Having squatting issues - flat footed

Lower your weight and work on your form. Back squats primarily target the quads, so there's not a whole lot of surprise there...you engage the glutes and hammies more going past parallel...if you're not even going parallel, you're not really going to engage them.

In RE to #2, I'm guessing your stance has your feet too close together and you're trying to keep your toes completely forward...widen your stance a bit and turn your feet out a bit...make sure your knees are tracking with your feet. When I squat, my knees line up pretty well with the front of my toes...they might go just slightly passed them, but they're lined up pretty good. It sounds to me like you don't have a good base stance.

I would also add that if you're completely new to this, it is likely you have a weak posterior chain...not at all uncommon. Drop the weight and work on form and building up the strength in your posterior chain.

I've had a lot of luck doing bodyweight squats as low as I can to stretch and strengthen my hip flexors. Try squatting as low as you possibly can, like until the backs of your thighs are touching your calves, keeping your feet flat on the floor, and just holding it for a few seconds. I had to hold on to something to keep myself upright for a long time. It helped me feel more comfortable going low, and it strengthened the habit of going below parallel.

Don't try to keep your knees from going past your toes, and just put your feet where they feel comfortable. Don't worry about them being parallel or at a certain degree of angle, put them where it makes your knees and ankles feel good.

Edited to say - going below parallel in your squats makes it a LOT harder, and it also gets you in your glutes/hams way more, especially if you squeeze when you reach the top of your squat. I have a much harder time getting out of the pocket when I go below parallel with the same weight that I can easily lift if I only go to just above parallel. More effort, great workout

all the advice people have given is spot on.

Just wanted to add, if you're flat footed, you should see a specialist who can make insoles for your shoes, this not only will help your squats but will also mean you won't have as many back/hip/knee problems in later life good luck x

Okay, this isn't an overly uncommon issue in women. Unfortunately stuff like being flat footed or over pronating your feet can lead to some internal hip rotation, knee valgus, etc and you can end up injuring your ACL. If you can take a video, then do this... Do an overhead squat with no weight, just arms over your head, feet pointed straight out. Have your boyfriend take a video from the front and side. If not, then I can only make some assumptions of what's happening and suggest the following.

Over pronating your feet could be a couple things and since you mentioned your quads are burning I'm guessing that your quad : hamstring strength ratio is way off-balance and you need to re-balance that before you hurt yourself, especially if you play any sports. I'm a huge fan of the barbell squat, I believe it's probably the best single exercise anybody can do but I'm going to suggest that you stop right now and focus on stabilizing and strengthening other muscle groups that need help. Aside from the injury risk associated with over-pronation of your feet if you're only activating your quads then there's little point in squatting.

Flexibility: Make sure you'r stretching pre / post workout your...
**Pre-workout use foam rolling and active-isolation stretching / post workout use static stretching
- Hip Flexors
- Calves
- Hamstrings
- Adductors
- Piriformis

Core exercises: Hold each for at least 20-seconds, add time as you improve (1-3 sets of each, suggest performing with no rest in-between exercises but no more than 90-sec's of rest)
- Single Leg Floor Bridge
- Plank (on your elbows) with hip extension: Basically a regular plank but you take one leg and lift up off the ground and hold it with the plank
- Superman (as an iso-hold): Lay on your stomach and you engage your core and glutes to lift your arms and legs off the ground and hold it

Suggested leg / lower body exercises: Don't have to do all, just 1 - 3 exercises for 12-20 reps (this is endurance stabilization)
- Reverse DB lunge with frontal plane balance: Basically do a reverse lunge and when you come up you bring one leg and hold it for 2 seconds (For the lunge portion, go back far enough to where your thigh is parallel to the floor, knee should touch the ground)
- Lateral DB Step Up with frontal plane balance: You may feel your adductors come into-play here
- Regular DB Step-Ups
- Single Leg Leg Curls: This may not fall traditionally into a stabilization category but this wouldn't be bad to use. To stay consistent with stabilization programming, follow the 12-20 reps, and follow a slow temp (2-sec hold, 4-sec eccentric).

Do this 2x to 3x week for 4 weeks. Then you can attempt to do a full squat again or perhaps even a box squat.

You shouldn't be turning your feet out while squatting.

Wrong.

Rippetoe recommends a slightly wider-than-shoulder width stance, with feet pointed 30 degrees outwards.

+ 1. How are you going to squat with feet 90 degrees to your torso?
I'm with Dbmata. Feet have to point outwards and at angle convenient to make you feel there is a virtual chair you are trying to sit on. Head up straight, Chest high. Feel Strong.

You should wear flat-bottomed shoes with little cushion (think: Chuck Taylors) It sounds like you might have weak quads to me..

Naw, sounds like weak PC. He *kitten* isn't showing up for the fun.

Isn't he a she?

I've seen way more written recommending toes out than not. I would say look at pictures of people squatting for non-exercise reasons or try it yourself. I have dogs and when I am filling their food dishes, I squat in front of the dog food container while measuring it out. I've done it that way for years without thinking about it. Once I started squatting for exercise, I paid attention and, sure thing, my toes point out a bit (not drastically.) That's my body's natural squat position and it has served me well this far.