What's the deal with people not doing full squats anymore? Last night at the gym, there were five guys on the two different squat racks, and not one person was squatting anywhere close to parallel.
From everything I've read, full squats are protective for the knees. When you do a full squat, there is a natural turnaround point, or "bounce", at the bottom of the squat. This temporarily takes the load off the knees. If instead you do a half-squat, you start the turnaround when your knees are only partially bent, and this actually puts more strain on the knees.
I think people end up doing half-squats because they want to lift more impressive-looking poundages. But the numbers are very deceiving. You can probably half-squat 2 or 3 times what you can full squat - the half-squat is almost like the leg press in this regard.
One guy last night loaded up three plates on each side of the barbell, and then proceeded with a squat depth of about 8 inches. I'm not sure what this can accomplish, other than increasing the risk of injury.
What's the deal with people not doing full squats anymore? Last night at the gym, there were five guys on the two different squat racks, and not one person was squatting anywhere close to parallel.
From everything I've read, full squats are protective for the knees. When you do a full squat, there is a natural turnaround point, or "bounce", at the bottom of the squat. This temporarily takes the load off the knees. If instead you do a half-squat, you start the turnaround when your knees are only partially bent, and this actually puts more strain on the knees.
I think people end up doing half-squats because they want to lift more impressive-looking poundages. But the numbers are very deceiving. You can probably half-squat 2 or 3 times what you can full squat - the half-squat is almost like the leg press in this regard.
One guy last night loaded up three plates on each side of the barbell, and then proceeded with a squat depth of about 8 inches. I'm not sure what this can accomplish, other than increasing the risk of injury.