A word of warning about squats.

I think you should work on doing bodyweight squats initially, until you can go to parallel or just under parallel. What you are doing right now, not being able to go past 45 is basically a half-squat....so your hamstrings get taken out of the equation and all the stress is on the quads and the knees.

Look up some form videos and start stretching, maybe practice doing some wall squats to get your body to parallel, then get a broom stick or something similar and work on going down to parallel with good form...once your form is squared away and your body lets you actually get where you need to be, then go back to doing it weighted.

This is just a suggestion.

Squats were an impossibility all of my life due to joint problems. However, when I changed WHAT I eat I resolved a very long list of health problems including chronic joint pain (was diagnosed as a child with cartilage disease in knees). Arthritis, at a young age, "runs in my family", as in all of them have arthritis by age 40... and all of them eat just like I used to.

I am now 40 years old and I am a squatting fool. No pain, no damage, just feels great. I squat here, I squat there, I squat everywhere. (Surprise, the human body is designed to squat!)

So, yes, for some people, squats are probably something to avoid... but why not just eat healthy food (and I don't mean grain and sugar) instead? Or not, I don't care.

Re: form. I have not "studied" form, I just do what feels good. However, I can imagine that being careless, one could get injured but I still think it's a diet related thing. At least for me it was.

I'll bump this for the So you think you can squat...

Be careful if you use the Smith machine, Mixed views on that one, but in general, strength based sites, tend to recommend avoid the use of that.

As for knee's, It's more than likely form. Lower back pain, possibly form, might be leaning forward when starting to get up, eitherway, unable to tell unless you video it. Take a few video's watch them back as you check out the so you think you can squat series.
Depends on what you mean in terms of pain, mild discomfort you may be able to get away with, any more pain, I'd work on Flexibility first.

If it's Core, try the plank, and Progress to an RKC plank - where you tense every muscle in the body while doing a plank, takes a bit of practise, but the end result is that you'll be more comfortable keeping your Back\Abs tight, Elbow's under the bar, chest up. Once you can do it right, feel free to curse me.. I can plank well over 5 minutes, RKC just gets to 60 Seconds!

A tip that I got recently, was regarding breathing.. Big BELLY breath, then descend, Breath out on the way up, your belly should expand when you breath in, it has helped me stay more upright in my squats

I'll bump this for the So you think you can squat...

Be careful if you use the Smith machine, Mixed views on that one, but in general, strength based sites, tend to recommend avoid the use of that.

As for knee's, It's more than likely form. Lower back pain, possibly form, might be leaning forward when starting to get up, eitherway, unable to tell unless you video it. Take a few video's watch them back as you check out the so you think you can squat series.
Depends on what you mean in terms of pain, mild discomfort you may be able to get away with, any more pain, I'd work on Flexibility first.

If it's Core, try the plank, and Progress to an RKC plank - where you tense every muscle in the body while doing a plank, takes a bit of practise, but the end result is that you'll be more comfortable keeping your Back\Abs tight, Elbow's under the bar, chest up. Once you can do it right, feel free to curse me.. I can plank well over 5 minutes, RKC just gets to 60 Seconds!

A tip that I got recently, was regarding breathing.. Big BELLY breath, then descend, Breath out on the way up, your belly should expand when you breath in, it has helped me stay more upright in my squats

^^^^THIS^^

Yeah this is actually a warning against half-a$$ed squats with poor form and too much weight.

I'll bump this for the So you think you can squat...

Be careful if you use the Smith machine, Mixed views on that one, but in general, strength based sites, tend to recommend avoid the use of that.

As for knee's, It's more than likely form. Lower back pain, possibly form, might be leaning forward when starting to get up, eitherway, unable to tell unless you video it. Take a few video's watch them back as you check out the so you think you can squat series.
Depends on what you mean in terms of pain, mild discomfort you may be able to get away with, any more pain, I'd work on Flexibility first.

If it's Core, try the plank, and Progress to an RKC plank - where you tense every muscle in the body while doing a plank, takes a bit of practise, but the end result is that you'll be more comfortable keeping your Back\Abs tight, Elbow's under the bar, chest up. Once you can do it right, feel free to curse me.. I can plank well over 5 minutes, RKC just gets to 60 Seconds!

A tip that I got recently, was regarding breathing.. Big BELLY breath, then descend, Breath out on the way up, your belly should expand when you breath in, it has helped me stay more upright in my squats

You'll probably do even better if you move on to even better breathing. Your lungs are not in your belly! If you can manage to maximize the motion of your ribs, not just in the front but in the back, you'll have an even better breath. Your viscera will still be pushed aside by your diaphragm, so no worries there, you'll still have a "belly breath", but it will be a consequence of being free.

Yeah, I know they are not, I just meant it as a simple queue to not suck your stomach in when breathing in like so many people do..

Good shout on expanding the ribs as well...I've just done it for so long it's a habit now..

I'm a professional breather (I sing for a living), so I think about it all day. There are different schools of thought on the matter, but I am with the camp that feels the diaphragm is involuntary, and tends to move a lot as long as you don't stop it from doing so. So if you initiate from the intercostals, and don't get in the way, you are golden! Good stuff man!

In my month on MFP, I think I can count on one hand the number of times I've thought "hey that's good advice". This thread provided one of them.

I've been lifting for about 6 weeks now. I've got little flexibility right now, so I've been unable to get my knees below about 45 degrees. After reading this thread, I did squats this afternoon, took off about 40 pounds just to go as low as I can, which still sadly isn't "parallel" where butt is as low as knee. But I'll just stay at this lower weight until that happens then build back up.

Thanks for the heads up my knees already bother me ,so guess I will be putting those off for now at least.

bump

In my month on MFP, I think I can count on one hand the number of times I've thought "hey that's good advice". This thread provided one of them.

I've been lifting for about 6 weeks now. I've got little flexibility right now, so I've been unable to get my knees below about 45 degrees. After reading this thread, I did squats this afternoon, took off about 40 pounds just to go as low as I can, which still sadly isn't "parallel" where butt is as low as knee. But I'll just stay at this lower weight until that happens then build back up.

Stretch those hamstrings!

Might not seem right, but they articulate 2 joints, knee with lower leg up, and hip with upper leg back.

Even though the squat may not have the knee aspect stretched tight, the hip side sure is.

Can you touch your toes standing up with knees locked, or sitting on floor legs straight reaching forward?

Wellll, I'm not quite there yet. I am stretching every day, including the hammies, but I started from a point of very poor fitness. It looks like I should add another hammy stretch or 2 to my routine.