Most People Don't Know Squat about Squats! Part Deux

      As bipeds, humans heavily rely on a functionally sound lower body composition to get around.  To maintain and enhance our ability to use our lower body, strengthening the musculature in and around our legs and hips is essential.  Building strength in the lower body is essential not only for athletes who wish to become better at their given sport, but for the general population as well.  Gaining more strength than one is previously accustomed to enables one the ability to do new things, do things more efficiently,  decrease the chance of injuring oneself, and to live a longer functional life.  The most efficient way to obtain these benefits is by training the "Big 5" (squat, deadlift, press, bench, and powerclean) using the barbell,  with the squat being the most important of the five.  Unfortunately, however, most people shy away from using the barbell because they adhere to what they observe. Isolation training is the norm and is very popular in today’s day and age; this is true for several reasons.  Be it the fancy machines that the fitness revolution has sparked over the past half century,  the hundreds of so called fitness "experts",  or just the fact that it is easier to follow a machine circuit for time efficiency purposes,  if strength and performance is the training goal - as it should be - isolation training needs to be forgotten. 
    
      People have been programmed to train their body in isolated parts for decades, and aren’t aware of the benefits and ironic simplicity of barbell training.  For 95% of those who actually perform resistance training, the majority of their “leg” day is comprised of performing leg extensions, leg curls, calf raises, seated hip abductions/adductions(?), and leg presses.  Simply because commercial gyms today are built to accommodate this style of training!  Most of them don’t even have a power rack to squat in and the only barbell available is the one being used to bench press.  When most people think of using the barbell to train their lower body, they think about 2 things.  First, they think about squatting. Then they think about how squatting is bad for their knees (in that order).  This is not uncommon.  The lay public is lifting with weights to gain all the proposed aforementioned benefits, so why would they risk it all by performing an exercise that they oftentimes don’t see others performing - or more commonly - see others performing incorrectly with too much weight?  Of course, by human nature, most decide to gravitate to what is easy and what is common, resulting in the confident spreading of false understanding... And a lot of knee extensions.   However, a deeper analysis and understanding of the full barbell squat allows us to see all the benefits it offers, and how it is completely safe for the knees.

     At any given time, there are thousands of incorrect squats being performed all over the world.  Chances are that if you are at the gym and see someone squatting with a bar on their back, more than likely you're observing someone performing what we call  "partial squats".  Quarter and half squats (partial squats) are so named for the partial range of motion around the hip and knee joints that accompany the movements.  These movements rely primarily on the quadriceps muscles which extend the knee to perform, and virtually excludes the glutes, hamstrings, and adductors from contributing to the movement - basically, the majority of the lower body musculature.  This point is made clear by the excessive soreness experienced in the quads a day or two after performing heavy partial squats.  Building such a disproportionate level of strength between all of the lower body muscle groups is one of the main reasons why partial squats are a terribly inferior exercise choice.  Now our quads are definitely important and serve many functions such as deceleration when running or landing and stabilizing and extending our knees,  however, when it comes to any skill, or measure of performance that requires some sort of *ground reaction, partial squats are to performance like cake is to weight loss. 

*Ground Reaction - movement initiated by force generated by the hips, where the feet are in contact with the floor.

     Sprinting, jumping, changing directions, swinging a bat, throwing a ball, hitting a lineman, making a tackle, swinging a racquet, throwing a punch, performing a take down, kicking a face, flipping through the air,  and pedaling a bike (with shoes).  There are virtually millions of different movement patterns and combinations we see displayed in all athletics that are initiated by generating power from the hips which remain incredibly unimproved by performing less than full squats.  Every movement we perform as athletes or non athletes stems from the musculature around the hip in one way or another, and by performing partial squats, we are completely wasting our time.  This is by far the most overlooked fact in all of strength and conditioning.  Either at a health club,  a college weight room, or even in physical therapy offices and professional athletics - where we see this epidemic shockingly more than one would think -  trainers and coaches can be found completely disregarding this point, having their clients squatting above parallel.  So much time and energy are wasted on stupid training modalities, percentage based programs, periodized training models, and ENTIRE textbooks dedicated to "sport specific training",  when in reality, having people simply squat below parallel with a ridged back segment will make so much more of a positive impact.  The need to over complicate things for the sake of complexity is so profound, it's quite disheartening.  I don't care how long you've been a strength coach,  how many years of school you've endured, how many certs you carry,  or how much time and effort you put into your programs; if your athletes are squatting above parallel, you are no better than the personal trainer at Bally's.   

    
     Another reason why we don't like partial squats is the increased risk of developing patella tendinitis or other such knee issues caused by the disproportional stress the knee undergoes during the movement.  All four of the quad muscles that work to extend the knee during a partial squat insert at the same place.  The tension developed by this group of muscles to overcome moment force on the knee, pull on the same anatomical landmark (moment force being the tendency for a segment to rotate around an axis).  They meet at the patella tendon and insert onto the anterior surface of the tibia (the boney ridge on the top of your lower leg).  As a result, during a partial squat, when the quads contract to extend the knee, the tibia is pulled forward and upwards, exposing the knee to an anterior sheer force and an unbalanced forward sliding force.  

