Home > Exercise Comparisons > Squats Vs Sumo Squats: Pros, Cons, and Differences

Squats Vs Sumo Squats: Pros, Cons, and Differences

Adam Gardner
Last Modified On January 20, 2024

Squat variations are plentiful, and it’s helpful to know which ones are truly useful, how they are beneficial, and whether or not you should give them any attention. One variation commonly seen in the gym is the sumo squat. But how similar/different is it when compared to the traditional squat?

Sumo squats differ from squats in that they require a much wider stance, typically wider than shoulder width. Like a sumo deadlift, the hips are open in a sumo squat, pulling the knees apart, and the toes are turned more outward. This stance puts greater emphasis on the glutes and less emphasis on the lower back.

But beyond that simple explanation, there are several factors to understand and consider when comparing traditional squats and sumo squats, so let’s break each of them down below.

Table of Contents

Differences Between Squats and Sumo Squats

Between the two squats, there are four main differences to note:

Stance
Muscles Emphasized
Range of Motion
Upper Body Angle

1. Stance

The biggest difference between the two squats is your stance and foot placement. The sumo squat is performed with your feet set wide, hips open, and toes pointed out, usually at about 45 degrees, but this will all vary depending on the lifter.

This wider stance is the reason or catalyst for the other 3 differences between the sumo squat and a standard squat.

2. Muscles Emphasized

By taking a wider stance with the sumo squat, you change the muscles the squat will emphasize. The most obvious change is that your glutes will be more heavily recruited than your quads. This isn’t just a perceived difference, it’s been researched and tested to be true.

This isn’t to say your quads are not part of the lift anymore, but they aren’t needing to do as much because of the changed amount of your knee flexion (or how much your knee bends).

A good rule of thumb for just about every squat variation is that a wider stance means more glutes and a narrow stance means more quads.

Additionally, by opening your hips up, you are able to lower the bar without bending forward as much. This is because the center of gravity changes, and you’re able to descend while keeping the bar centered on your body. In a traditional squat, bending forward is necessary to keep the weight balanced and centered as you descend.

Because we aren’t bending forward to keep the weight centered, the lower back muscles, or erectors spinae, are deemphasized significantly.

3. Range of Motion

The internet will never let sumo deadlifters forget the fact that the wide stance means a shorter range of motion to pull the bar completely off the ground when compared to the same lifter’s ROM while pulling conventionally with their feet together. The same is true with the squat versus the sumo squat.

When you take a wider stance, you don’t need to descend as far to sink your hips past the tops of your knees to “break parallel” as the powerlifting world calls it.

While the internet may not like it, there’s nothing wrong with taking every possible advantage to successfully complete a big squat, so look at this as a big plus!

4. Upper Body Angle

I touched on this above, but we aren’t using our erector spinae muscles as much in the sumo squat because our upper body angle or position is different. Instead of having to lean slightly forward to keep the barbell directly over our midfoot and stay balanced, the torso stays more upright in a sumo squat.

This can be a big advantage to lifters who struggle to maintain upper body position due to lower back strength.

If you have trouble staying upright when squatting, try these 5 solutions to fixing a forward lean in the squat.

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Squats: How To, Muscles Used, Tips, Common Mistakes, Pros, and Cons

Squats: How To Do It

To perform a standard squat, take the following steps:

Step 1: Grip the barbell in your hands

Place your hands about shoulder-width apart as you face the barbell.

Step 2: Place the barbell on your back

With your hands on the bar, dip below the bar and place it comfortably on your back. Stand up under the bar so it comes off the rack and rests on your back.

Step 3: Walk it out

Take three small steps backward into your squat position. Your feet should be about shoulder-width apart when you finish your walkout.

Step 4: Brace your core

Take as big of a breath as you can into your stomach to brace your core and create intra-abdominal pressure.

Step 5: Descend into your squat

Bend your knees and descend downward until the crease of your hip descends below the top of your kneecap.

Step 6: Return to starting position

After passing “parallel” with your hips passing the top of your knee, stand back up to your starting position.

