Squat Depth: Revisited

$1,000 is at the top dollar value for a first now we are playing for cash and here is our first puzzle the category is phrase just before the show we do numbers you see would start the game and Allen is familiar come on big money there you go come on up big money I'm ready I'll do it would you please solve this squat good yeah that's [Music] [Applause] how long should you squat should everyone squat to the same depth does it really even matter if squat depth just an arbitrary thing we all like to argue about the reason I'm calling a squat depth revisited is because I've said a lot about the squat depth in the past five years in making youtube videos and since then I've learned some things I've worked a lot of people and I'm a little more experienced you could say that I don't think the same way that I did five years ago what is correct depth just about anywhere you look you're gonna see crease of the hips below the top of the kneecap increase your hips breaks below the plane to the top of the patellas your hip joint has to be has to go too low other than you'll need joints go just below her the apex of the hip crease drops just below the top of the patella woods cracking guys creature the hips below the top of the kneecap here back with another video in this video today Chris of the hips for the top of the gang knee crap Crysta danjbell on top of the freakin kneecap and he proclaimed increase of the hips below the top of the kneecap hey man crease of the hips below the top of the kneecap Cruiser the hips below the top of the kneecap so apparently we've decided that depth has been reached when the creature hips goes below the top of your kneecap but why well if you're a power lifter that's the rule if you're trying to get your name up here on the board an untamed strength the crease your hips must go below the top of your kneecap these arbitrary rules are necessary because it ensures you are aware of the standards you're being held to but what about everyone else do you have to squat to power within standards of course not but if you plan on competing I'd get used to it now even if you don't plan on competing there is some benefit to squatting deep for this video I'll say that deep refers to powerlifting standards and lower high refers to anything above that let's take a look at some studies this study compared muscle activation between different knee joint angles during a max isometric back squat basically bunch of dudes today max isometric back squat against a locked smith machine with a high bar position on my dad sounds like a typical Tuesday night at Planet Fitness they tested activation of rectus femoris biceps femoris glute max vastus lateralis and vastus medialis which are all actually tool albums conclusion knee position alters muscle activation of the quadriceps and glute max muscles an isometric back squat at 90 degrees generates the highest overall muscle activation yeah an isometric back squat at 140 degrees generates the lowest overall muscle activation of the vastus lateralis and glutamine only knee angles did not affect muscle activation of the hamstrings thus we recommend performing an isometric squat at 90 degrees to maximize neuromuscular recruitment of the knee and hip extensors well that's cool but ain't nobody doing a max isometric back squat another study compared nearly the same thing but with dynamic squats the kind that we do and found that after 12 weeks deep squat training resulted in superior increases in front thigh muscle compared to shallow squat training in parallel with the larger increase in front thigh muscle a superior increase in isometric knee extension strength and squat jump performance were observed in the deep squat group compared to the shallow small group training deep squats elicited favorable adaptations on knee extensor muscle size and function compared to training shallow squats it's believed that this could be caused by the longer time under tension and the deep squat versus shallow squat and lastly this study compared EMG activity of hips and thigh muscles while performing the back squat had three different death which will label as HOF depth ESOP depth and Kennedy depth there were no significant differences between the relative contributions of the biceps femoris the VMO and the vastus lateralis at different squatting depths during this phase the results suggest that the gluteus maximus becomes more active and concentric contraction as squat depth increases so a deep squat will prime the booty better than a shallow squat but enough of this muscle activation talk what is this a Jeff nibaran video as a side story Greg Knuckles actually contacted me a while back to talk about muscle activation during the squat among a number of other things after you saw one of my squat videos and I was like honestly I don't really care about that stuff look at me now Greg if you're a power lifter crease of the hips below the top of the kneecap practice like you're expected to play if you're a weightlifter at the grass squats actually not really if you're a weightlifter you can squat however you want last time I checked the squat is not a tested lift in weightlifting it's just used as an exercise to improve your clean jerk and snatch most people will say that weight lifter should squat ass to grass because that's the position you're gonna be in when you catch a heavy clean I understand this and I'm not necessarily arguing against it but in my opinion which doesn't really matter because I'm not a weightlifting coach you can get as specific as you want if the bottom position of a clean isn't an issue for you you don't necessarily always have to mimic that when you squat I was compelled to talk about this because a recent video in me squatting with been Clara and Salim I got some comments like Alan the only one squad to death and I frequently see depth comments on other videos too Oh Marisol so recent 495 squat nice squat though you could go deeper is this IPF depth to which omar responded this might come as a shock but this is in fact not an IPF knee and he's exactly right we're all just here squatting can we stop pausing replaying zooming in asking friends posting an IG poll about was this depth or no sometimes a lifter will squat down as low as they can with relaxing or losing balance and it's still not powerlifting death because of their technique style or anthropometry trying to remain very vertical and pushing your knees forward as far as you can will only allow you to go down so far look at Mike's squat a picky judge might give this a red light but mike has been squatting with a pretty narrow stance toes pointed nearly straight forward if he were to sink these squats any lower he would probably get on his toes or he got the round his back to get his butt lower check out this dude Ilya ilium he's a local mediocre weightlifter who can do this [Applause] check out this front squat session OMG not to death Ben squat could possibly get called in a meet according to youtube comments but this isn't a paralti meet he's got great control over his balance his position throughout all of these reps they're excellent squats regardless of what YouTube thinks and for what it's worth he did just do a front squat competition where you got three white lights for a 45 front squat how about Conair man this could be called for depth and probably would be called for depth but look at how far forward his knees are they're probably at the very end range of flexion there's not a whole lot more he can do with this now does all this mean these guys are wasting their time they're not getting any training effect out of these squats should they just D load to the empty baller and work on technique absolutely not all of these squats will elicit the training response they're looking for even if they appear to be half an inch above IPF depth if they did want to sink these squats lower they would probably have to take a slightly wider stance greater toe angle maybe push their knees out more maybe even sit their hips back and bend over a little bit that's if they were competing in a powerlifting meet and it really mattered but for the sake of training these squats are fine I want to add that squatting to power lifting depth or just as low as you can while staying tight and maintaining balance is advantageous from an efficiency standpoint this is something that Gregg knuckles is written about somewhere on his website squatting deep allows you to use the natural bounce that occurs at the bottom of the squat the stretch reflex the sticky point of a failed squat or a really slow granny squat is never at the lowest point unless you're squatting way over your max and you get completely stapled at the bottom the sticky point is usually a couple inches above 90 degrees if you can time that balance you will arrive at your sticking point with more momentum and more speed thus making it easier to push through to wrap this up I think that depth is a bit different for everyone if you can stay balanced maintain your torso position keep your feet flat on the ground and squat like Clarence Kennedy go ahead if this means you're just barely IPF depth so be it don't force depth at the expense of bracing positioning and balance now after quarter squatting I got nothing for you that needs to be fixed every person that I've worked with and I'm team strength at a seminar or workshop has had the ability to get the crease of their hips below the top of their kneecap or very close to it with some coaching and adjustments well that's it we weren't about as deep as I wanted to on this topic anyways thanks for watching until next time always remember John time

