Horse Stance: Static Exercise for Strong, Flexible Legs

Horse stance is a powerhouse of a move, and it’s not just for when you’re pretending to be Jackie Chan.

For us, horse stance is an effective exercise for building strong legs, improving your mobility, and even enhancing your willpower.

Though it’s roots are in various martial arts practices, we use the horse stance for fitness purposes: to develop strong, flexible legs (and build your concentration and willpower).

In this article, we will guide you on the essentials of getting started with the horse stance and achieving the best results from incorporating it into your routine.

Keep in mind that there will be differences in in what we teach from how you may have seen this practiced in a martial arts context. Our focus is to provide you with the fundamentals of horse stance as it relates to general strength and mobility training. Throughout your practice, always prioritize proper form and posture, and be patient with your progress as you gradually work yourself into the ideal position.

Key Points on Horse Stance:

• Horse stance is a versatile exercise for building leg strength, mobility, and mental fortitude
• It’s essential to maintain correct form and posture while performing the horse stance
• Progressing gradually in the horse stance can lead to tangible improvements over time, even if you face challenges in the beginning

Horse Stance Tutorial Video: Let’s Learn the Basics…

This video will walk you through most of what you need to know about horse stance.

As a bonus, you get to see Eduardo sweat a bit, as Ryan made him actually hold horse stance for the duration of the video… 🙂

We’ll cover more details on technique and common challenges below…

Horse Stance Mechanics

Variations of Feet Placement

• Toes pointed forward: Kibarachi in Karate
• Toes pointed forward: Mabu in Chinese Martial Arts
• Toes turned slightly outward: Chico in Sumo

As a martial arts teacher myself, I can’t say enough that if you’re doing this for a specific martial art, it’s essential to follow your teacher’s instructions on form. For our purposes, open your feet at a 45-degree angle to perform the horse stance.

Correct Posture and Form

1. Squat down: Place your hands on your knees and squat down. As you do, ensure your knees go outward and not inward.
2. Thighs parallel to the ground: Work your way into a position where your thighs are parallel to the ground. If you struggle, continue practicing. Remember, actively push your knees outward.
3. Align your back properly: Pull your body forward, align your knees over your toes and raise your chest. This position gets you that straight-back posture.

Remember that this is the goal, and you won’t necessarily be able to do it properly at first.

Adapting to the Position

• Improve Range of Motion: Gradually open your feet wider and sink deeper into the position
• Use your Hands for Support: During practice, use your hands for support as you work your way deeper
• Posture Adjustment: Focusing on your hips and chest can help keep the correct posture, even if your thighs aren’t parallel to the ground
• Pain Management: Adjusting your stance to be higher or lower can alleviate back pain during the horse stance
• Knee Support: If you have knee issues, find a position that works for you and helps strengthen your knees in a steady, pain-free manner
• Stamina Building: Start with holding the stance for five seconds and gradually increase the duration. A five-minute challenge can help improve your overall strength and willpower

Benefits of Training Horse Stance

Among other benefits, the horse stance lends itself especially well to quality crotch shots.

Physical Benefits

Training the horse stance provides incredible benefits both to your legs and overall body. Some of the key physical benefits include:

• Building strong legs: This one’s pretty obvious 😉
• Improved mobility: Horse stance can help increase your mobility, especially in the hips and thighs.
• Gradual improvement in range of motion: As you continue to practice the horse stance, you can gradually widen your stance and work on sinking deeper into the position, further benefiting your physical capabilities.

Another key benefit of isometric or static strength training is stability, and you’ll develop very sturdy hips, knees, and ankles with practice.

Mental and Emotional Benefits of Horse Stance

The horse stance is not only beneficial for your body, but it also offers mental and emotional benefits. These include:

• Increasing willpower: The challenge of holding the horse stance for extended periods of time requires mental strength and determination, thus increasing your willpower.
• Developing discipline: Regularly practicing and improving your horse stance helps in developing discipline and focus, which can be beneficial in other aspects of life.
• Overcoming obstacles: As you progress through the various levels of difficulty in the horse stance, you learn to overcome physical and mental obstacles, which can build your confidence and resilience.

Cautions and Potential Challenges

Like any exercise, this isn’t easy. Here’s a few areas you may run into difficulties…

Dealing with Physical Constraints

In order to perform the horse stance exercise effectively and safely, you should pay attention to:

• Achieving proper posture: Ensure your knees are always pointed outward, with your hips under your shoulders, and maintain a straight line with your back. This may require adjusting the depth of your stance or raising your body to prevent arching.

