Full Squats or Not

[stef]

by Tommy Suggs

In my opinion, one of the books of the last century that will be considered as having a great impact on the sport of weightlifting is The Knee in Sports by Karl K. Klein and Fred L. Allman, Jr. The majority of articles and books on weightlifting that have condemned the full squat cite this book as their authority…I liked Karl and we discussed his views on full squats. In fact, I was one of the lifters tested as part of his research. He personally showed me how he recommended weight trainees – specifically athletes – to perform squats.

Article

Resources Page

[brianrichard]

one thing that stuck out to me was when coach suggs quoted this

Much beyond this point, the reaction between the
hamstrings and calf muscle begins to act as a pry to force the joint apart at the front, as well as on the sides,
stretching the ligaments (This problem will be discussed later).

he didn't comment on it though, but I am curious to know if he agrees with it, since he is an olympic lifter and coaches olympic lifters, who usually catch cleans/snatches with a their asses basically on their heels?

anyone care to weigh in on this?

I squat HB and I don't have the flexibility to go that low but i certainly go further than "just below parellel" so obviously this makes me curious.

thanks.

[deadliftman]

good read

[Jonathon Sullivan]

This puts things in a much clearer perspective. "Telephone," indeed.

Thanks, Mr. Suggs.

[hamburgerfan]

The "Telephone" part was especially true. Somehow the term "90 degrees" got thrown in there and made everything worse.

[Patrick]

Very interesting article. If this is where the whole mess is supposed to have started, I wonder which bonehead managed to much up the message so badly. I've gotten pretty good at deflating the intensity of opinion in people who think squats are bad. Sadly, it would be much easier if people could point to a specific source... seems like it's just in the water.

[Hercp]

one thing that stuck out to me was when coach suggs quoted this



he didn't comment on it though, but I am curious to know if he agrees with it, since he is an olympic lifter and coaches olympic lifters, who usually catch cleans/snatches with a their asses basically on their heels?

anyone care to weigh in on this?

I squat HB and I don't have the flexibility to go that low but i certainly go further than "just below parellel" so obviously this makes me curious.

thanks.

+1

I did Olympic lifting for a while in a club, and one coach suggested that some knee problems I had was beacause I dropped too fast on the front squats. I would like an article discussing front/back squats done with the olympic-style technique (the bounce on the calves).

[cpbellavia]

"The depth of the squat position should be controlled, with the thighs just breaking the parallel position." The description is clear as day. It's a bit disgusting to think that decades of terrible squat advice came from such a severe lack of reading comprehension.

[Dalek42]

Telephone, agreed, is a great way to tell what happened.
Good article, good WhyWeCantHaveNiceThings knowledge.