When doing squats I’ve read that it is not a good ideal to have your knees go past your feet (keep them parrel) but then I have read that it is ok to have your knees go past. Any thoughts on this would be great, thank you.
The knees should not go past the feet because it places alot of unnecessary sheering stress on the knee joint. You should focus on squatting back and not down and make sure you are breaking at the hip first and not the knee. Also depending on your stance width, if you have a narrow stance have your weight on your heels, not your toes. If you go wide stance try to spread the floor with your feet. Once you develop your hamstrings enough to be able to squat far back, your shins should be practically vertical. You will also be a much stronger squatter.
from a mechanical standpoint, if your shins stay vertical you don’t have to move as far to reach parallel. for example, if your shins are vertical then parallel is when your knee bend is a little past 90 deg.
Yep, yep. Think of it this way. Every inch your shin moves forward, increases the amount of distance your thigh has to travel to break parallel. You are increasing range of motion significantly. Not breaking at the hips first is the number one mistake I see when observing people squatting in the gym. The next is initiating the ascent on their toes. Spreading the floor can go along way in fixing this, regardless of squat stance. If you set up with outward pressure on your feet and force the knees out, you will have a natural tendency to break at the hips first.
depends on your training gaols and why you are squatting
ColJ, please elaborate.
I think this might be a myth.
If you’re do ATG squats, how can your knees more cross the toes?
The only way not to cross is by doing Box Squats.
Correct me if I’m wrong please.
Sorry, the above should read
"If you’re doing ATG squats, how can your knees NOT cross the toes?
ok, so what if you have weak hams and glutes and trying to keep your shins vertical would cause you to fall flat on your ass?? My knees go slightly in front of my shins but it is getting better as my backside gets stronger.
Ren-Squat back onto a box, and you won’t wind up on the floor. Once your posterior chain is strong enough, you can remove the box and you will be able to squat back without any problems.
"Ren-Squat back onto a box, and you won’t wind up on the floor. Once your posterior chain is strong enough, you can remove the box and you will be able to squat back without any problems. "
Why would you want to remove the box?
all a matter of balance and stance width
I doubt anyone can free squat shoulder width stance with shin vertical, unless their back is like a good morning 
yeah, i was thinking bout going box squats, but I’ll wait for CT’s new book to arrive then look at everything I have.
New to the forum Do you break parallel when squatting? I just started to stop right where I feel going a tad bit deeper and my legs have responded well. Are the old days of ‘bottom-feeders’ over?
Goldberg-No real reason, just to check form every now and again. Although it does bring up a question: When you are maxing (not in a meet) do you remove the box to make it as close to competition as possible, or do you continue to use it?
The only time i take a free squat is to test out my gear.
Thanks everyone for your responses. I have another question as well do you guys think it is ok to do squats twice a week. I was thinking light box squats and then a day of front/or back squats. Is this ok? Thank You
We all agree on the not letting the knees shoot out over the toes while squating, but what about lunges?? Mel Siff, Alessi, Thib., all recomend letting the knee go over the toes while doing them. Any thoughts on this??
Having one’s knees travel over one’s toes is fine; it is not detrimental to one’s knees if one has healthy knees. That is another myth spread by people that falls along the lines of squatting is bad for one’s knees and lower back, Romanian deadlifts are bad for your lower back, one needs to do cardio to lose fat, high fat diets are bad for you, etc.
Form depends on what you are trying to accomplish. Powerlifters tend to hold the bar lower on their trap area and squat by breaking at the hips first, pushing their butts back, and keep their shins more vertical because you can use more weight and that is more of a hip/hamstring dominant exercise. They care about how much they can squat. Bodybuilders, or those concerned with targeting their quads more and who are not as concerned with how much they can squat, tend to hold the bar higher on their traps (high bar squat) and tend to either 1) break at the knees first, and then the hips, or 2) break at both simultaneously. With both these high bar squats, the person allows his knees to travel over his toes. These are more of a quad dominant exercise. They tend to target your quads more so than the PLing type squat.
So, if you want to stress quads more, either break at knees first or break at knees and hips simultaneously and allow your knees to travel over toes. If you are concerned less with with targeting your quads and more with wanting to squat heavier loads, break at hips first.
Many strength coaches like Ian King and Charles Poliquin will tell you that the assertion that “it is bad to have one’s knees travel past one’s toes” is a load of bull.
As for split-squats/lunges and the knees traveling over the toes, Poliquin recommends that, “The knee should be traveling forward and over your toes throughout the descent.” King recommends keeping shin more vertical, but “not because I support some bogus story about how the knee shouldn’t go past the vertical line of the toes, but rather because I find this to be a superior position for loading the appropriate musculature.” I think he is trying to target more of the hams with that form of lunge.
Look at the pic taken off this website showing the form for split-squats/lunges. This form will stress the quads more so than if one did not go all the way forward ham-to-calf (not going all the way forward is the form for that 90 degree angle lunge where one does not let his knee go past his toes). You obviously use less weight too with this form, but it kills your quads. And the knees do indeed travel over the toes.
Here is a pic from this website for the bottom of a high bar squat where the form is hams to calves. It also shows the knees traveling past the toes.