So, when doing squats, how far down should you go?
Traditional training wisdom says go no further than the upper leg being parallel due to increased pressure on the knees if you go lower. I haven't seen any evidence that supports or refutes this.
Currently, I squat all the way down to a full squatting position, hips nested all the way down. To do this, I have to drop about 70 lbs from what I could do if I only came down to parallel. I started doing this when a friend of mine who was a powerlifter in college stated he followed a professional powerlifter who also trained squats going all the way down. Supposedly, this individual did so because he felt it helped him in the clean. With a heavier weight, you can't jerk it up as high which means you've got to get lower to get under the weight.
So far, I haven't had any knee problems, but I'm also not pushing real heavy weight (note how much I have to drop to squat all the way down).
Any thoughts out there?
