Squats???

[patsfan127]

Ive heard a lot about how going past parrallel is better for your knees. is this true? whenever i do squats past parrallel they hurt worse. Does going lower increase the workload in your quads or no?

[Kane]

Going to parallel increases the shear on your knees. Going rockbottom (or ass to grass/olympic/A2G) is better because youre not stopping halfway down, you're riding the weight to the bottom of the natural motion.

Make sure your stance is correct. Usually with A2G's your stance is narrower than if you were going parallel and if your knee's are still feeling sore/awkward I would suggest posting a video of your squats.

In short, yes. A2G will increase the workload in general because of the increased ROM, and tend to hit the quads more because of the 'narrower' stance. But you're also probably not going to be able to squat as much weight compared to parallel.

[MONSTAFACE]

Kane i thought it was better if you were going a2g it would be better if you opened your stance a little bit or would that just be preference. because i can do narrow stance but it kills my knees because i can never puch off my heels.

[webcore]

Yep, it's true. If you have the flexibility to go ATG with good form then do so.

Squatting past parallel transfers load to the hip flexors.

[Hilton]

yea going past parallel hurts more for me too, i just use knee wraps to help w/knee problems they work great, here is a place to get good ones
http://www.prowriststraps.com/