This one leg exercise could save your life when you're 80

Squats are one of those exercises that most of us love to hate. They're simple, effective and build strong legs, which is key to keeping us steady on our feet as we get older. But what if, instead of repeatedly squatting up and down, you simply dropped into the bottom position and stayed there?

A staple of traditional martial arts, including Kung Fu, the horse stance, also known as Mǎbù, is essentially a wide-legged isometric squat.

And while it might not look particularly tough, give it a minute or two, and you'll soon understand why it’s renowned for building leg strength, challenging your hips and glutes.

It helps develop the kind of stubborn mental willpower and focus that only comes from holding still when everything in you wants to quit. Now that it's trending on Instagram, it's time to try the horse stance, because who knows? It might save your life when you're 80.

What is the horse stance?

Unlike a traditional squat, where your muscles repeatedly shorten and lengthen as you move, the horse stance requires you to hold your body in one position.

This creates continuous muscular tension through your quads, glutes and hips, while your core works to keep your torso upright and balanced.

No weights. No gym. And technically, no movement. But don't be fooled. It’s anything but easy.

How to do the horse stance

The horse stance gets its name from the position your body adopts – think sitting astride an invisible horse.

• Start with your feet wider than shoulder-width apart, and your toes turned slightly out.
• Keep your chest lifted and spine upright, brace your core and bend your knees to lower your hips towards the floor.
• Lower, working towards getting your hips level with your knees.
• Actively push your knees outwards, keeping them tracking in the same direction as your toes.
• Keep your spine upright and chest lifted.
• Maintain tension through your torso, legs and glutes.
• Keep your weight distributed through your feet and hold the position.
• Push through your feet to return to standing.

The key is to start with two or three 20–30-second holds, resting between each one. From there, gradually increase the duration as your strength and endurance improve.

Your thighs will probably start burning and your glutes shaking, not because of the reps, but because of the time under tension. That's when your breathing comes into play: you have to breathe and stay controlled even when your muscles are telling you otherwise.

Benefits of the horse stance

1. It builds lower-body strength and endurance

The horse stance may not involve movement, but your muscles are still very much working.

Holding the wide squat position creates an isometric contraction, meaning your muscles are producing force without noticeably changing length. Your quads, glutes and hip muscles have to remain switched on throughout the hold.

Actively pushing your knees outwards also calls on the muscles around your hips to help maintain the position and activate your glutes.

The longer you stay there, the greater the muscular endurance challenge becomes. And unlike doing a full squat, there's no little breather at the top. Your muscles stay under tension until you stand back up.

2. It challenges your mobility, stability and control

Holding a wide squat position requires your hips, knees, ankles and core to work together to keep you stable, while maintaining an upright torso adds another layer of postural control.

You can also play with width and depth over time. As your mobility allows, you can gradually work towards a wider and deeper stance – without forcing yourself into a position you can't comfortably control.

Unlike knocking out the reps as quickly as possible, there's nowhere to hide in an isometric hold. You're forced to pay attention to where your knees are tracking, how your weight is distributed and how deep you can go without toppling over or your posture collapsing.

That makes the horse stance as much about control as it is about surviving the burn. And another thing I noticed? When I went back to the weight room, my squat depth had improved, too.

3. It can test your mental resilience

Spend 60 seconds in a decent horse stance, and you'll know exactly what I mean.

Holding a position that your body wants to abandon and quickly abort builds a particular kind of resilience. It’s not dramatic or exciting. It’s just you, in a squat, choosing to stay for 10 more seconds. Then 10 more.

That's one reason prolonged stance work has traditionally played such an important role in martial arts training: you're not just asking your muscles to hold on; you're practising staying composed while they do.

That doesn't mean a two-minute horse stance will suddenly give you superhero-level mental strength. But learning to remain in control when an exercise starts to feel uncomfortable is a skill that can carry over into other forms of training.

And the worst part? You can't fidget your way through it either. Move out of position, and the hold is over.

4. You can do it virtually anywhere

Perhaps the horse stance's biggest selling point is its simplicity.

There's no equipment, no jumping, and you don't even need enough room to roll out a yoga mat. You can practise it at home, in a hotel room or tag a couple of holds onto the end of a lower-body workout. You could even stop and do a few during a walk.

And because duration provides an easy way to progress, there's no need to use a dumbbell. Hold it for 30 seconds this week, 40 seconds next week and then build from there. Forty-five seconds. A minute. Then finally two. Two minutes might not sound like much, but your quads will disagree.

And while it certainly doesn't replace your usual strength or cardio workouts, the horse stance is a simple way to challenge your lower-body endurance, stability and control with nothing more than your own bodyweight.