Squatting Depth

I do squats "to the floor", e.g. very deep. In fact, I go down until my anatomy won't go down any further. I'm six inches from the floor at the bottom position. I don't necessarily pause down there but I do make sure the weight is under muscle control at all times. I descend slowly and blast out of the "hole" and come up as fast as I can while staying in complete control of the movement.

My short term goal is to do "in the hole" full squats with 225. I can do 225-275 for sets of six to parallel but full squats are a different matter altogether. I'm working on them... One thing I recommend if you're going to try these though is plenty of deep knee bends without any weight. Do twenty of them every day as part of your warmup to your routine. It'll get the blood going but also work to stretch and strengthen the ligaments in your hips, knees and ankle areas before adding further resistance with weights. Do them slowly as though you have weight on your shoulders - down slow, blast up. Do them at least two weeks, maybe four weeks before trying squats in the hole with a bare Oly bar for reps. Add weight very slowly and listen to your ligaments. Any complaints and you should stop and back off the full squats for a week but keep doing your deep knee bends. After a few months, you'll have the ligament support to get somewhere with them. Good form deadlifts also help get you ready for them as well because they work the hip flexors. Of course, while you're building up your ligaments, you can do other leg exercises for your leg workouts.

Pumping up, pumping iron,
John Oneschak

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I started watching who squatted and how they squatted and what their glutes looked like. And I noticed that those who squatted deeper had much better glutes. I'm defining better as fuller and rounder. This applied to both men and women but I'd say was especially noticable in the women.

My style of squatting is "ass to grass" - all the way down - as low as you can go. You can't use as much weight going that low as opposed to parrallel. But is the idea to improve or to move weight? If I recall Ian King says squats are quad dominant and deadlifts are hip dominant. I think he is right if you only squat to parrallel (and most people's parallel is a good bit short of parallel - I see a lot of quarter and half squats). But if you go deep it really seems to bring the glutes into the picture in a major way. I added squats to my routine after doing deadlift's for quite a few months and didn't see the glute improvement with the DL, though stiff legged DL's probably would have targeted the glutes better.

Most won't initially have the flexibility to go deep. Start by spending some time squatting on your haunches like you are around a campfire. Work to go deeper over time while keeping your feet flat on the floor - heels down, not on the balls of your feet. Several times a day go into this position and hold it for a few minutes. While keeping your feet flat let your body weight pull you deeper and deeper. The flexibility will come. Once you are comfortable going deep start squatting with a bar and whatever wieght, if any, is appropriate. Don't worry if you can't use a lot of weight initially. It's tough to "come out of the hole."

Chuck

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If you start training yourself to go all the way down on the squat, not just barely halfway, you will find that the muscles surrounding your knees will get stronger quicker. You also put LESS stress on the knees doing a full motion. Start with a lighter weight to get used to the movement. As with any exercise, proper form is key!

Jake

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