Sumo Squats! The Original Sumo Squat, Hook & Race Party Game.

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The plié squat is the same as the sumo squat, and the two names are often used interchangeably. This variation adds a little extra work for the adductors and glutes. The adductors are the inner thigh muscles that work in conjunction with your glutes to extend your hips. Erector Spinae This portion of the body is unaffected by the change in stance between sumo and standard. Sumo Squats: Pro Tips

Granacher U, Gollhofer A, Hortobagyi T, Kressig R, Muehlbauer T. The importance of trunk muscle strength for balance, functional performance, and fall prevention in seniors: a systematic review. Sports Med. 2013;43:627-41. doi:10.1007/s40279-013-0041-1 Granted, any squat exercise will require some level of hip mobility, but the standard squat is generally easier to perform than the sumo squat when it comes to hip mobility. You can use the standard squat to better develop the needed hip mobility to try the sumo squat.How wide you go depends on your strength and flexibility. In general, positioning your feet 3–4 feet apart is a good starting point for the sumo squat. Most lifters should do a combination of both squats and sumo squats, with squats as their main squatting movement and sumo squats as a variation they perform to round out and add variety to their lower body training. Squats vs Sumo Squats: Which Is Best For Powerlifting? The quads are the muscles on the front of your thighs used in the flexion of your knee as you descend and ascend during the squat. The squat is commonly thought of as a quad exercise because of the quads’ heavy use in the movement. Glutes

Some research shows that stance width affects muscle activity in the lower extremities, but varying the foot placement angles does not seem to play a major role in muscle activity ( 1). Adding exercises that recruit your inner thighs, specifically, will improve your overall balance and help protect your hips from injury during other intense or heavy physical activities. Start with a narrower stance and gradually increase the distance between your feet. It may take some time for your hips to be flexible enough to support an extra-wide stance. Take the time to do stretches for several weeks. Warm-up each workout before attempting sumo squats. Take the time to get your body ready for this specific variation so you can get the most of it.When a lifter shows an area of weakness in the squat, a good trainer will give the lifter more work to do on that area of weakness. Where weak quads are the problem, a standard squat is a great option to help a lifter build that needed quad strength. This is not a natural skill to have, so it will take focus and practice to get it right and then keep it consistent.