Squats

[Cossack]

Dr. Jacques:

I think your Street Sambo series of tapes is the best thing out there for self-defense. When will you do the follow up tapes mentioned at your site for sport? My primary question is how deep you recommend a person go down when doing squats. Is it parallel, rear to heels, or rear to floor?

I know this is not exactly the purpose of this forum, but your site does not mention your personal e-mail address, so I am hoping you can help me via this forum. I hope to hear what other projects you will be completing soon. I think you could be a very helpful addition to this ROSS community.

Mark

[Vbrown]

Howdy,

Since it's been a few days I thought I could chime in...until the Doc is back in.

From my experience and research, the depth of squatting is not in relation to how far your knees bend, but until your overall form deviates.

for example; when you knees roll in (adduct), when you lose the protective curve of the lower back, when you lean forward and your shoulders are past your knees. These are the things that give the squat a bad name. Folks worry about the depth and don't pay attention to their spine!

Does this help?

Vince

[Cossack]

Thank you for the tips. However, I am still confused on application. When I squat should I go past parallel? Traditional lifters often say that going past parallel is dangerous.

[James Boelter]

What he said was, 'keep going down in your squat until your spine deviates from its proper position'. That will vary considerably with each individual. In some cases, this will indeed mean that you only descend until your reach 'thighs parallel'...but of course, the question is then 'back of thighs' parallel to the ground, or 'top of thighs parallel to ground' (considerably deeper, especially to an outside observer.)

You have to be careful with 'common knowledge' and 'tradition' - in many cases these ideas developed because some well known figure preferred to do things a certain way for highly idiosyncratic reasons, and everyone did a 'monkey see, monkey do'. Oly lifters go to rock bottom as part of their training (I think this helps them get out of the hold with their Oly lifts) and it doesn't seem to hurt them.

I agree with Vbrown...descend until you start to lose proper form in your spine and you will be OK, even if that takes you down to rock bottom.

[Brett Jacques]

Cossack,

Squat in front of a mirror and look for lower body deviations, now stand to the side and see what your spine and pelvis is doing while squatting. Do this without weight.

Better yet find a trainer to help you with this.