This guy credits working up to a 12 minute horse stance with PRs in running, cycling, sprinting, and vertical jump, increased leg endurance during hikes and improved lower body mobility.
As
@Hung was saying, it can be difficult to know how much progress to attribute to a particular exercise. I think the horse stance is a useful exercise. Do I think everyone has to do it? No. I've seen a couple videos from that guy. Did he keep all his other training the same while
only increasing horse stance practice?
This is why, when you read studies, they will say things like (I'm making this up entirely) "eccentric-only training of the quadruceps muscle resulted in [x] change in muscle thickness, therefore, eccentric training may be a viable option to increase quadruceps size. More studies should be done to determine the effectiveness of eccentric training for other muscle groups."
It can be very hard to control all the factors outside of the thing you are trying to measure. If the author of that video (either one, really) really wanted to prove that horse stance did something other exercises didn't, they would control the other variables, and disclose that information. If someone is practicing horse stance, AND doing the jump variations I saw in the first few minutes of the original video, how do you know it was the horse stance and not the jumping that aided in squatting? In the k_boges video, how does he know it was horse stance and not added running and any other leg work he was doing that increased his PRs? If he took time off from running and jumping to focus on horse stance, then how does he know it wasn't the time away from those things that contributed to the PRs?
Now, does that mean training horse stance is a waste of time, or that he's making stuff up to get subscribers, etc? No. What I think should be taken away from this is that what information is presented should just be scrutinized a bit before taken as absolute "truth." K_boges also said in that video, "some gymnastics coaches use horse stance to acheive the splits." Maybe they use horse stance, but they also do a LOT of stretching and other exercises. The first person I saw using horse stance to
aid in flexibility was Emmit Lewis, who is renowned for his flexibility coaching with handbalancers and circus athletes.
I also could do a 12 minute horse stance once upon a time. It is every bit as terrible as you can imagine. I still wouldn't use it to squat weight better though. See below:
So many people are already afraid to move and train, when really all they need is to start moving more in ways that feel good and then follow logical progressions to train safely.
This right here has been the philosophy I try to stick to for the last year or so, after trying all kinds of stuff and not making gains with strength or addressing issues I have with my body. Sometimes what everyone else is saying to do isn't what will be best for your body. Sometimes (imo, a lot of the time) it's best to find the things that make you feel better, and then increase your capacity to do those things at higher difficulties.