Squatting Depth

How Deep to go during a Squat

 The depth of a squat is a frequently discussed topic. Many professionals, coaches, and athletes will debate this question until they are blue in the face. So why do I bring it up here? It is a good question, but one that should be understood before answering. When I am asked this question, my first response will be, “It depends.” Let’s look at factors that may alter the answer.

 When looking at any exercise, the first question you should ask is “What is the goal of performing the exercise?” “What are the benefits from performing the squat?” In the terms of an athlete, the squat, in general, is a good overall exercise, if applied properly, for increasing strength, power, and explosiveness. It is intended to enhance your ability to run, jump, and move during your sport of choice.

 Another factor may be the sport you play. Some sports require more strength and power in different knee angles and may be beneficial to go lower. Examples may be football and volleyball. Several sports do not require the athlete to go very low in their stance and may never even approach a position of knee flexion greater than 60 degrees while applying a load through the joint, such as swimming or possibly soccer.

 Another factor is what is the structure of the individual’s body? How are you built? Do you have existing ankle/knee/hip/back issues? Do you get appropriate range of motion in all the joints involved? Can you control these joints appropriately through the range of motion you want to go through? What are the proportions of your body? Is the relationship of your tibia/fibula (lower leg) to your femur (thigh) to your torso appropriate in order to go to the desired depth you choose?

 Another factor is how much weight are you using? If you are using just body weight, the depth chosen may be lower than when adding on external resistance. In actuality, as the resistance increases, the range of motion will likely decrease appropriately according to the control you can provide.

 Another factor is the speed at which you perform the lift. Are you able to control all aspects of the lift? During every rep, there are several different parts to it, such as an isometric, lowering of the weight, another isometric during change of direction, and lifting of the weight. During each phase mentioned, there are actually even more phases, such as acceleration and deceleration. If these phases are not controlled appropriately, forces that transfer through the joints and soft tissues may increase exponentially, namely when going from lowering the weight to raising the weight.

 Many will just conform to the rules of a squat and several times this is applied to the sport of powerlifting. Here, the thighs are to reach parallel to the floor. Which part of the thighs? The anterior aspect, middle, or posterior part? How wide are the feet going to be? As the feet get wider, the less distance you will likely travel to reach a lower depth.

 The squat is an interesting topic of discussion and as you can see, has several different aspects that need to be considered when deciding to perform the exercise. Some of the factors I introduced are just that, some of the factors. There are many others that should be considered on top of these mentioned here. If applied appropriately, the squat has been shown to be a powerful tool in reaching the goal of enhancing an athlete’s ability to perform during a sport. The depth to go to during the squat is often a debatable topic and one that should consider all factors for that specific individual when choosing to go to that level.

Bench Press

The bench press is a traditional lift that many have used to increase strength and power in the upper body. It is an exercise that is traditionally targeting the pectoralis major, deltoids, and triceps. We are all familiar with the movement: lie on your back on a bench, lift the bar off the rack, bring it down to your chest, and then press back up. Your grip may vary from being close to wide. Ideally, you control it and avoid “bouncing” it off your chest. Also, avoid arching your back so much that your hips come off the bench. This is traditionally what is done.

 Since we all know this, why do we perform this lift? I guess I already said that it enhances strength and power in the upper body, but at what risk? What are the forces involved in the involved joints and is this helping or hurting? Well, this brings us to a quick anatomy lesson.

 The pectoralis major (chest muscle) attaches along the clavicle (collar bone), sternum (middle of the chest), and ribs and goes out to the humerus (upper arm bone) about 1/4^th the way down. The action this muscle performs at the shoulder during this lift is to bring the arm up and in to midline of the body. The deltoid (shoulder muscle) attaches to the clavicle and scapula (shoulder blade) and goes on the humerus about ½ way down. This muscle also helps perform the same actions as the pectoralis major in this lift. The shoulder joint, or the glenohumeral joint, has the shapes of a ball and socket, or better yet, a ball and saucer. The glenoid, which is a part of the scapula, can be visualized by taking a regular paper plate and cutting two straight lines off the sides opposite each other so the top and bottom have a little lip and the front and back do not. Take the end of the humerus, which has a shape of a ball for the end, and roll it around on this plate. As you can see, the joint itself does not have much stability in the design. It is good for a lot of movement.

