Question on Squats

gmhall2006

I'm 33 years old, very familiar with lifting, but had a question for you pros on here. Is there any detriment to me doing "chair squats" right now. I don't sit down and then get back up while squatting; but I squat until my butt touches the pad, and then finish the lift as normal. The bench pad is probably just a few inches higher than 90 degrees, but when my butt touches it and goes a little further, I bet it's almost right at 90.

I'm not a power lifter and I'm just training for life. I like to do squats, bench press, deadlift, overhead press, and bent over rows because they really improve my quality of life. With that being said, am I sacrificing anything tangible by not going "*kitten* to grass" on squats?

DancingMoosie

I use something like a milk crate to help me know how far to squat. I don't put any weight on it, just barely touch and go. The top should hit you about mid-calf level in order for you to squat properly.

lorrpb

gmhall2006 wrote: »

I'm 33 years old, very familiar with lifting, but had a question for you pros on here. Is there any detriment to me doing "chair squats" right now. I don't sit down and then get back up while squatting; but I squat until my butt touches the pad, and then finish the lift as normal. The bench pad is probably just a few inches higher than 90 degrees, but when my butt touches it and goes a little further, I bet it's almost right at 90.

I'm not a power lifter and I'm just training for life. I like to do squats, bench press, deadlift, overhead press, and bent over rows because they really improve my quality of life. With that being said, am I sacrificing anything tangible by not going "*kitten* to grass" on squats?

You are doing just fine!

canadianlbs

seems like there's a lot of controversy about whether atg is a good thing, a bad thing, or just a sort of irrelevancy. the only 'rule' i've come across iwth any consistency is that yes, you should try to make s ure that your hip crease drops below your knees before you come up. but how far you go once you've passed parallel is where all the arguments lie.

tl;dr: i guess my opinion is: just because one website or person told you have to go all the way down, doesn't mean that you do

sgt1372

There's no need to go below 90 degrees when doing squats in order to achieve sufficient strength develipment.

Doing so only increases the risk of knee injuries based on a increased stress on the knees and lack of sufficient structural support when you squat below that level; the lower you go, the less the support and the greater the risk of injury.