     

From "Starting Strength Basic Barbell Training 2nd Edition"

   

   "Squats fucked up my knees when I was younger man",  the guy told me. 

      "Well duh" I thought.  "Fucked up squats are gonna result in fucked up knees".

(excerpt from — "Every Day in Dave's Life")

     Perhaps the second worse aspect of partial squats is the inappropriate over-zealous loading welcomed by the limited range of motion.  Ever seen the guys bench pressing 300 lbs, dropping the bar to a point about 10 inches from their chest and driving it back up, closely followed by a celebration of manly stomping and yelling? Well, due to the decreased range of motion, partial squats, similar to partial bench presses, are much easier to do, and thus, one can handle much more weight.  In the case of the squat,  the 3 diagnostic angles (hip, knee, back) are subjected to far less moment force than full squats, and so increases the body’s mechanical advantage.  Obviously it's easier to lift more weight if you only bend your knees 20 degrees, but is this strength?  WIll this increase performance? I think you know the answer to that.   Unfortunately, this observation isn't often noticed and leads people to load more weight that they should be handling on their backs, which in turn predisposes them to back injuries.  This is so very common.  Ask a high school strength coach how much their best athletes are squatting and you'll usually hear some ridiculous number.  I'd much rather see a kid squat 135 lbs below parallel with a straight back than 225 lbs lowered to five inches above parallel.  Not only is this much safer on and around the knees,  but I guarantee the 135 lb squatter is stronger and will perform much better than his teammate half squatting ridiculous weights so he and his coach can win the dick swinging competition.

    

From "Starting Strength Basic Barbell Training 1st Edition

      “Full” squats performed below parallel allow for balanced forces on and around the knee.  They are safe and much more beneficial for purposes of increasing overall performance.  The two anatomical landmarks we are concerned with when it comes to determining whether or not we are below parallel are A - the apex of the crease in our shorts, and B - the top of the patella.  Once A drops below B, several things occur.  Providing that our knees are shoved out - our adductor (groin) muscles which originate on our medial pelvis and insert all along our medial femur and tibia reach a completely stretched position.  This allows them to fully contract as we come up out of the squat, and thus effectively contribute to lifting the weight.  Similarly, as we drop below parallel - assuming that our lumbar spine stays in rigid extension by our spinal erectors - our hamstrings develop maximum tensile force.  Our hamstrings, which originate at the bottom off the pelvis and inserts at the back of the tibia and the head of the fibula also reach a fully stretched position, allowing them to contribute more to the movement and allow more weight to be lifted.  

      As a result of this increase in activation, both the adductors and hamstrings contribute to applying posterior tensile forces on their insertions on the tibia which counteract the anterior tensile force mentioned earlier exerted by the quads.  Why is this a good thing?  These posterior forces pull on the lower leg in the opposite direction that quads are pulling on it, and naturally eliminates any unwanted shearing or sliding forces on the knee during the movement and therefore stabilizes the knee joint.  Furthermore, this totally eliminates any participation by the posterior cruciate ligament or the anterior cruciate ligament to stabilize the knee, and is what makes the full squat safe for the knees.   Due to the increased range of motion, full squats also require a much more closed hip angle to perform correctly, and also increases the participation of the glutes as well.

From "Starting Strength Basic Barbell Training 3rd Edition"

     Science and anatomy can sound complicated.  All too often are people's paradigms shifted as a result of listening to somebody speaking in confusing jargon, thinking to themselves "wow this person knows so much and I know so little so they must be right".  It happens all the time on Dr. Oz and Good Morning America, with "experts" continuing to sell the same conventional wisdom (lies) that saturated fat gives you heart disease, that jogging will improve your health, and that squatting below parallel will damage your knees.  Anatomy, physiology,  and in this case a detailed analysis of biomechanics is necessary to prove a point, but let's take a look at a practical example.  Out of the thousands of weightlifters around the world, all of whom are performing deep squats 4-6 days per week at upward to double and triple bodyweight, wouldn't we see more injuries?  

Hamill, B. P.,  Relative Safety of Weightlifting and Weight Training.

Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 1994, (8)1, 53-57

     The truth of the matter is, squats can be good or bad for the knees.  It all depends on what the squats looks like.    If you're performing less than optimal squats above parallel, with too much weight, or with knees and femurs not in line, similar to how most non-athletes without a coach are, you might very well hurt yourself.   If, however, you're squatting correctly, with your toes turned out between 30-45 degrees with your upper leg tracking in line with your feet while keeping a ridged spine like the champs, then you'll be fine.

    Due to the increased activation of the adductors, hamstrings, external rotators (due to knees out) and glutes, in terms of full lower body strengthening, the full squat is unmatched. It can develop the lower body musculature in such an anatomically correct fashion that no two isolation exercises - especially machines - could replicate.  This, in addition to the fact that squats performed below parallel balance the forces at the knee joint, makes the full squat such a valuable exercise. The squat cannot be overlooked when looking to train for performance.  Either by athletes looking to improve in their given sport, or by the general public simply looking to enhance their normal everyday existence.

Russian lifter Mikhail Koklyaev at the bottom of a snatch 

Notice how he, as well as thousands of other international competitors don't have an orthopedic surgeon waiting in the wings