PRO’S & CONS OF TRAINING WITH FULL SQUATS

PRO’S:1. Full range movements build more strength in the muscles and tendons because more fibers become

involved. Simply put, a muscle worked through a full range of motion is stronger than one that is not. If your goal is knee injury prevention you want the muscles surrounding that joint as strong as possible. This requires full range training. “Only full extension of any muscle over a full range of joint movement will give you great specific strength in your sport” Blagio Blegoev

2. Full squats better build all the muscles surrounding the knee joint.

3. To develop maximal hip or knee joint strength and power the muscles surrounding these joints must be worked through their full range of motion.

4. Full squats increase flexibility in the knee, hip, and ankle joints.

5. Full squats build a good muscular balance between the quads & hamstrings. Squats stopped at 90 degrees and above over strengthen the quads in relation to the hamstrings & glutes. This leads to muscular imbalances and potential injury.

6. Transferability of strength. A person who trains on full squats is very strong when asked to do a partial squat (90 and above). A person who only trains on partial squats is very weak when asked to perform a full squat. Transferability of strength is athleticism. Which person’s strength is more athletic? Which person’s strength from squatting is more easily transferred to their sport?

7. In almost all athletics you will at some point end up in a situation with knee flexion greater than 90 degrees. (It occurs quite often in contact sports and any sport where you may fall down, dive, or get knocked down). A person who has not trained in that ROM is more likely to get injured than one who has trained for it. You must rain beyond your “perfect world” range of motion.

8. Muscles trained through a full range of motion contract harder and faster.

9. When stopping/decelerating and reaccelerating at or above 90 degrees the action is primarily controlled by the quads and the knee joint, and therefore the acl and patella. Once below 90 degrees the biomechanical advantage shifts to the hip joint and this joint now takes the brunt of the load therefore using the glutes and the hamstrings.

10. Olympic weightlifters train with full squats, cleans, and snatches. Out of all Olympic athletes on average the lifters have the highest vertical jumps, are tied with world-class sprinters in a 25m sprint, and are 2nd only to gymnast in flexibility. They also happen to have the lowest injury rate.

11. The deeper you go the less weight you are able to do. This limits the stress on your body & knees. “ A partial range of motion exercise allows the athlete to use larger loads. Larger loads increase stress on connective tissue and increase compressional forces. Doing a full range of motion squat requires lower loads and reduces the magnitude of stress placed on the joint.” Lon Kilgore

CONS:1. Pressure on the connective tissue (cartilage, tendons, ligaments) increases as you go deeper.

With that said… estimates for maximum kneecap and quad tendon strength are between 2,248-3,372 pounds. The greatest quad tendon strain for a 242 pound lifter squatting 550 pounds at 130 degree knee bend (full squat) was 1,798 pounds and patella tendon strain was estimated to be 1,349 pounds. I would guess that this guy would be able to squat over 800lbs going down to just 90 degrees. I have no proof but my guess would be there would be greater strain with 800 pounds than 550.

2. People with tracking problems of their patella tendon will not be able to squat deeply pain free.

One final observation:It seems to me that only in a weight room is the full squat position said to be harmful and people are told not to do it. People in Asian cultures squat all the time. Skateboarders, surfers, dancers, figure skaters routinely drop into full squats. Long jumpers and triple jumpers run down the runway at full speed jump as far as they can and land in the full squat position. This has to place tons more strain on the knee joint than a squat in the wt room. If it were true that full squats were damaging Olympic weightlifters who literally perform hundreds of squats a week would be injury riddled. The statistics show that they are among the least injured of all athletes. Long jumpers careers would be over in a matter of weeks, as would the careers of the athletes in the other sports listed. The people’s republic of China’s hospitals would be filled with patients having arthroscopic surgery, reconstructive surgery and knee replacements.A simple test: sit down on the floor…now try to stand up without bending a knee past 90 degrees. The squat is a natural & safe movement.