Step 7: Repeat for reps

Perform as many reps as your program calls for.

Squat: Muscles Used

When performing standard squats, the following muscles are primarily used:

Quads
Glutes
Adductors
Erector Spinae
Rhomboids

Quads

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

As you come back to a standing position, your glutes and adductors (inner thighs) work together to extend your hips.

Adductors

As mentioned above, the adductors are the inner thigh muscles that work in conjunction with your glutes to extend your hips.

Erector Spinae

The erector spinae are the lower back muscles that stabilize you while standing erect (thus the name) and also help you bend forward and stand back upright when bending at the hip.

Rhomboids

The rhomboids are a group of large muscles in the upper back. Upper back muscles aren’t usually something you think about with squats, but they work to keep your shoulders pulled back as you hold the bar in a steady position on your back throughout the lift.

Learn more about all of the muscles used in the squat in our ultimate guide: Muscles Used in the Squat (Complete Guide).

Squats: Pro Tips

Here are 3 tips to think about for a good squat:

Always Hit Depth

There’s no reason other than ego to avoid squatting the full range of motion and getting your hips below parallel. Sure, maybe you lack the mobility or awareness at first to get it right, but most people can hit depth by warming up and using the right weight on the bar.

Don’t lie to yourself and say you’re getting the same or better results by squatting shallow, and don’t fool yourself into thinking you’ll be able to suddenly hit depth when it matters in a competition or when testing your maxes on your own.

Do your squats right every time and you’ll be better off for it.

If you have trouble hitting depth due to poor mobility, check out these 13 ankle mobil ity drills and 13 hip mobility drills.

Record Your Sets

Squats are complicated! You’re using muscles all the way from your toes and feet to your wrists and ankles and everything in between to get them right. And you’re trusting yourself to do it all correctly every time you do it.

Taking videos of your sets is the best way to see how your form is improving, worsening, or staying the same. You are the only one who knows how the lift feels while you do it, so use that information to compare with how the lift looks on video and learn from it.

This applies to beginner lifters and advanced lifters alike.

Train Your Bracing

A key element of a successful squat is your ability to brace, or to create tension in your core to help keep your body stable. While this involves most muscles in your body, you can mostly focus on your abdomen bracing as you perform the lift.

This is not a natural skill to have, so it will take focus and practice to get it right and then keep it consistent.

Learn to take a breath into your diaphragm before you squat. Push your abdomen outward (push against your belt, if you’re wearing one) as hard as you can just before you begin to squat. Keep that pressure going all the way until you finish your rep, then take another breath and repeat.

Practicing this portion of the lift often will help it feel natural and automatic.

Wondering if you need to wear a belt when squatting? Get our expert opinion in Should You Wear A Belt For Squats And Deadlifts?

Squats: Common Mistakes

Below are three of the most common mistakes I see during the squat:

Inconsistent Foot Placement

We’ve compared the sumo squat to the standard squat and discussed foot placement already, but it’s important to be intentional about it. Just because there’s value in a wide stance sumo squat doesn’t mean you should ignore narrow stance squats or constantly shuffle your feet for a different feel with each set.

Find your comfortable, neutral squat stance and commit it to memory. Put tape or chalk marks on the floor to make it the same every time. It may take some time to explore and get it right, which is fine, but once you find one that works, be consistent with it.

Then you can do squats with different stances as intentional departures from your standard stance.

To figure out which foot placement is best for you, check out How Far Apart Should Feet Be For Squats? (Stance Breakdown).

Inappropriate Load

We often underestimate what we are capable of and leave gains and progress on the table. We can also get overconfident and overreach with weights we can’t actually handle.

Whatever end of the spectrum you find yourself on, learn to check your ego at the door and use the right load. Push yourself to do more when you can. Progress the weights/reps/sets weekly and monthly to keep your squats challenging.

When you can’t keep up with the weight you’ve selected, have the humility to reduce the weight so you can perform the squats with good form for all the reps you need to hit.

