Jock

Hey fellas

My legs aren't my stongest bodypart but they're not bad (25"). Anyway, very few people in my gym actually bother to do any squatting, those that do usually only do half-squats.

I'd just finished my last set on squats and moved over to the leg press when a guy said to me "bloody hell, can you squat any deeper?!" I kinda lauged it off then I realised that the pins were set to level 11 in the power rack and each time I went down the bar would touch the pins.

I saw a couple of lads doing squats the other day with more or less the same weight (maybe a little more) but they set the pins at level 15 and they were maybe 2" from them at their lowest point.

It got me thinking, shall I keep on deep squatting http://www.exrx.net/WeightExercises/...FullSquat.html

Or shall I start half-squatting so I can use more weight? http://www.exrx.net/WeightExercises/...s/BBSquat.html

Hmmmm what to do??? :confused: :confused:

Cheers, Jock

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philipebrown

depends whether you want to isolate your quads more, or end up with a big ass! lol

I read that after your legs bend further than 90 degrees the emphasis is shifted to your hams and glutes. I would be scared of injuring myself, however i do deep squats on the hack machine only and half squats on the rack, for safetys sake!

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GoldenArrow

Well I wouldn't do any sort of squat with that narrow a stance to start with...

...if you're a bber, front squat.

hackskii

If you got some good knees then deep. Save a set or two for halfs. Deep squats will give you the best legs of any exercise. Squats alone can give you great legs all by them selves.

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T-man

I know what you mean I see kids at my gym load up the bar and the just do a curtsy with it only going up and down about 6 inches. When they would be much better of reducing the weight and learning good form.

I personally cant go below parallel because me lower back starts to round and I loose my arch. So I use a wide stance and just go to parallel. Also I have bad knees and infact have not been able to train legs for 3 months. I used to love training them.

I would say if you are flexible enough and have no knee problems then by all means go deep. Although I do think that parallel is enough unless you want to compete at powerlifting and need to go lower.

If you want proof that the squat is the king of leg builders look at tom platz.

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Jock

Too right mate look at his quads!!

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winger

I think that most people squat differently. I have the worst form of all. I bend over to much and stick my ass out so far people make fun of me. But then again they cant use the weight that I use. Squats hands down work the legs better than any other excercise. What am I saying? Hell I dont know but I like to use allot of weight. I get real good results when I squat. I do have to gradually work my way up though. If I dont I cant walk the next day.

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Benj

At least people sqaut in your gym, in the 3 months I've been going to mine i've not once seen anyone squat, well apart from me in the mirror!

Only just started squatting I should really take it slowly, trained legs on Saturday and my quads still ache!

Benj

robdog

i find it very very hard to keep good form when squatting and tend to bend forward too much which alway cains my back and tbh ive alway been told squat to the bottom or not at all so i now chose not at all. im gonna give hack squats a try for a few weeks and let the back sort its self out if it does think i will try the front squats.

Aftershock

Just below parallell for me gives the best results.. Delibritly set the pins lower on the rack though, they are for safety and i dont like touching them on the way down, go down a bit to quick, knock the pins and ur sets all over..

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Aftershock

BSF James

I very rarely see people squat at fitness first. In fact I dont squat there either as the rack is crap and there's always people doing damn curls in there. I go to an indie gym down the road to train legs. When I had my gym the power rack got used a hell of a lot. We had some very strong guys train there.

We also had some idiots. There was one guy who would come in and regardless of what was on there - 60kg, 100kg, 120kg etc.. - would set the pins to about 3 inches below the bar and do what he considered squats and what I considered 'bobs'. He must have moved 2 inches on each rep. He was a weird skinny old guy and he really stank out the gym too. One time he came in and I'd just finished training a powerlifter who'd been squatting 190kg. He did his usual thing and set the pins up, then went to squat it. I was absolutely wincing at this point thinking 'oh ****, whats gonna go first - is he going topple over? will the bar go flying and break something? is he gonna break his neck? Am I gonna get sued by someone?! Hope my insurance policy is up to date...' He somehow got it off the rack, wobbled a bit and then just dropped the bloody thing on the rack then slowly skulked away hoping no one noticed him. Still, it was an acheivement he got it off the rack really.

From what I've read in studies, its actually safer on the knees to squat below parallel. This is because the most harmful thing for the knee is when you stop above parallel and reverse the motion to bring the weight up again. At this point you put some serious mechanical shear stress on the knee. In comparing it myself, I find my knees hurt less doing full squats. If you go to the dead zone (below parallel) at this point there is no stress on the knee, only on the hams and glutes.

I go below parallel firstly because that is the technically correct way to do a squat and secondly because my hamstrings are a genetic weak point, and unless you go below parallel your hamstrings hardly get trained. When you are in the dead zone at the bottom, your hamstrings and glutes are all thats gonna get you out of it so you have to generate some explosive force in them, which will build muscle there. It virtually has to as its do or die - or at least do or fall over.

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powerU

I take it you mean the rack with the non-adjustable pins so it's set just above your knee no matter what, just like FF in Manchester - tell you what though, if you go deep, you need to have some confidence in your backside to get you back up lol!

I never use a weight i can't get at least 5 reps out with deep - otherwise i'd be in trouble.

Greyphantom

I usually go just below parallel... but do change it to deep every now and then... gotta mix it up...

AND I train at FF... the one I go to has quite a few big fellas in there so they have more free weights than most...

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