  • Practicing these posture tips can help you achieve the ideal form:
    • Focus on pulling your hips under you and lifting your chest.
    • Actively push your knees outward, preventing them from caving in.

• Be wary of back pain: If you experience back pain while performing the horse stance, it could be due to excessive arching in your back.

  • Try these steps to minimize back stress:
    • Stand up slightly higher, away from the ground, to enable easier posture alignment.
    • Add extra pelvic tilt by squeezing your glutes, further aligning your hips with your back.

• Addressing knee stress: The horse stance can potentially strain your knees, depending on the depth of your stance and how far forward your knees track over your toes.

  • If you have knee issues, try the following modifications:
    • Find a comfortable position within the horse stance that doesn’t cause pain or discomfort.
    • Gradually work on strengthening your leg muscles through the exercise while respecting your body’s limitations.

• Building strength and endurance: You don’t have to be in the full horse stance right away to build strength and endurance over time.

  • Work on improving your hold duration by starting with shorter intervals, such as 5 or 10 seconds.
  • Gradually increase the duration over time to 30 seconds, 1 minute, or even challenge yourself with a 5-minute hold duration.

Remember that your individual capabilities and needs may vary, so it’s essential to listen to your body and make any necessary adjustments in order to perform the horse stance safely and effectively.

People alway ask us how long they should try to hold it for, and the answer is pretty simple: as long as you can do it well.

Then rest a bit and do more.

The goal isn’t some arbitrary duration. The goal is to get stronger!

Don’t let reductive-thinking social media BS convince you that you have to hit some stupid number for your practice to be meaningful.

Progressing and Training the Stance

Here’s a few ideas for progressing this position… You’ll notice that we’re not pushing a single rigid form or a specific duration or depth. These things, by and large, do not matter.

What matters is that you are consistently challenging your body in a healthy way that develops your capabilities and builds robust strength.

Try these micro-variations:

• Once you’re comfortable with the position, try opening your feet even wider and progressively sinking lower into the stance. Use your hands for support and focus on maintaining a nice, straight back.
• If you can’t get your thighs parallel to the ground, don’t stress. Just continue to work on pulling your hips under you and maintaining a straight posture. Always push your knees outward and avoid letting them collapse inward.
• Practice the Horse Stance in various situations, such as brushing your teeth, watching TV, or during short breaks.

Remember, listen to your body and adjust as needed, focusing on building strength, mobility, flexibility, and willpower.

Common FAQ About Horse Stance

What is the horse stance?

• The horse stance is an exercise that builds strong legs and improves mobility and willpower.
• It is commonly used in martial arts such as karate, Chinese martial arts, and sumo.
• The position and name of the horse stance may vary depending on the specific martial art.

What if I can’t hold my thighs parallel to the ground?

• Don’t worry; focus on maintaining proper posture by pulling your hips under you and keeping a straight back.
• Gradually work on sinking deeper while maintaining the correct form.

What if my butt sticks out?

• If your butt is sticking out, it means you might be going too low in the horse stance.
• Stand up higher away from the floor to maintain proper alignment while pulling your hips underneath your shoulders.

What if my back hurts?

• If your back hurts during the horse stance, it might mean you have too much arch.
• Adjust your position by standing up higher, pulling your hips under, and squeezing your butt to maintain proper alignment.

Does the horse stance put stress on my knees?

• Yes, the horse stance can put stress on your knees, depending on your depth and knee position.
• However, if you have knee issues, finding a comfortable position and practicing the horse stance can be beneficial for strengthening your legs.

More Bodyweight Leg Exercises

There’s lots of great ways to build strong legs, and now that we’ve cunningly lured you to this page to learning about the horse stance, I wanna invite you to check out some other options as well:

• Beginner Bodyweight Leg Strength Routine: Easy moves to begin building leg strength without equipment.
• Front and Back Scales: Another static leg exercises we love.
• Shrimp and Pistol Squats: These are classics. Learn the differences and how to choose the righting to focus on.
• Pistol Squat Progression: Our unorthodox approach that works for people who’ve had trouble with the standard progressions.
• 9 Advanced Bodyweight Leg Strength Exercises: These are a level above your typical single-leg squats…

Each of the links above will show you a different exercise to build different types of leg strength that will be useful for different applications.

Remember that building well-rounded strength and ability requires a variety of different training styles. Which is why we recommend cycling your training to focus on specific needs at different times of the year.

Build Stable, Solid Strength with Static Exercises

Integral Strength

Develop strength, power, and stability in athletic movements