The Plié Squat is a lower-body exercise named after the French term plié, meaning “bent” or “bending,” a fundamental movement in classical ballet. This squat variation is characterized by a wide stance and significant external rotation of the hips, causing the feet to point outward. It functions as a powerful compound movement that builds strength and increases the range of motion. Unlike a traditional parallel-stance squat, the Plié Squat emphasizes the inner thigh muscles, making it common in dance-inspired fitness routines.
Proper Plié Squat Execution
To begin the Plié Squat, stand with your feet significantly wider than shoulder-width apart, ensuring your toes are turned out to an angle between 45 and 90 degrees. This wide placement and external rotation are crucial for correct muscle targeting. Maintain an upright posture by stacking your ribcage over your pelvis and engaging your core muscles to stabilize the torso.
Initiate the downward phase by simultaneously bending your knees and hips, lowering your body straight down as if your back is sliding along a wall. Actively push your knees outward, tracking them precisely over your second or third toe throughout the descent. This alignment prevents the knees from collapsing inward and loads the appropriate musculature.
Continue lowering until your thighs are parallel to the floor, or as deep as hip mobility comfortably allows without compromising the upright torso position. Avoid leaning forward or allowing your back to round, as this shifts the focus away from the intended muscle groups. Pause briefly at the bottom before driving forcefully through your heels to return to the starting position.
The upward phase requires a conscious squeeze of the glutes and inner thighs to achieve full hip and knee extension. Maintain full contact between your feet and the floor, particularly the heel, to ensure maximum muscular recruitment and stability. Controlling the speed of both the lowering and rising phases helps maximize time under tension and improve overall form.
Primary Muscle Engagement
The unique stance of the Plié Squat significantly alters muscle recruitment compared to a conventional squat, placing high tension on the adductor magnus and other adductor muscles of the inner thigh. These muscles work intensely to control outward rotation and stabilize the hips during the descent and ascent. The wide positioning and deep knee bend lengthen the adductors, allowing for a greater stretch and subsequent contraction.
While the inner thighs are heavily targeted, the Plié Squat also functions as a full lower-body exercise, engaging major muscle groups. The gluteal muscles, particularly the gluteus maximus, act as powerful hip extensors to drive the body upward. External rotation can increase the recruitment of the glutes compared to a standard, parallel-stance squat.
The quadriceps femoris group, located on the front of the thigh, are also primary movers, working to extend the knee joint. The hamstrings assist the glutes in hip extension during the concentric (lifting) phase. The external rotation and upright torso positioning emphasize the vastus medialis obliquus, a portion of the quadriceps above the knee.
Modifying the Movement and Adding Resistance
To increase difficulty, the Plié Squat is easily adapted with added resistance. Holding a single heavy dumbbell or kettlebell vertically against the chest (goblet position) is a common method for adding load while maintaining an upright posture. This central load helps counterbalance the body and encourages deeper squat depth.
A variation that targets the calves and challenges balance involves performing the movement while remaining on the balls of the feet, with the heels elevated. This “relevé” position intensifies the work of the calf muscles and forces the core to stabilize the body. Alternatively, a resistance band can be looped just above the knees to force constant outward pressure, activating the gluteus medius and deep hip rotators.
The movement can be scaled for greater intensity by adding a pulse, which involves performing small, controlled up-and-down movements at the lowest point of the squat. This technique keeps the muscles under continuous tension, promoting muscular endurance and hypertrophy.
For beginners, the exercise can be regressed by reducing the depth of the squat or decreasing the width of the stance, focusing instead on perfecting the knee-tracking motion.