The Squat Really may be the Worst Move I Have Seen.
- 11 Comment
Before I get to far into this let me say this. I realize that millions of trainers out there have all their data to say how beneficial squats are and how the move is the gold standard for gaining strength in the lower body. I also understand how many of you think that it is one of, if not the best move for athletes to do to strengthen their lower bodies. I also have done squats many many times in my life from my short football and track careers in High school to continuing lifting after High School. Boy what I would give to go back and not have to do this move. The pain and damage in my knees at age 35 would be so thankful.
I believe that every exercise is a good exercise. I just feel that this one may give you the least amount of real benefit for the long list of negative side effects that go along with it. First off I understand that it is a great strength move for the lower body. Obviously if you spend time working on squats your muscles in your legs are going to get stronger. Now getting past this caveman mentality on training requires that you look at all the potential negative side effects of the move.
When training I always try to focus on the negative side effects of the moves I am giving to a client, group, team or whomever. To not do so is to leave yourself open to injuring a client and ultimately creating muscle imbalances and compensations that will lead to diminished performance in the long term. Take the squats for example. First the positives, strength gains in some of the muscles in your lower body. Well that is all I could come up with. Now the negatives.
First you are gaining strength in a fixed plane meaning that if you are an athlete or anyone who needs your body to have strength in more than one angle squats are not for you. Next, the amount of pressure on the spine can cause some serious pain and injury. Why would you choose to put a bar with hundreds of pounds on your shoulder which will in turn press directly on your spine and assume this is a positive thing? How about the damage you can do to your knees. Most people lack the muscular efficiency to do this move correctly anyway so like the guy in this video you turn your knees out and place your feet out wide in an effort to try and gain more strength since you can press more weight this way. I do not think that worked out so well for this guy.
This is an exercise that really should only be done by those who choose it as a profession. Professional lifters can go right ahead and keep on thrashing their bodies but if you do not have to, please avoid this move. Your knees and back will be very grateful.
11 Comments on this post
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Eric said:
This made me sick to my stomach
July 8th, 2009 at 6:34 pm -
Patty said:
Sounds like you’re talking about squats with heavy weights .. what do you think about regular squats without weights? and squats – no weights – in a wide stance?
July 9th, 2009 at 5:46 pm -
Scott said:
I have always loved just doing body weight squats. The ability to do a full squat is becoming a lost art but we use it as one of our standards of measurement of a clients hip mobility. Feet wide or spread foot squats is a great alternative as is triangle squats.
July 9th, 2009 at 8:45 pm -
turbo said:
You were doing them wrong. Don’t worry, the vast majority of people who attempt the exercise do it wrong. Considering the lack of effort you displayed in researching this topic for your blog, I would expect that you didn’t bother researching how to squat back then either. Perhaps if you learned to do them correctly, your knees would be okay.
Please educate yourself on the topic before spreading misinformation. You can start here: http://www.nsca-lift.org/Publications/SQTforWeb.pdf
It’s the National Strength and Conditioning Association’s position paper on squats.PS: Using powerlifting accidents as an argument against normal barbell squats is either misguided or intellectually dishonest. Powerlifters use gear and a specific style of squat meant to take advantage of this. Thus it’s not even relevant. To use an extreme case that has no resemblance to the normal activity will fool only the most naive. It’s like comparing race car driving to driving to the supermarket. “Driving should only be done by professionals. Race car drivers can go ahead and risk life and limb, but if you don’t have to drive don’t do it.”
July 13th, 2009 at 2:40 am -
Matt said:
This is retarded. People have squatted 800 pounds, with no support devices, quite safely; and yet people throw out their backs picking up a news-paper. Clearly the issue is not with squats, or the weight, but rather with the teaching of, and correct execution, or lackthereof, of squats.
Squats are a tool. The most effective tool, arguably, in the trainers tool-box for developing total body(not just lower body) strength. The Bulgarians have a saying: “If you don’t squat, you cannot be strong.” Like any other tool out there, it can be used correctly, and incorrectly. When you use any tool incorrectly, there are negative consequences. Maybe you should learn to use the tool correctly, instead of propagating a misinformation campaign which will ultimately lead to the demise of proper fitness training in North America as we know it.
