Thread: squats

First...deep squats "can" be hard on the knees however....deep squats ...IMO...will develop thicker more muscular legs. At the deepest part of the movement the glutes and hamstrings are heavily recruited so if you're not going down far enough....your quads may only slightly affected.

My coach has this little machine you strap it on your leg when squatting and when your at 90 it beeps lol nice little thing and everyone hates it lmao. Personally I like to go all the way down until can’t go down any more.

Originally posted by KataMaStEr
My coach has this little machine you strap it on your leg when squatting and when your at 90 it beeps lol nice little thing and everyone hates it lmao. Personally I like to go all the way down until can’t go down any more.

Yeah, back in high school when I played football, one of our coaches (god we hated him cuz he was so tough on us!) used those beepers as well. But, since I loved squats back then, I loved those things. I was 15 squatting almost 400lbs! But, a back injury, and 5+ years of not lifting equates to me sucking ass at squats right now! hahaha

If your squatting in a squat rack, use a bench or tie a skipping rope from one end to the other at the hight you would be at for 90 deg.
Just don't sit on the bench if thats what your going to use, just touch it lightly.

Originally posted by Fit Freak
First...deep squats "can" be hard on the knees however....

that's very debatable...I tried to find some research awhile back or study to lend a tad bit of proof towards this, and all I found was the exact opposite.

personally I have never hurt my knees on squats, and when I was younger I used to go ass to my ankles. I am not saying that it's necessary, but if it does not bother your knees why not?

Tom Platz was a big advocate of deep squats, and as far as I know he never suffered any injuries from them.

when I squat now (I'm a bit older) I just go a little bit lower than parallel.

oh sorry Scotty, but I completely disagree with using a bench on squats. first of all it's just a crutch that will get you dependant on touching it to know how to deep to go, secondly it can cause injury if you actually start sitting on it, or bouncing off of it.

I say either use a mirror as a guide or a spotting partner and pretty soon you will develop a feel for where you're at and how low.

Originally posted by Prince
oh sorry Scotty, but I completely disagree with using a bench on squats. first of all it's just a crutch that will get you dependant on touching it to know how to deep to go, secondly it can cause injury if you actually start sitting on it, or bouncing off of it.

Your not sorry, Bastard!!
I've personally never used the bench for the reasons you've given but there are others that do use it PROPERLY and find it helps.
Once you get use to squatting, you'll know when your low enough.

i used to go almost ass to knees...then one day, doing a reversed workout...starting heavy w/ less reps and working backwards....I was on one of my last reps on one of my last sets and dropped my ass all the way down due to failure....i paused there for a second or two ,then forced the shite back up....my coach who was spotting me was amazed....a few days later, my back was killing me, and that's why I ended up quitting football and not lifting for so long, bc I hurt my back (not knees) and then since, I've had this like mental block to go that deep..,

yeah, deep squats definitely are not for everyone. I think I have a good build for squats, short and stocky, plus I do not have a long torso which I have known people that have long torso's that have hurt their back squatting.

Yeah, I am tall - 6'1 - with a pretty long torso...but, I used to love going deep and now I just can't bring myself to do it! ah!

6’4 love to go deep and no back injury gota go thank those deadlifts and goodmorings I guess

yeah, but is your height in your legs or torso?

Legs

Well, I was told by a friend in the gym who was watching my form on his set break that I wasn't going to parlell, as I thought I was. So, The next leg workout, I went into the squat rack, took the unloaded bar and squated to paralell or just beyond and placed the safety bars one hole below that, so when woking, I could judge how close to the bar I get to make sure I get down deep enough...funny..my weights dropped....

KataMaStEr-
hey, I've a friend who is 6'2"...he tells me that he doesn't need to go down to parallel, as his legs are longer and gets as much of a ROM if he goes 'most of the way'.
I just laugh at him...
"so....if a guy who is 5" even or less, by your theory would need to go deeper to get the full benefit of the exercise as his les are shorteer? uh-huh..."

Lol your friend just cheating himself. True the longer you go the more work you have to put on it so for tall guy is harder than a short guy. But for myself instead of trying to do as much work as a small person I like take advantage of my height and work twice as hard

I am 6'4 as well I go pretty deep but i have a wider then usual stance. I have tried closer stance but my knees get alot of pain in them.

I'm a firm believer in full range of motion regardless of the excercise. You recuit more muscle fibers that way and for a longer period of time per rep since your traveling a longer distance up and down. The only time I use half reps are on "special" excercises such as 21's and things of that nature.
For those who don't know: 21's = curling a bar up half way holding for a second and going back down for 7 reps. then curling the bar all the way up and bringing it down half way holding a sec and curling back up for 7 reps. Finally 7 full range reps. all the way down and all the way up.

One other exception for partial reps that I may use is when I've done as many full reps as possible on an excercise and then will do a few partial reps to fully exhaust the muscle.

Originally posted by freeman1504
i used to go almost ass to knees...

Man, that's just gotta hurt!

Must be double jointed.

A shorter person obviously doesn't have as far to go with the weight. That goes for bench press and squats.

Originally posted by Wolfpack22
A shorter person obviously doesn't have as far to go with the weight. That goes for bench press and squats.

IMO it applies in every single lift I know off.