^^^^Yeah.

The thing he is talking about that is may be dangerous and may also severely limit your potential is that the arch in the lower back relaxes when the erectors and the hams relax. It's sometimes know as a "butt-wink". Basically you'll find your butt pulling under towards your knees as the lower back rounds when you reach below a certain depth.

It would be hard for someone to prove it's going to damage you or whatever but like he said it doesn't sound like a good idea. Plus it's pretty clear that the hip muscles are at a severe disadvantage at that position and will not be able to engage properly. That right there could set you up for injury as well as giving you a weak squat comparitively.

One the other hand, with an average slightly wider than shoulder width stance, deeper means the glutes and hams can engage more and part of this is the sacrum nutation where the sacrum rotates and facilitates gluteal firing. Sometimes people argue that the this is the butt-wink and is thus a good thing, but I think it's two different thing and it's pretty darn apparent that for some people it involves excessive rounding of the lower back and thus excessive pulling on the vetebra and ligaments.

So he's saying go as deep as you can go but still maintain the "lordorsis" or lumbar arch. I do think that people can achieve greater depth with control if they have patience and work at it but probably most people who squat ATG do what Rip is talking about.

For me ATG means that my calves and thighs meet but if go so deep as to have my butt reach my ankles then I can't maintain the lumbar arch. I don't go that deep although when I first started squatting all the way down I did and my lower back problems really acted up. Once I stopped that my numbers wen't up and squatting didn't bother my back.

Hamstring and general lower body flexibility, not to mention strenght and control, is going to be the major issue but I reject to idea that everybody will be able to go ass to ankles or even thighs to calves if they just stretch enough. Structure is going to play a part and end the end as low as you can go is as low as you can go. But at first most everybody should be able to go lower with practice. One good technique is simply sitting in your utmost bottom position while maintaining lordorsis and control. This will both strectch and strengthen the muscles involved.

I think it's important and I'm glad Anuj posted that. I don't thing anyone needs to panic about it but definitely something to be aware of.

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If you act sanctimonious I will just list out your logical fallacies until you get pissed off and spew blasphemous remarks.