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and Power Clean chapters illustrate, the shoulder blades are directly above the bar when it leaves the floor in a heavy pull, and they stay there until the bar rises well above the knees. This is true for both the clean and the snatch, with the snatch being done from a position even less similar to the Olympic squat than the clean is. Low-bar squats done with this similar, relatively horizontal back angle train the movement pattern more directly than does the high-bar version, which places the back at a higher angle due to the higher position of the bar on the traps. And they do it through a nice, long range of motion due to the fact that the squat goes to a deeper hip position than the start position of either the snatch or the clean and jerk.

If the back angle is kept constant for both the low-bar squat and the pull from the floor (which it must be, see back angle discussion in the deadlift chapter), they are very similar movements – more similar than a high-bar squat and a pull of any type. If an argument is to be made for squatting with a form specific to the motor pathway requirements of the sport, the low-bar position would be that form. And if an argument is made that the squat need not be similar, the low-bar squat still makes more sense because it can be done with heavier weights.

Squat Depth – Safety and Importance

The full squat is the preferred lower-body exercise for safety as well as for athletic strength. The squat, when performed correctly, not only is the safest leg exercise for the knees, but also produces more stable knees than any other leg exercise does. Correctly is deep, with hips dropping below level with the top of the patellas (see Figure 2-1). Correctly is therefore full range of motion.

Any squat that is not deep is a partial squat, and partial squats stress the knees and the quadriceps without stressing the glutes, the adductors, or the hamstrings. In full squats, the hamstrings, groin muscles, and glutes come under load as the knees are shoved out, the hips are pushed back, and the back assumes the correct angle on the way down for hip drive to occur on the way up. At the very bottom of the squat, the hips are in flexion and the pelvis tilts forward with the torso. In this deep squat position (Figure 2-9), several muscle groups reach a full stretch: the adductors (attached between the medial pelvis and various points on the medial femur), and the glutes and external rotators (attached between the pelvis and the lateral femur). Here, the function of the hamstring muscles (attached to the tibia and to the ischial tuberosity of the pelvis), is primarily isometric, since they don’t necessarily change length on the way down. In the bottom of the squat, the tightened hamstrings, adductors, glutes, and external rotators provide a slight rebound, which will look like a “bounce”; this is the stretch reflex we discussed earlier. The tension of the stretch pulls backwards on the tibia, balancing the force produced by the anterior quadriceps attachment on the tibial tuberosity. The hamstrings finish their job, with help from the quads, adductors, and glutes, by extending the hips.

Figure 2-9. Muscular actions on the knee. In the deep squat position (A), the anterior force provided by the quadriceps is balanced by the posterior force provided by the hamstrings. The depth is the key: partial (high) squats (B) predominantly work the quadriceps and therefore lack balance.

A partial squat done with an upright torso and vertical back angle is typical of most people’s attempts to squat, because we have all been told that the back must be vertical to reduce shear, the sliding forces that occur along a segment in rotation. Shear between the vertebral segments is supposed to somehow disarticulate your spine, despite the fact that this cannot and has not ever occurred. But in a misinformed effort to protect the back, this advice results in a lot of unnecessary stress on the knees. As we’ve already discussed, however, the vertical back angle fails to fully load the hamstrings. Therefore, they