Mastering Squat Depth: Techniques, Form, and Full Range of Motion Essentials

Can adjusting your squat depth revolutionize your workout? Find out in this episode as we delve into "The Science of Squat Depth." We'll unravel the significance of squat mechanics and range of motion, sparked by a listener's intriguing question. Understand why some swear by the "ass to grass" method while I emphasize a personalized approach tailored to your body’s needs for safe and effective strength training. Whether you're a CrossFit enthusiast or a casual gym-goer, we'll explore what truly matters in achieving optimal squat depth.

Ever wondered why NBA players squat only to about 70 degrees? In "Proper Squat Form and Range," we discuss sports specificity and the necessity of maintaining good form. We’ll cover crucial techniques like keeping knees behind toes, pushing the butt back, and the vital role of flexibility in your calves and hip flexors. Learn why focusing on building strength rather than showcasing it can help you avoid injuries and improve performance. Ego-driven workouts can lead to setbacks—let’s focus on establishing a functional range of motion before adding those heavy weights.

Finally, let's talk about the "Importance of Full Range of Motion." Discover why completing each repetition correctly is essential for preventing muscle imbalances and joint weaknesses. We'll dissect common errors like shortening the range of motion as fatigue sets in and stress the importance of proper technique over premature weight increases. Whether you're performing chest presses, seated dips, or bicep curls, this episode is packed with insights to help you stay on track with your fitness goals. Listen up and elevate your workout game with these essential tips!

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

Welcome to. There is a Method to the Madness. My name is Rob Maxwell. I'm the owner of Maxwell's Fitness Programs. I've been in business since 1994.

Speaker 1: 0:13

The purpose of this podcast is to get to the real deal of what really works and, most importantly, why it works. I want to really educate all of the clients that come to my gym and everybody out there that wants further knowledge of exercise so they can exercise more and maybe get started if you're not started, or maybe stay with it and stay motivated, because I always believe that when we know what we're doing and we know why, we're more apt to stick to things. And, by the way, that is called self-efficacy, the word of the day. So the other word of the day is squat and squat depth, and I'm going to talk about that because it was an absolute great question that I got from somebody I know who frequently asks questions, and so I want to cover squat depth and then other ranges of motion as well today. Before I get to that, let me thank Jonathan and Lynn Gilden of the Gilden Group Realty Pros. They are committed to providing the highest level of customer service and home sales and they have the sales and the reviews to back that up. I personally vouch for them. If I'm advertising on this show personally, you know that I believe in these people for sure. If you need any help, give them a shout 386-451-2412.

Speaker 1: 1:39

All right, so let's talk about the squat. It is one of the most important exercises that you can do to exercise the strength train. It's a functional movement. We need to be able to get out of chairs. We need to be able to get up. Can do Smith machine squats. You can do free weight squats. You can do body weight squats. You can do cable squats. You can do band squats. There's so many different ways to squat. You can do leg presses, which is a machine version of a squat. You can do split squats. You can do step ups, which essentially are single leg squats. So there's lots of ways to squat. All right.

Speaker 1: 2:28

So the question was you know what's the deal with range of motion and how low do you really have to go? And you know there is a science behind this. There's a lot of different opinions on this, and there's people on the internet, of course, and there's people if you go into different gyms and they have different opinions. And it's a great question because is it one size fits all literally for everybody. Yes and no.

Speaker 1: 3:00

There are definite reasons why we should stay in a certain rangefree range of motion and I mean there's a lot of truth to that. I mean, if you are feeling pain in your hips and your lower back or your knees as you squat down a little bit further, then absolutely that's true. At the polar opposite end of the spectrum, you have people that talk about going absolutely as low as you can, like the hips below parallel, so your femur below parallel, and the crossfitters of the world and the weightlifters of the world call that ass to grass, meaning that the butt's going to get as low as humanly possible to the ground. There are some people that believe that that is more natural, like, should we stay in that squatted position like infants can do, you know, or I guess not infants, but tiny, tiny toddlers can get their butt down like that and stand. The quick answer to the toddler question is no, because we are not toddlers anymore. So you know that's a no and we shouldn't feel like we should be able to do things that we were naturally able to do. So there's not a lot of merit or naturally be able to do when we were tiny, tiny, you know, and things of that nature. I mean, there is a reason why we personally evolve as we grow older. There are some things we have control over. That's not one that we really need to worry about. So let's get back to why the CrossFitters and the weightlifters say ass to grass, so they're competing, so that's a competition, and they squat a certain way because they're doing different forms of exercises that require you to squat during the exercise, such as like cleaning jerks and exercises like that, and to some extent PowerCleanse has a version of it in there. So they're doing a certain type of squatting and various forms of squatting to do their other exercises, because they're doing certain competitions that would not necessarily require it.