Channel: Alan Thrall

Views: 556,384

Rating: 4.9591532 out of 5

Keywords: squat, Alan Thrall, Alan Thrall squat, how to squat, powerlifting, squat depth, powerlifting squat, powerlifting squat technique, untamed strength squat, squat tutorial, greg nuckols, greg nuckols squat, clarence kennedy squat, joey szatmary squat, silent mike squat, ben claridad, zack telander, bodybuilding, fitness, muscle activation

Id: 7cWgc4q7pxg

Length: 10min 41sec (641 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 09 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/n6q6emxm]

This was a great video, but I'd still try to hit depth for two reasons.

One, it's just more efficient. It uses a little more muscle. You're also going to rapidly hit a point where you could benefit from the bounce reflex. And as bodybuilders know, fully stretched and contracted muscles grow.

Two, my squat tends to often creep up high. If I realize I'm doing only parallel or even slightly above parallel, it's a bitch trying to get back to depth. The same weight will bury you if you haven't been hitting depth. That's assuming you want to get back down there.

But if you're squatting heavy and training regularly, do whatever you want.

[u/[deleted]]

i watched this video and appreciated it as someone who used to psychotically film my own squats from multiple different angles to check depth. the truth is, he's right. half an inch or an inch or so won't have a real impact on getting stronger, so as long as you're not competing and training to a consistent depth, you're probably fine even squatting a little high.

[u/darknetj]

"which are all essentially Tool albums" 😂😂😂

[u/LeonAquilla]

*Thrall's not an SSC (anymore)

[u/LeoXale]

Shouldn't you just squat untill you hit stretch reflex?