 Now, in order to perform the bench press properly, you have to have forces that keep the joint surfaces in contact with each other, in the right place, while moving the arm up and in towards midline of the body to get the bar off your chest. There are several joint forces involved, but the one I am going to bring up is the one that brings the humerus up. There is a force that your body will produce that will try to rip the ball off the glenoid by pulling it up. This is a normal force that we produce all the time, so what is the big deal?

 Well, let’s look at what happens when the elbow goes lower than your shoulder joint or body while on your back. The muscles on the front of the shoulder now are in position to pull the humerus up more. The angle the humerus makes is in great position to slide off the joint with the anterior shoulder muscles pull. Now let’s add on a lot of weight and add a little speed. This will increase the forces involved and bring up the stress on your joint. This is more of a shear stress (across the joint) which can cause trauma to this area. Have you ever had soreness after benching in the front of your shoulder? Are you sure it was a “good” soreness?

 Now, I will bring up the point that much of this is dependant upon the person’s anatomical build. Traditionally, if you look at the best bench pressers, they all have big barrel chests and short arms and forearms. When the bar touches their chest, their elbows are still in front of the shoulder joint and they have less of an upward pull on the glenohumeral joint. Those individuals that have more of a narrow thickness (front to back) to the chest and longer arms and forearms will have more of the shearing stresses I am speaking of. Now, someone with this build can help this by widening their grip on the bar. They may also tend to arch their back more. They may also choose to put a towel or something on their chest so they don’t go down as far. All of these things will help in decreasing the elbow’s chances of going lower than the shoulder joint itself.

 So another question to ask is why perform the lift? Your coach tells you to. It is what always has been done. If you lift weights, or know someone who lifts weights, the question everyone asks is, “What do you bench?” Or better yet, “What ya bench?” If you didn’t bench, you can’t answer this question. And you don’t want to go through a whole explanation as to why you don’t, so you just do it. Well, how many sports do you play that need you to be on your back, pressing something off your chest with both arms and the thing you are pushing is solid and not moving? I am not suggesting that you only perform lifts that simulate the actual sporting movements and I have another article discussing this, but look at application of the lift and carryover to the sport. I don’t know of any sport that fits all categories I asked except one, power lifting event, the bench press. Any time I have seen someone pushing another off their chest; it is after they have already been beat. So, is there something else that might be a better or comparable alternative?

 How about the dumbbell chest press? This movement will work similar muscles. Each arm has to work independently of another. There is a lot of stability work involved. There is not a bar that will dictate the range of motion you go through. You can also focus on the movement of the limbs involved rather than “pushing up”. Now, your weight will most likely drop quite a bit. But that is not always a bad thing. You will gain more control of the movement and place less stress on the joints itself, if performed properly. This movement may actually apply to more sports as well. When you engage with someone or something, it traditionally will be one arm at a time or if both arms engage, it probably is still not very controlled or evenly distributed between both arms.

 Now, the bench press does have many positives and is not a bad lift. The thing that may make it bad is the application of the lift and the user involved. If you follow the rules of the body rather than the rules of a lift, you will always win.

Exercise Range of Motion

Let the bar touch your chest. Bring it down so the weight barely touches. Go until you get a good “stretch”. These phrases are ones I have heard over and over again dictating how far someone should go during an exercise. Are they correct? Well, I guess it depends on what the goal of the exercise is.

 When you perform a resistance exercise, you first need to know why you might be doing it. What is your goal? Is it to lift as much weight as you can? Is it to move the weight/machine as far as it will go? Or is it to enhance the body’s ability to perform something else? Many athletes perform resistance training exercises to enhance their performance in their chosen sport. They are not trying to get better at performing a specific lift just to get better at performing a specific lift. So the goal should be to enhance the body’s ability to perform your sport. Strengthen the muscles and everything else involved.

 So what rules should you follow when performing the exercise? Too many time I see people following the rules someone arbitrarily made for the lift and not really placing any regards to the body itself. In order to understand what range of motion you should go, you need to understand what is involved with this exercise. You need to know what joints will be directly involved and moving. You need to know which joints you want to stabilize. You need to know what muscles and other tissues you want to enhance. You need to know the body’s limitations. This means structurally as well as with strength.

 Once you have a good grasp of what the body is capable of and how best to enhance this, what does the exercise ask of you? When is the load the most/least? Does the exercise place the body in a mechanically sound position to enhance performance or does it place the body in a position that may cause more stress and damage? Every exercise will have a risk and benefit. Once you place your body in the equation, it is important to know if the benefits outweigh the risks for you. If so, then the exercise will probably prove to be beneficial.