Speaker 1: 5:39

I'm not an expert on CrossFit. I have friends that do do it, so I don't believe they have a lot of pure squat competitions. In a pure squat competition, like powerlifters do, they just have to have their femurs parallel to the floor. So they just have to be at 90 degrees and 90 degree bend of the knee. That's required for powerlifting, for CrossFit. I'm not sure that they have outright squatting competitions they do have, at least not that they're competing at sanctioned or whatever. Maybe in their gyms they might do stuff, but they do have different exercises that require a little bit more knee bend and hip flexion. So they might like, require that and they say ass to grass and it's not natural to stop at 90 degrees and all that Well, okay. So that's not true.

Speaker 1: 6:32

The reason why they're going a little bit lower again is because, number one, crossfit is a sport. It's not a like I guess you could call it a style lifting, but it's not like. It's a patented. You have to work out this way. It's just a style of working out. Just because CrossFitters might do it, it doesn't make it right and I'm not going to like slam on CrossFit here, but I think most people know that. Listen to me, I'm not a huge fan of it for the everyday person because there are more injuries involved in that. It's fine for the people that want to compete and that are enjoying it, but I'm definitely not going to advocate it as a way for the general population to get stronger. So, just because somebody might advocate that, it doesn't make it right. So the reason why they might do it is for competitive purposes. Any claims that you're actually getting stronger if you go lower simply isn't true. Here is what science says so.

Speaker 1: 7:36

The squat is hip extension, knee extension combined. So we're always talking about the concentric portion when we're talking about joint action. So what that means is that when you're down and you start your way up okay, that's the concentric and your hip is extending at the same time that your knee is extending. As your hip extends, you're using your glute maximus and a little bit of your hamstrings. As your quad extends I'm sorry, as your knee extends, you're using your quad. So that is why, during a squat exercise or any of those various options I said earlier, you're using your glutes and quads, primarily with some hamstring Not as much hamstring as people think, by the way, but there is some hamstring involvement because there is some hamstring involvement in hip extension.

Speaker 1: 8:34

All right, so as we are at the lower portion of the squat, like the lowest portion you can go and for most people, ideally that is going to be around 90 degrees and I'll get to that in a second Then you are going to have more glute maximus involvement down there. As you start going up through the range of motion, it becomes more quad. So the lower you go, you're going to get more glute. The higher you go, you're going to get more quad. Now there's no research that says there's a lot more activation, if any at all, if we're below parallel. That's not true. Now here's what we do know If people go into about 70% of a full squat so in other words 70 degrees a full squat is not ass to grass.

Speaker 1: 9:28

A full squat is 90 degrees. That has always been considered what we call a full squat. It hasn't been until the last decade or so, maybe a little bit longer, that people started talking about going below parallel. That is still something relatively new. It sounds weird to say something within a decade or two is new, but it really kind of is, because in the literature it's always been about 90 degrees and powerlifting competitions have always been 90 degrees degrees and powerlifting competitions have always been 90 degrees. So it's kind of relatively new, and I'm sure that came with the advent of the CrossFits and then other companies that have come along that try to emulate CrossFit or get back into Olympic weightlifting again, which are sports, sports, sports.

Speaker 1: 10:11

What we're trying to do is strengthen those muscle groups and a squat is one of the best ways, if not the best way, to strengthen your lower body for sure. So are we really concerned about a sport. No, we should be concerned about at what angle do we get the most activation? Well, studies show that at about 70 degrees, which is about a three-quarter squat to parallel right, not even parallel You're getting most activation of everything glutes, quads and hamstrings. That doesn't mean you have to stop there. You can go to 90 degrees, if, if, if and everybody that works with me knows I say this all the time If you're able to keep your chest up, keep your knees behind your toes, keep your heels on the ground, then go to 90 degrees.

