Feet angle and squating form

[Brian DeGennaro]

You may have to pronate more than most in order to not topple over while squatting. People with long legs will have their femurs shoot their hips way back past their area of base, which creates a large forward lean in order to keep the bar in the area of base. to compensate you are gonna have to turn your feet out more than most.

[Brian Stone]

I was going to start a separate thread on a similar issue, but since this is here I'll just jump in, with apologies to OP.

Originally Posted by Brian DeGennaro

You may have to pronate more than most in order to not topple over while squatting. People with long legs will have their femurs shoot their hips way back past their area of base, which creates a large forward lean in order to keep the bar in the area of base. to compensate you are gonna have to turn your feet out more than most.

This probably describes very close to what I suspect my problem is. I'm fairly tall (6'3") and have monkey limbs. As a note, I used to squat horribly before fairly recently being exposed to the proper technique. Nonetheless, when I squat my toes seem to point further outward (both feet), especially when I put more force on heels since I have less friction created in feet due to smaller contact area w/ the floor. In my case, the sheer spot seems to happen at my knees, which is not good (I feel pressure toward the inside of my knees, as they don't bow out in proportion to my toes).

I have to do as Brian D described - put my butt way back and my chest pretty far down in order to remain balanced and with the bar above mid foot w/o stressing knees. Any advise or ideas here? I saw glute stretches mentioned earlier, but I'm not sure if this is the case if the area of stress is at my knees.

[Brian DeGennaro]

Work the crap out of ankle flexibility and turn your toes out.

[Alex Bond]

Originally Posted by Brian DeGennaro

Work the crap out of ankle flexibility and turn your toes out.

Do you have raised-heel squat shoes? That will help with the ankle flexibility Brian mentions here.

[Brian Stone]

My toes are turning too far out, so flexibility in that direction doesn't seem to be the issue. Are you guys thinking flexibility like the problem might be my ankles are having trouble allowing my shin to approach the top of my foot? I hadn't considered that, and I do have terribly inflexible ankles.

I don't have raised heel shoes either. I typically lift in running shoes, which are probably actually the exact opposite. Maybe I should look into some good weightlifting shoes for squatting.