Last time I left off with the reason for squatting ‘a.ss to the grass.’

Today I’ll cover squatting to parallel.

In more recent times, ‘squatting to parallel’ was advocated by powerlifters.

I’ve heard a few reasons, but one that seems to be the most accurate is the following.

As you may have noticed, powerlifters tend to be a beefy bread.

They can look a little on the ‘stumpy’ side because of the amount of muscle mass, and oftentimes, flubber on their bones.

Since the 3 main lifts in powerlifting are the Squat, Bench Press, and Deadlift, the circumference of these guy’s limbs can affect the range of motion in the exercise.

This is important because, a guy with thicker legs is usually unable to squat as low as someone with slimmer legs.

It’s not necessarily a flexibility thing, even though I have a heard time seeing a heavyweight powerlifter doing anything acrobatic.

It usually has to do with the amount of mass on the hamstrings, and to a lesser extent, the claves. A lot of muscle in those areas makes it difficult to squat real low because they get in the way. (that actually sounds hilarious, but it’s true.)

So, to make sure everyone is squatting to the same depth, a rule was instituted that required a squat to go low enough so the thighs are parallel to he ground.

This made sure that everyone was judged equally because they’re all technically squatting the same.

But this inst the only reasons some recommend squatting to parallel only.

I’ll share that in the next installment…

Train Smart, Train Hard

Ray Toulany

PS: Squat, Eat and Sleep, and you’ll build more might and muscle than you’ll know what to do with. The sleep part is self explanatory. You’re learning about squats here.

All that’s left is your meal plan…

To learn how to feed your body for success hurry on over here