Speaker 1: 11:04

If you're not, you're being foolish, because a lot of people, when you say, ask the grass, this is what happens. They can do it. Sure, the heel usually lifts a little bit because they're too tight in their gastrocnemius and soleus muscles, so their heel lifts a little and because of that and part of that, the knee ends up going over the toes, meaning it goes forward, it pushes forward. When you do that, you are asking for trouble, you're asking to tear your meniscus, because that's what causes any form of knee injury when we squat. Sure, there's other things that could do it. Yes, yes, yes, but primarily when you hear physicians or physical therapists or orthopedic surgeons, whatever, who any of the good ones know squatting is good for you. So they're not going to say don't squat, god I hope Maybe 30 years ago they would, but now they're hopefully not going to say that. But if they do, or if they did, it's because of the knee going over the toes, which causes stress, friction and shearing on the joint of the knee which could potentially tear the meniscus. If you're keeping your kneecap behind your toes as you squat down, because you're actually bending from the hips and the knees, then you're not causing stress on that meniscus.

Speaker 1: 13:01

So the problem is when most people shoot their butt down and try to get ass to grass, so to say, or lower them parallel, two things normally happen, not with everybody. If you have incredible flexibility or if you're on a machine that allows you to do it because sometimes the Smith machine you can do that, because you can bring your toes out further, so it's less likely to happen. The only issue with that is sometimes people feel strain in their back because now they're arching their back. So, like a lot of times, like trying to fix one thing hurts another. So I don't necessarily advocate that, but there are tools that will allow you to do that.

Speaker 1: 13:37

But most people are going to have their knee way over their toes if they squat below parallel. Some people are going to have their knees over their toes even at 70 degrees because they're so tight in the gastrocs, they're so tight in the soleus and they're so tight in the hip flexors. So that's why they can't do it. If you can't do it, it would be foolish, foolish, foolish. To try to squat lower, because what we're trying to squat for is strengthening of the glutes, the quads and the hamstrings. That's what we're trying to do. We're not trying to do it for any other reasons, unless you are in competition or whatever. But again, if you are powerlifting, competitions only require 90 degrees. And again, in CrossFit, I don't know really the rules on that, but I guess this podcast isn't for you, because they're doing it for sport reasons. I mean, knock yourself out. I mean this is about getting yourself stronger, getting the body stronger.

Speaker 1: 14:39

I can't tell you this. Working with a lot of athletes over the years and working with people that work with elite athletes over the years, I mean I've worked with some pretty elite. But then I know people who have worked with the super elite, like the pros. They're not going to be doing ass to grass squats with their NBA basketball players or NFL football players or major league baseball players. I can promise you that. I mean, can you imagine and I'm just throwing a name out there, I don't know anybody personally that's worked with him but can you imagine like you're the strength and conditioning coach that works with LeBron James and all of a sudden you just get a wild hair and you're like, oh, you know what you need to get lower on your squats. You see him go down with a certain load and he goes below 90 degrees and pops his meniscus. I mean, you really think you would be the most popular strength and conditioning coach on whatever team he plays for now I guess the Lakers you pretty much will be blackballed and probably never work a day in your life in professional sports.

Speaker 1: 15:37

Right, and on a little bit of a side note, I do know people who have worked in professional sports like that and the stress is incredible. I mean, these athletes are treated like gold, they're investments, they're $100 million not a year, but $100 million contracts, and they're like, basically, you better not screw this up, buddy. So, needless to say, when you're looking at the professional athletes making all the big bucks, you're going to have the best training protocols known to man, because nobody wants to be negligent and do something that science doesn't support. If they do, they're idiots. They don't, though. I mean, it just doesn't happen.

Speaker 1: 16:19

Nobody wants to put their job on the line, so they're going to follow the science and do what is absolutely what we know to be best and, like a lot of NBA basketball players do need to squat, because they do need to jump, they need to work on their power, and sure they're doing power stuff, but they're going down to about 70 degrees because they don't need to go on any lower. I mean, if we're talking sports right, I mean sports specificity they don't need to go any lower. I mean, if you watch basketball and you watch a guy go into a jump shot, it's not like he's squatting way down into his jump shot. I mean it's a little bit of a knee bend and jump right. Or if he's rebounding, it's maybe like a quarter of the way down, jump right. So they're going to emulate that motion and perhaps go a little bit lower so they can strengthen that joint, but they damn sure aren't going ass to grass or even 90 degrees. They're squatting just a little bit to bend to get the proper strength.

