Why is it hard to squat with long femurs?

Author: Daphney Grady  |  Last update: Friday, May 2, 2025

Longer femurs can alter the angles of your hips and knees during squats, so if your femurs are long, you may need to lean forward more to keep your balance, which leads to changes in the angles at which your hips and knees bend.

Is it harder to squat with long femurs?

Yes, long femurs increase the ROM and make it more difficult to squat deeper. Someone with longer femurs will likely struggle with dorsi flexion and hitting depth, but that can easily be overcome by mobility work and weightlifting shoes. You can also try taking a wider stance.

Is it harder to squat if you have long legs?

Squatting with long legs can be challenging as longer thighs tend to push the hips back, making it harder to maintain an upright torso and reach full squat depth. However, with a few key adjustments, athletes with long legs can improve their squat mechanics. 1. Adjust Stance Width and Toe Angle Adopting a wider, toe-o.

Why is it harder for taller people to squat?

Taller people have longer legs, therefore must generate more torque to meet the same force a shorter person experiences. (Edit: Thighs are levers, so you can apply basic torque mechanics to them.) Not only this, but a full squat requires more work from the taller person due to the difference in max height.

Why is squatting harder for some people?

Squatting with a good depth requires a balance and hip, ankle and thoracic spine flexibility and mobility and a lot of people struggle with at least 1 of these.

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What is considered long femurs?

The average femur measures between 43 and 48 centimeters long. If we are looking at population statistics, then anything over 48 centimeters would be considered a long femur. However, a femur exceeding 48 centimeters long can still be considered perfectly normal for a very tall person.

Is it better to be tall or short for squats?

In an undated article by Ross, the author concluded “For the same weight lifted, taller lifters must generate approximately 25% more torque, which explains why taller lifters tend to be relatively poorer squatters.” In other words, I can think of “torque” as related to the lever length from the hip to the knee joint.

What are the benefits of long femurs?

Long Femurs: On the flip side longer femurs give you a natural edge in sports that rely on reach and leverage like running kicking or jumping Your extended limb mechanics provide increased leverage helping you excel in dynamic explosive movements While squats might be more challenging careful attention to form and ...

What percentage of height is femur length?

It is considered the strongest bone by some measures, though other studies suggest the temporal bone may be stronger. On average, the femur length accounts for 26.74% of a person's height, a ratio found in both men and women across most ethnic groups with minimal variation.

Is hack squat better for long femurs?

If you have long femurs and want to be more upright, you can opt for smith machine or hack squats instead. This works more quads. But if you're trying to build glutes in a squat, leaning forward works better - it increases hip extension torque demands without compromising hip flexion (stretch on the glutes).

How far should your legs be when squatting?

Here's how to Squat with proper form: Stand with the bar on your back, and your heels shoulder-width apart. Bend your legs until your hips are lower than the top of your knees. Keep the bar balanced over your midfoot the whole time.

How hard is squatting 405?

Only 1 Out Of 50 People Go To The Gym, So 0.00012% Of The World's Population Can Squat 405lbs… That's 3 Out Of Every 25,000 People.”

What is the hardest type of squat?

Zercher Squat

This front-loaded variation is one of the toughest squats in your arsenal. The placement of the bar isn't just for show, either—positioning the weight like that will test your core and mid-back muscles along with the quads, hamstrings, and glutes as you brace and fight to keep your torso upright.

Do people with long femurs run faster?

The correlation coefficients between leg bone length variables and running performance are shown in Table 2. There were no significant correlations between the absolute lengths of the femur and tibia and personal best 5000-m race time (r = -0.246 and r = -0.255, respectively; p > 0.050 for both).

Why do tall people struggle to squat?

It can be hard to keep your balance when you have a longer torso and legs, which makes squats all the more challenging. Plus, it's harder to get into the correct form when your body is spread out over a larger area.

How to tell if you have long femurs for squatting?

This is a relatively simple process. Stand upright and look at the proportions of your body. Do your legs seem like they're really, really long when you compare them to your torso? If your answer is yes – then your femurs are probably long.

Do taller people have longer femurs?

Taller humans usually have longer femurs (thigh bones) and tibias (shin bones). When squatting with a narrow stance, these longer levers create a more significant forward lean to keep the center of gravity over the midfoot, leading to more strain on the lower back and knees.

Does femur length affect squats?

The length of the femur also plays an important role in the positioning of the squat. Those with short femurs and long torsos will have a more upright squat position. Those with long femurs and a shorter torso will have to compensate at the hip, causing them to lean forward to counterbalance the movement.

Why do I find squatting so hard?

Not only does it use around 200 muscles to perform a squat (that's around a third of all the muscles in your body), it also requires triple extension: that means you're bending through three joints – your hips, knees and ankles – at once.

Why do I fall backwards when I squat?

Ultimately, it's a balance problem. “Something is loading too much backwards,” he said. This usually means the athlete is trying to raise the chest at the bottom of the squat without pushing the hips forward to right himself.

Why can't I squat easily?

Tight hips, ankles and calves, your limb and torso length, the arches of your feet, limb asymmetries, and weak glutes are all possible reasons that you may have trouble squatting with “textbook” form. Any combination of these factors would make it difficult for anyone to squat properly.

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