Can Squatting Help to Reduce Injury?

Are you someone who’s heard that letting your knees go over your toes when squatting is bad for your knees? Have you been told not to squat or don’t go as deep by a MD, a PT, or your trainer? Well I will break those myths in this blog post to help you actually do the things you love to do whether it’s squatting to hit a new PR or its to pick up that box from the floor of your garage when doing some spring cleaning.

Squatting is good for us! It promotes strength, mobility, and function when taught well and loaded appropriately.

I will be reviewing squat mechanics and how to squat even with the knees passing over the toes… That’s right you heard me! Knees can and most of the time will track over the toes or sometimes even past the toes! First we need to review the literature and then teach the techniques of squatting so you can crush your exercise goals!

How safe is a squat? Which squat is right for me?

Squatting is not only safe, but deep squatting ranks superior to “half squats” or any other type of squat. When looking at deep squatting (squatting below 90* of knee bending) vs squatting to stay above or at 90*, we need to look at the research to see what the trends are. One research article reviewed over 150 articles of squat analysis to reveal that deep squatting does not increase injury risk on tissues like meniscus, ligaments, or your patella (knee cap), but also is ESSENTIAL to maintaining good health and strength in the legs.

Now, not everyone who reads this will go out today and start squatting past parallel where the butt sinks lower than the knees and achieve great outcomes. Actually, if you have not squatted that low before or don’t do this regularly, then yes you may need to spend some time in higher ranges until you are comfortable getting into that deeper position. Later I will review some exercises to help you to relearn your squat and to improve your mobility and efficiency under load.

What about knees over toes? I hear that’s bad for you.

In order to achieve the depths of deep squatting and to get ATG (a** to grass), then your knees must move forward enough to get out of the way of your body as it drops lower into that squat. And I’m sure you’ve heard that letting those knees track over your toes will cause the most damage to your knee and wear down your cartilage quicker. This is just a straight up lie and was probably developed back when analyzing the mechanics of a squat wasn’t common and we were all just taking our best guess at what caused someone’s knee pain. We now know that squatting below parallel has less forces going through the knee cap when compared to squatting to or staying above 90*. The other cool part about deep squatting and even putting load through our body is the fact that our body adapts to these loads. Basic law of loading the body (Wolff’s Law) suggests that the body will adapt to any load consistently placed upon it. For instance, the knees will actually get stronger and more resilient the more you deep squat with good form and the more you deep squat under load. Wolff’s Law can actually work against us as well. This is when you see someone who has bulky knees due to arthritis. There is so much poor mechanics going on in the knee, the bones are just trying to grow as quickly as they can to compensate for the abnormal forces going through it on a daily basis. The bones get bigger, the joint space gets smaller, and eventually someone loses their range of motion due to joint stiffness and/or pain.

Squatting to 90* or less will actually hurt your hip

Squatting so that your knees bend past 90* is essential for your knees but it also helps to protect your hips as well! When looking at squatting above or below 90*, the hip torque increased 1070% when staying above 90*. If you are someone who actually tries to get deeper into your squat, but instead of bending the knees more you end up leaning your body forward more without any change in knee position like you’re about to twerk on the dance floor, then you could be creating an excessive amount of force through your hips.

To wrap this up, your body will thank you for performing squats the correct way. Your spine, hips, and knees will be solid, strong, and mobile to perform at any level as long as you can improve and maintain your deep squat patterns. If you are struggling with getting into those positions, then look at my next post Top 3 Mobility Exercises for Squatting.

We hope you enjoyed the blog and if you want more of these then please subscribe at the link below!