squatting past the horizon?

[PCxPete]

for someone with about 6-8 months of training with any sort of diet/program to speak of would you guys out there recomend squatting to just above flat or getting nice and deep?

ive been talking to my friend whos doiing a trainers coures over here in australia and one of his lecturers is an ex pro powerlifter and he advocatoes squatting to above horizon since that rule was set back in the 60's or something before they knew the damage it would cause.

He reckons that youll strain your anteriror cruciate ligamentor or your medial collateral ligamnt.

he reckons i should try squatting to above flat for a year then switch to deeper squats.


any thoughts on this?

 

[Liftbig]

Do box sqauts. sit back, use a wide stance. no knee problems. i used to have very painful knees before i made the transistion from squatting close with no box. now that i squat wide, and sit back, onto a box, my knees feel great in comparison to before.

 

[JLA]

Most of the strain on your knees comes when they move forward over the foot. Sitting back and using a wide stance like Liftbig said should take care of it.

 

[genarr3]

Deep. Always have, always will. Not a peep from my knees ever.

Actually I believe stopping above parallel will increase your chances of knee injury.

 

[Doug K]

There are differing approaches here.
If you are training for competition, then you need to train to competition depth, which is just below parallel.

Now to build muscle and strengthen the knees, you should train to a deep box. But you must ALWAYS keep your knees over you ankles.

Olympic lifters compete for years, and they train way deep. I find training above parallel non productive as you need the flexability to not get hurt just in case you go a little deeper by mistake.

 

[genarr3]

The added benefit of squating deep is the experienced lifters in the gym won't make fun of you behind your back.

 

[Doug K]

Ooopps,
forgot that part!

 

[Tiervexx]

I switched from parallel to deep squats less than a year ago. Although I had to drop the weights way down at first I am already using much more weight than ever before and my legs are growing much faster than they did while parallel.

Every time I squat some fool wants to ask me “doesn’t that hurt your knees?”

I would bet anybody anything that the way that myth got started is because some wuss decided that he did not like the way his legs got so sore after squatting ass to floor so he made that up as an excuse.

 

[Tiervexx]

Deep squats are by far the best way to build mass and strength in the legs. Olympic lifters have known that for years.

 

[Doug K]

No actually, if you let your knees rotate over your feet, then you can definitely cause knee pain.

We would alternate deep, heel off the floor, power squats, heavy leg presses when I was building size.

 

[MULE1]

Do box sqauts. sit back, use a wide stance. no knee problems. i used to have very painful knees before i made the transistion from squatting close with no box. now that i squat wide, and sit back, onto a box, my knees feel great in comparison to before.

I SECOND THAT MOTION!!

 

[swb1126]

DEEP...when you stop before parallel, you can feel all the pressure go straight to your knees. Just make sure your knees are warmed up before you squat...some good stretching and leg extensions should help.

 

[Brett44444444]

I switched from parallel to deep squats less than a year ago. Although I had to drop the weights way down at first I am already using much more weight than ever before and my legs are growing much faster than they did while parallel.

Every time I squat some fool wants to ask me “doesn’t that hurt your knees?”

I would bet anybody anything that the way that myth got started is because some wuss decided that he did not like the way his legs got so sore after squatting ass to floor so he made that up as an excuse.

I would bet it is more likely due to dumbasses pushing their kness way the fuck out over their toes while squatting deep.... The deeper you go with your kness that far out, the worse... hurts just thinking about it