I practiced with just the barbell and then I had a total epiphany. I discovered that due to my height, I had to conscioulsy push my kness outwards more and I had to point my toes out a little more then 45 degress. I also had my feet just slightly wider then shoulder-width. When I did that, I did not lean forward when I desceneded, even though I am more prone to becuase of my height. My lower back stayed rigid on it’s own and it felt natural. As I exploded back up, I felt my glutes and all the muscles of the lower body fire to bring me back out of the hole, and my back stayed straight with my chest out. Before, I would lean forward a bit and my lower back was doing the work. No good and a recipe for injury.

Becuase we are all different with different anatomical design, getting the proper technique can be a little tricky. Again, as the author said, if you are doing them incorrectly, you will not get the desired benefit and eventually will get injured. I’m glad that I finally discovered the right way to do them because I’m alrerady noticing a difference in my waist line and muscle development. I’ve grown to love squats!

Worth noting — the person who coached me on squats (he has given several presentations on this topic at ACSM conferences) warned me away from deep knee squats and jump squats.

Deep knee squats: “There’s no evidence that doing deeper (“ass to grass”) squats improves the musculature or the legs, or function of that muscle. Second, it causes extra patello-femoral compression, which leaves you at risk for several different types of knee joint injuries. So basically, you’re risking your joints for no additional benefit.”

“Jump squats definitely improve vertical jump, that’s been studied. But those who do jump squats have much higher incidence of spine and knee injuries. (In fact, it was a common problem for studies researching jump squats: many participants had to drop out of the study early because of injury.)”

That’s my two cents, thanks.
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