosing an underhand grip for the lat pulldown will increase the focus on your biceps.