Speaker 1: 17:13

So that's with the professional athletes. And you might be wondering well, we're not right. But what I want you to think about is think about what the strength conditioning coaches are having them do and realize they're not going to do anything to hurt these people. And I promise you there are no ass to grassers with anybody that has a certified strength conditioning specialist licensure working with these athletes. They're just not going to do it, all right.

Speaker 1: 17:41

So the bottom line is this we should squat roughly between if we can get the 70 degrees, great. If we we can't, we want to continue to work on that, a little bit work at least, to about a half squat, try to get down to there, maybe 90 degrees. As long as you are following the other protocols of making sure that your knee stays behind your toes, your chest stays up and you're leading with your butt, the first thing bending should be pushing your butt back. If you're able to do that, that's really what we want. What will help us get there will be working on the flexibility of our calves, working on the flexibility of our hip flexors, and that'll help us get into what I call a normal squat, all right.

Speaker 1: 18:28

So what are two things that get in the way of that? I mean the obvious. I already said two title muscles is number one, but the other side of it is number one is ego. Because look so Rob says full range of motion. Absolutely, I just told you what full range of motion is 70 to 90 degrees on a squat. I call full range of motion and, yes, I want you there before you start adding load. All right, naturally, it's a heck of a lot easier to squat more weight if we don't go down very far, like if we go down into a half squat, I mean, you know, like 45 degrees or something like that. I mean sure, I mean most people are going to be able to squat, probably double the weight or so that they're able to squat if they go 70 to 90 degrees, of course. So ego gets in the way, able to squat if they go 70 to 90 degrees, of course.

Speaker 1: 19:28

So ego gets in the way. And sometimes it's accidental ego, meaning it's not like you know, you're just being a total, you know, jerk, and all this. It's like your ego takes over. You want to go heavier, you think you can go heavier, and sometimes we fool ourselves. Heck, I'm guilty of it.

Speaker 1: 19:42

I'll be squatting sometimes and I'll think, man, I'm hitting about 90, right, because I can. I can go 90 degrees and keep my knees behind my toes and keep my chest up. I haven't always been able to. I had to work on that because I had some really bad habits when I was younger, before I got educated in the gym, so I had to work at it. Now I can and what I'll do is sometimes I'll, you know, I'll go, okay, I'm hitting about 90, right. And I'll look and I'm like, oh, my goodness, I'm not so like, so consciously sometimes we just aren't paying attention, we don't do it. So I guess that's not ego, that's just not completely being present.

Speaker 1: 20:20

But you know the ego will come in and say, oh, I can go heavier, I can go heavier. And you see somebody at the gym doing it. You might see somebody else doing it and you go, oh, man, I can do their way. You know, I'm just not going to go down as far. Maybe it's on purpose, Maybe it's by accident, but that's ego. And you know we want to get out of that Like we got to be really disciplined when we train and think to ourselves this isn't a competition. I'm not here at the gym to demonstrate strength, I'm here to build strength. I'm only competing with myself, all those good things.

Speaker 1: 20:53

So ego gets in the way. And yeah, it could get in the way even at the gym. I mean even with the personal trainer, meaning even with me, right? I mean you might be like, oh, you know, I want to show them how strong I am, or whatever. I mean you know that's all part of it, of course.

Speaker 1: 21:09

So ego can come in anywhere. We just want to make sure that we're checking ourself at the door and go. That's not why I'm here, because if we're trying to go lower for one thing lower in that form we are more apt to get hurt. And if we're trying to use more load before we're ready for it and we're not going down very far, well, we're never going to develop that joint fully. So we don't want to do that either.

