A few years ago I saw The Glute Guy, Bret Contreras, using the B-Stance with some lower body lifts like RDL’s, Squats and Deadlifts.
Truth be told, I thought it was dumb as all hell.
It literally made NO SENSE to me.
But, half a decade later, I was stuck in a hotel gym and needed to do a hip hinge hamstring movement.
I was armed to the teeth with a pair of 50lbs dumbbells.
So I committed blasphemy and tried
And they didn’t suck.
In fact, I really liked them.
I was able to handle less weight and still get a good training effect on the hamstrings.
Why I Thought the B-Stance was Bullshit
My number one reason was,
Why not just do an actual single leg version?
Sub out a BSS for a Bilateral squat
Use a Single Leg Deadlift in place of a Deadlift
And for the most part, I still think that’s the way to go.
Why Use a B-Stance
1: Necessity
I needed more weight than 50lbs per hand or I was going to be doing 50 rep sets with bilateral RDL’s.
But going to the B Stance allowed me to basically double the load on the hamstring without needing heavier dumbbells.
Yes, I could have done SLRDL’s but, not with enough load at this point in the workout because…..
2: Fatigue
There was NO WAY IN HELL after already doing SLDL’s (which, I prefer the more glute dominant version), Reverse Lunges, and Leg Presses that my hip external rotators still had the strength and endurance to allow me to do a couple sets of single leg RDL’s well without using 10lbs weights.
And, 10lbs er’s aint doing nothing for me.
Using the B-Stance allowed me to get a really clean, smooth hip hinge range of motion and really keep tension on the hamstrings instead of looking like a baby giraffe shot by a blow dart.
3: Control
If the B-Stance confers more control over the movement under fatigue imagine how we can attempt to break ourselves overload the lift using the B-Stance with lifts early in the workout when we’re fresh(er) and can load them up.
4: Asymmetries
While it’s highly unlikely that you’ll even have perfectly symmetrical movement and force output on the left and right side, you shouldn’t try to make that sh@t worse.
Always doing bilateral lifts can do just that.
Continually loading with both feet on the ground or hands on the bar can feed into movement and force production discrepancies.
In a B-Stance, you have a good opportunity (like any single leg exercise) to see just how awful, terrible, no good your “bad” side is much of a difference you have between sides.
BRO TIP:
If you do have a large discrepancy left to right do these two things:
- Always begin a set with the weaker side <—-this originally said stronger. That was wrong, and stupid. It should have been “weaker”. Good catch by Big Kenny.
- Do an extra set for the weaker side
The B-Stance
Checklist:
- Feet should be wide enough to create a neutral Q-Angle. ie. Toes, ankle, knee, hip alignment.
- “Back” foot should be positioned so that it barely contributes to the lift.
- Too far forward and the knee might get in the way or its contributing so little to stability you mind as well not use it.
- Too far back and it’s going to be a kickstand
- Generally, the best foot placement is with the toes in line with the front side heel.
- Get up on the toes in the back foot and STAY THERE,
- DO NOT PUT THE BALL OF THE BACK FOOT DOWN. If you do, you’ll kickstand it.
Bro Tips:
- Try to focus on the front side foot and “STOMPING” the floor or “Making a BIG footprint”
- I still think the “open” or foot out B-Stance kinda sucks, maybe I just don’t get it, but I don’t like it.
So after writing about 95% of this, I found out that this stance is NOW referred to as the “Kickstand” stance frequently.
And I actually think that’s better, but whatever, its all the same.
Offset the non-working leg and try not to load it during the movement, simple as that.
About Roy:
