Bench Squats

[gray-haired_Rick]

How effective are bench squats in place of parallel squats? I'm considering switching to bench squats because:
(1) I have had a number of knee surgeries over the years (I'm 55) and was thinking bench squats might be safer for my knees.
(2) Typically, I train alone so it's difficult for me to determine whether I have reached parallel or not, so I was thinking that squatting to a bench would at least give me a constant depth.
Just wondering whether I would find the bench squats as effective as parallel squats.

A little background is in order. I have an extensive lifting history over the years, including following Bill Starr's programs taken from The Strongest Shall Survive for a number of years. Now, I'm trying to get back in shape and thought a pure strength program with little emphasis on hypertrophy is a good thing for a maturing man.

Regarding squats, I recognize their overall importance in any strength program and actually loved doing them in the past. But, it has been a number of years (I didn't grow into my knee injuries) and I don't really want more knee surgery.

[Carlos Daniel]

You must be thinking about box squats. Rip has fucked up knees and squats regularly, and box squats will not necessarily fix this. Instead of using a crutch, you should film yourself until you know how reaching parallel feels like.

[brianrichard]

is there literature out there that claims box squats are better for knees? I'm having trouble seeing why they would be safer.

[D_51]

I starting having a lot of knee problems back in the late 90's, arthritis in both, tendonitis, tears... Started box squatting after reading a bunch of stuff from Westside Barbell. My knees got a lot better. The box allowed me to keep my shins verticle and put a lot more stress on the hams. The problem was that when I took the box away and used a regular width stance the problems came right back. The biggest difference to me is that when box squating I was breaking at the hips first and the stance width maintained the verticle shin angle. As described by Rip, breaking at the knees first allows some shin angle but it is maintained as you descend. I had to spend time on this, I kept breaking at the hips and my knees would slide foward at the bottom causing ASIS tendonitis. I also need to descend slower in order to maintain posterior tightness. So I think you have a choice, use the box or learn to squat correctly.