Speaker 1: 21:36

So the first thing is we want to establish that range of motion that works best for us. Establish it for us 70 to 90 degrees, keeping the knees behind the toes and the chest up. That's what we want to establish. Once we do that, then we can start to add load and, yes, then we should go through progressive overload. And finally, the only other thing I can say that might get in the way of that is just not knowing, just ignorance, just seeing other people do it, seeing people brag, I mean God, I see it all the time. I mean, when I check into my social media accounts and see what's going on in the fitness world, I mean most squats I see are well below where they should be and I'm thinking, oh geez, you know, but you know whatever, to each their own. I just want you to understand that you don't need to do that. You can work on a full range of motion without doing that, because we don't want to compromise our meniscus. Right? It's a marathon, not a sprint. You know how much can you squat when you're 75? Not how much can you squat when you're 35? And if you squat appropriately when you're 35, most likely, if everything goes well, you can squat at 75. Like, it's a marathon, not a sprint, how much strength can we build now? All right, so that was a great question.

Speaker 1: 22:52

You know again asked a little bit about, like the, you know the babies being able to go down into a full squat. You know the toddlers how they can go down into a full squat and stay there. Should we be able to do that? I mean you know that toddlers how they can go down into a full squat and stay there. Should we be able to do that? I mean you know that's part of this, but really the answer is no. I mean there's a lot of things that you know we evolve out of. We're not going to have that kind of flexibility again. So you know, no, not just because we once were able to do it, should we be able to do it again. No, but having said that, we can work on our range of motion. There's no reason for us to be getting super tight where we can't get down into 70 and 90 degrees and keep our spine erect and keep our knees behind our toes. We can work on that by stretching our gastrocsoleus and hip flexors. So while I'm talking about it, let's just wrap this up by talking about full range of motion everywhere. So every joint has a full range of motion. That's best. I just told you that the strength experts, all the studies show 70 to 90 degrees on a squat is ideal for building strength. So you know, every joint has a full range of motion If you're using machines, which a lot of people do, they're great.

Speaker 1: 24:13

I mean, most of the machines are set for full range of motion. It's not that different with a chest press. You might be thinking well, chest press, we don't go 90 degrees. I mean technically you do. I mean your femur and humerus are the same in this regard. So when you are doing a chest press, essentially you should be going back until your humerus, your upper arm bone, is about parallel, depending on how you have your hands positioned. Now, sometimes if you're doing a full bench press, you'll notice that it's going down a little bit lower than that. But basically if you're keeping your elbows cocked, like they should be, as you go down, that humerus is going to be about 90 degrees as you're pressing up. So if we're using selectorized machines, most of those machines are set to do full range of motion.

Speaker 1: 25:07

I can't really, in the next two or three minutes, go through every range of motion exercise, but I will tell you this you want to go through the full range of motion of that exercise before you start adding load. It's very, very important. That's part of the mobility we want to have good mobility and, again, what gets in the way of that is ego. A lot of times I'll have to, like, remind clients. You know they'll say, well, I'm not going up on this weight. You know, I want to go up, when can I go up? Or I haven't gone up, you know, however it's worded, and I'll say, well, we really got to work on that range of motion before we go up, like in the case of my gym, sometimes it'll be on the chest press machine. I'll say, oh, go back a little more. Go back a little more, because as somebody gets tired, they start cutting that range of motion to about three quarters of the way back or so. Again, I don't think anybody's purposely cheating, I just think, like we're going to make accommodations so we can get the reps. And that's why a good trainer is going to stay on top of you and go okay, the reps are great, but we need to do the reps correctly, go back fully.

Speaker 1: 26:15

Another one I see it often on is the seated dip machine. As people start to get tired, they stop bending their elbows so much and they might come up into about three quarters of the range of motion. I'll say, oh, bend those elbows, bend those elbows Again. The triceps should be about parallel to the floor, so 90 degrees? All these things are 90 degrees.

Speaker 1: 26:35

Another one I see it on a lot is the bicep curl. The bicep curl typically people don't extend all the way out. They kind of leave an inch or two at the bottom and I'll say, nope, stretch it out, stretch it out. We always want to strengthen our joints through the full range of motion. We don't want to leave any part of that joint weak. So if we're only going through, say, three quarters of the range of motion on a bicep curl, then it's going to be weak at the bottom. That's going to be. The most vulnerable portion is the bottom of the bicep and the tendon connection, and we don't want that. We want to really strengthen our muscles through their full range of motion. All right, because? Why? Because there is a method to the madness we're strengthening the muscles through their full range of motion. What we're doing is we're getting recruitment of every single muscle fiber and we're strengthening the tendon attachments as well, which is what we really, really, really want.

Speaker 1: 27:28

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