ajdos
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- Sep 8, 2010
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Mark Rippetoe once said "Yes, if you squat wrong it fucks things up. If you squat correctly, those same fucked-up things will unfuck themselves.".
I can't recall the name of the study right now, but there was one done on squatting in terms of knee placement and the stress that derived from it. When knee movement was restricted from going past the toes the stress was placed on the hips and lower back and away from the knee, as it should be. Most knee problems you will see from squatting occur from improper form.
Yes, if your knees travel out in front of your toes there is a lot more stress on them, alot of this has to do with individual biomechanics and ankle flexion/flexibility.
If you can squat with a narrow stance and keep your heels down without your center of gravity pulling you forward you will most likely never have bad knee problems from squatting, this was a characteristic that the Soviets looked for early on with their youth trainees for powerlifting/olympic lifting...besides their anabolic usage they had some of the best olympic lifters in olympic history for this reason.
If you are like me, and have shitty flexion and your knees travel over your toes during a squat at narrow stance, then you can counter this by widening your stance AS you go up in weight. Alot of leg days I do this and then drop down to 315 for reps with a narrow stance that is slightly below parallel and another set at 225 for the same. The narrow stance as hard as it is on knees for some is also one of the best for hitting the lateral aspect of the quads.