Don’t make the mistake of using the wrong load to either stay comfortable or do something you’re not capable of doing yet.

Bad Form

A good squat is half about your personal strength and half about having good form – maybe even 60% form over strength.

This is why I emphasize recording your sets and keeping a constant watch on your form just like you would your speedometer or fuel gauge on your car dashboard. It will require constant monitoring. Just because you got it right once doesn’t mean it will stay that way as you add more weight to your squats.

Be vigilant about practicing and maintaining good form and you’ll avoid injury, have an honest view of your current abilities, and see better progress than others.

Squats: Benefits

Compared to sumo squats, there are two benefits to standard squats:

Better for maximal effort
Less hip mobility required
Better for quad development
Better for beginners

Better for Maximal Effort

This isn’t the case 100% of the time, as you’ll see some excellent powerlifters using the sumo squat in competition, but generally speaking, the standard squat is a better approach to testing your best and heaviest squat.

Because the neutral stance balances all of the muscles used in the squat, we have a more balanced ability to recruit each of them as needed in a max effort situation.

While it’s a common practice among some powerlifters to measure a max effort squat variation, like a max sumo squat, a max safety bar squat, or a max front squat, your best measure of true squat strength will almost always come through the standard squat.

Curious about how your squat strength compares to that of other lifters? Check out How Much Should You Be Able To Squat (By Age & Weight).

Less Hip Mobility Required

Because we take a neutral stance in the standard squat, we don’t have to worry about the more demanding hip mobility requirements that come with the sumo squat!

With our feet about shoulder-width apart, our hips are in a comfortable position to hinge and bend at the joints, versus the sumo squat, which opens our hips and stretches them wide from the start.

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.

If you haven’t developed that hip mobility, the standard squat will be a much more comfortable option until you do.

Better for Quad Development

With the narrower stance, the standard squat puts greater emphasis on your quads. With greater emphasis on those quads, the standard squat is a superior option for building quad strength.

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.

If you have trouble feeling your quads when squatting, check out Can’t Feel Your Quads When Squatting? Try These 8 Tips.

Better for Beginners

I imagine there are a few exceptions out there of brand new lifters who are really comfortable with a sumo squat right out of the gates, but generally speaking the standard squat is a better movement for beginners to use to learn the mechanics of squatting.

With a neutral foot stance, beginners have fewer squat cues to think about and worry about as they start to get familiar with the squat. The motion is more natural, similar to sitting down into a chair and other familiar movement patterns, making it a better option to get beginners comfortable with the squat exercise.

Squats: Drawbacks

I can think of only two drawbacks when it comes to squats:

Lacks Variety

Look, I honestly view squats as the king of compound lifts. More than the deadlift, I think the squat is the best bang for your buck when it comes to using as many muscles as possible and getting a lot out of it in a single lift.

That said, a lifter who only squats in one way will not be as rounded or developed as a lifter who incorporates a few variations in their program.

This is a very, very small drawback, because someone who legitimately squats often and squats well will be in great shape. But if that same person were to also perform a few sets each week of other squat variations, they’d see better results all around in most cases.

Wondering how often you should be squatting? We discuss this in more detail in How Many Times Per Week Should You Squat?

Greater Lower Back Demands

As we discussed, the standard squat puts more motion on your lower back as you slightly bend forward to keep the bar centered on your body in the descent and then bend your upper body back to an upright position to stay centered as you ascend.

Depending on your situation, this added emphasis on your lower back may be a benefit or a drawback. If you just need to sterngthen your lower back, then being able to use the squat as a tool to get stronger is an advantage.

If your lower back is an issue for you, the standard squat may exaggerate that issue and be a huge drawback. You’ll need to speak with a medical professional about exactly how to handle your own lower back problems, but the standard squat may aggravate it or will at least put more emphasis on it.

There are several other squat variations you can do if you’re suffering from lower back pain. I provide some of my favorites in Which Squat Is Best For Lower Back Pain? (5 Examples).

Sumo Squats: How To, Muscles Used, Tips, Common Mistakes, Pros, and Cons