Not a single point in your argument could be taken alone and seen as being correct. The squat, first of all, works almost every muscle in your body, either dynamically, or isometrically. Second of all, you are not in a fixed plane of motion, unless you are in a smith machine, which actually is dangerous because it FORCES you into a fixed plane of motion. Nothing about a squat is fixed. You have to stabilize the weight through the entire range of motion. Thirdly, you have no idea as to what conditions this particular lifter was lifting under. You see someone getting injured squatting and this is supposed to scare people into “OMG! I SHOULDN’T SQUAT!”
Here’s an idea, why don’t you take a moment, and actually give a biomechanical analysis of the squat, and tell us where the fault with squats are, rather than resort to scare tactics and misinformation to make your “point.” And I use that term very loosely here.
July 13th, 2009 at 2:48 am -
Glenn said:
The problem with your post is that you use the term squat which is ok, but the video reference is of a powerflifting competition squat, that is where the problem occurs with this post. These squats are performed, judged differently. During the regular squat the crease of the hips shouldn’t break the parallel plain of your knees. If you notice in the video, the powerlifting squat -the crease of the hip has to go below the top of the knee or it’s a disqualification. Good personal trainers and coaches of sports should know which squat to teach. Doing the proper squat correctly can definitely build up your leg strength and size without all the “damage” to your knees later in life. Other points to the squat. Make sure you work your core for inner support and make sure during the lift that your knees do not extend out past your toes. They should basically be in line with each other. When they go past the toes in the forward plane that really does stress the knees. That is the biggest problem I see with young athletes, or people in the fitness centers. Most just don’t know how to perform the squat correctly. Oh by the way when you do leg extensions the same same rule applies, don’t go past a 90 degree bend in your knee joint or you can stress out your knee just like the powerlifter in the video.
July 13th, 2009 at 2:08 pm -
anon said:
Way to delete posts that diagree with you (and actually provide useful information), Scott
July 13th, 2009 at 3:25 pm -
Scott said:
Finally I was able to get you guys talking about something. I love your comments. Although I am not sure what posts I deleted that disagreed with me. Let me repost and continue the conversation. I will add one tonight. Thanks for your comments (finally). Glenn yours specifically I want to talk about because you bring up some great points. And Just so you know I was talk by a former Olympic lifter who was our strength coach so I DO know how to do a perfect squat and did them for many years.
July 13th, 2009 at 4:11 pm -
Platt said:
I think many people overlook some of the good points made on this blog in regards to the squat, as well as the concept of muscular efficiency as a whole.
If you think about it even doing squats (power lifting squats) with correct form can still have drastic negative side affects due to the compensations that develope in the body over time. These compensations could include muscular tightness as well as muscular imbalances that will only be magnified by doing squats.
If you try and do squats with extremely tight hips, for example, your body will be forced to compensate in order to perform the move. Many people do this by having a wider stance and/or turning their feet out to the side to make the move easier for their bodies. By doing this you are only creating another layer of compensation which in turn leads down the path to injury. When athletes continue to perform the squat this way their bodies will adapt to the position which results in externaly rotated femurs that will affect the gait pattern of the athlete in question and limit the efficiency of their stride based on how the femur now rests in the pelvis.
Overall i would agree that the squat isn’t worth the potential for injury. The argument here shouldn’t be about the form being used while doing the move but, the skeletal structure and muscular efficiency of the athlete. If the athlete doesn’t have good alignment within the body it simply doesn’t matter how good their from is. Think of a car. If the wheels are not on straight it won’t be able to perform very long before something bad happens. It’s the same with a person. If their hips are not sitting in a neutral position (anatomically correct position) then the body will not be able to perform efficiently which will inevitably lead to injury.
July 13th, 2009 at 8:20 pm -
Platt said:
I don’t know if any of you have read the recent post on squats, but it explains a little more in depth the reason behind Scott’s opinion on the squat and it makes sense. Like he said the issue isn’t with the move itself, but with the body of the athlete.
July 13th, 2009 at 9:43 pm -
Scott said:
Glenn your right I should have been more specific than to just use squat. I should have been more specific and designated it as barbell squats. Thanks for the good point.
July 14th, 2009 at 4:36 pm