■ Body alignment is key Ideally, your back should be as straight as possible, so that your rear end and the bar are almost in line with each other. Concentrating on keeping your chest out will help you keep your back flat. I also recommend incorporating front squats into your routine to focus in on the quads more than the glutes.
■ Tailor your stance to your goals Whether your feet should be spaced wide or closed—a common squatting debate—depends on which area of the quads you want to focus on. A wider stance hits the inside of the thighs more, whereas a narrower stance tends to target the outer quads.
■ Drop the sets and reps for more mass If size is your goal, as it usually is with squats, you must train according to basic power principles: do fewer sets and reps with as heavy a weight you can handle, and take longer rest periods. That means three or four sets, four to eight reps, and around three minutes of rest between sets. On occasion, include higher-rep sets (10–15) to add variety.
■ Switch to Smith If your lower back and/or knees bother you during barbell squatting, use a Smith machine instead. That’s what I did later in my career and it took a lot of stress off of those vulnerable areas. Hack squats are another alternative that I found effectively target the outer thigh muscles.
■ Do supersets and compound sets In 1971, when Arnold wanted to add more definition and separation—not to mention sheer size—to his thighs, He got great results by doing compound sets of leg extensions followed by squats, as well as supersets of front squats and lying leg curls (for hamstrings). The burn was unbearable, but it worked!