How Deep Should You Squat?
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I’m one who can appreciate the great diversity of squats in the world. High squats, low squats, front squats, back squats—they’re all beautiful. And yet, people on the internet love to argue about which squat is the best. So here’s a little guide to squat depth, and how to find the squat that’s right for you. The short, easy answer is that you probably want to squat "to parallel," and I'll explain what that means, but there are advantages to squatting lower and higher than parallel, depending on your goals in the gym.
What is squat depth, anyway?
When people talk about how "deep" a squat is, they're referring to how low you get your hips. Some strong and flexible people can squat all the way down until their thighs are touching their calves and their butts are nearly on the ground. Sometimes this is called an "ass-to-grass" squat.
If you can only bend your knees partway before the movement falls apart, you might be told that you're squatting "high," or that you aren't squatting "to depth." If the person who says this is a coach, trainer, or a friend whose advice you value, listen to them, and try to squat deeper. (In a minute I'll give you some tips for how to do that.) On the other hand, if that person is some internet rando or a busybody at your local gym, you do not owe them any specific squat depth and they should mind their own business.
Generally, the higher a squat is, the easier it tends to be, meaning you can move more weight. When you're training you'll want some to find a way to be consistent. For example, if you squat 225 pounds to parallel at the beginning of your training program, and 315 as a super-high half-squat by the end, you cannot legitimately say that you added 90 pounds to your squat, as the parallel squat and the high squat are basically two different lifts. Pick a depth, and stick to it.
Most people should squat to parallel
The best squat depth for most people is squatting "to parallel." This means your thighs are parallel with the floor, or to put it another way, your hips and your knees are about on the same level. (If your hips go lower than your knees, you're "below parallel" and if your hips stay above your knees you are "above parallel.")
This is how most people define a full squat, and it's a definition that comes from convenience: It's easy to see when somebody is squatting to parallel, and this makes it easy for a trainer or a competition judge to tell when you're doing a squat. It also keeps things consistent for your training. If you squat to parallel every time, you know you're doing the same difficulty of squat from week to week.
If you compete in powerlifting, you know that judges will look very carefully at your position in the bottom of the squat to know whether you're doing the lift according to the rulebook. Usually the rule is that your hip joint (or the crease of your hip) needs to go lower than the top of your kneecap. Roughly, this corresponds to your thigh being parallel to the floor, and so people will describe this position as “parallel.” Here’s a video showing what this depth means, and how judges see it:
Do not try to judge this in the mirror while you are squatting! Your eyes aren't at the right level to judge it accurately. Instead, video yourself from the side (with the camera at or below hip level), or ask a friend to watch you squat and tell you if you're hitting the right depth. Another way to make sure you're squatting to a consistent depth is to find a bench or box of an appropriate height, and tap your butt on it with each rep.
Benefits of squatting to parallel:
You get more range of motion, thus engaging your muscles better, than if you did a higher squat.
Most people can achieve a parallel squat with training, so even if your mobility isn't great when you first start training, this is an achievable goal.
You may be able to squat more weight this way than if you go lower.
It's easier to keep your feet in a stable position on the floor in a parallel squat than in a lower squat (see the point above about mobility).
You have a consistent basis of comparison from one set to another. (If your squats get higher the more weight you load on the bar, you aren't actually as strong as you think.)
When you might want to squat lower than parallel
What about squatting lower than parallel? First, if you're using "parallel" as your gauge, technically any squat lower than parallel still meets the requirement. If you enter a powerlifting competition and squat until your butt is nearly touching your shoes, that's still a legal squat. There's no such thing as being red-lighted for going too low.
But usually people only squat that low if they have a good reason to do so. Sometimes that reason is personal preference: You may find that your squats are more comfortable (and you may even be able to lift more weight!) if you let your hamstrings kind of bounce off your calves at the bottom of the squat. As long as it's a controlled, precise movement, it's safe and may be effective for you, depending on your body type.
You'll also often see olympic weightlifters squatting very low. That's because they use squats to help train leg strength for lifts like cleans and snatches, and when you do a clean or a snatch you'll usually end up in a low squat position. Essentially, they train the specific positions that their sport demands.
Low squats are also popular among some gym-goers who want to work on mobility at the same time as strength, or who want to make sure they're training their legs through their full range of motion.
An important caveat is that not everybody feels comfortable squatting low. If you don't have good ankle mobility, you may not be able to get into a low squat position while keeping your body balanced and your feet firmly on the ground. This position may also put more strain on your knees than you would like, leading some people with knee injuries to prefer higher squats. (That said, deep squats are not proven to lead to knee injuries, no matter what that busybody at your gym says.)
Benefits of squatting low:
You train a larger range-of-motion for your leg and hip muscles than with a parallel squat.
You may see more muscle growth for your glutes and adductors, according to some research.
You keep your hips and ankles limber.
You will be better prepared for snatches, cleans, pistol squats, and other movements that require mobility in a deep squat position.
When you might want to squat higher than parallel
Allow me to pause while the purists clutch their pearls, faint, and wait to be revived, before I note that it's actually not a terrible idea to purposely squat above parallel. There is a place for this in many people's training! I define high squats as those where your hip joint doesn't even get close to being on the same level as your knee. These are sometimes called "half squats" (because you're only going halfway to parallel) or sometimes even "quarter squats," if you're just bending your knees a bit.
Half/quarter squats can be a legitimate training tool, especially for people who train for sports that involve running and jumping. You rarely find yourself in a full squat position in, say, basketball, so training full squats may not be a high priority in the weight room. On the other hand, training half squats can let you load up even more weight than you would use for a parallel squat, letting you overload the upper end of that range of motion.
High squats are also often done out of necessity. If you don't yet have the mobility for a parallel squat, or if you're working around an injury that prevents you from bending your knees all the way, you may need to choose between squatting high or not squatting at all. In most of those cases, squatting high is the better option of the two. To make sure you have a consistent target for every set of squats, you can use a tall box, placed just behind you, and squat down just until your butt touches the box. (You can also use a shorter box over time if you are working toward lower squats.)
Benefits of squatting high:
Half squats can build strength for running and jumping sports.
Squatting high is better than not squatting at all.
Squatting high may be a stepping stone to getting back to normal depth when dealing with an injury or other issue that prevents you from doing parallel or lower squats.
How to squat deeper
What if you want to squat deeper, but you can't? Most of the time, the issue is ankle mobility. Even though your legs are doing most of the work, and your back is helping to support the weight of the bar, the weak link in your squat is the flexibility of your ankles. Your ankles need to bend pretty deeply to allow you to squat to parallel or lower.
I put together a guide to improving your ankle mobility for squats, but for a quick fix, you can put plates under your heels or wear specialized weightlifting shoes, like these. In addition, make sure to do some calf and ankle stretches before beginning your squats for the day. A few more stretches at the end of the day (or on non-lifting days) can help to get you more ankle mobility over the long term.
You can also work on ankle mobility over time with stretching and foam rolling. Also, try different stance widths and different types of squats (front squats, goblet squats, high bar, low bar) to see if some are more comfortable for you than others.
How to figure out which squat depth is right for you
Okay, so what if you don’t compete in any squat-centric sport, and you can see upsides to each of the depths we discussed above? Here’s squatting’s dirty secret: It doesn’t matter. The squat police won't come to arrest you if your squats are too high (though some of your gym buddies may heckle you about it, because why aren’t you going deeper?).
You can move more weight if you only do a partial squat, and every gym has people who will tell you about their huge squat PRs but then it turns out they weren’t getting anywhere near parallel. If you are cheating your squats so you can brag about your numbers, swallow your ego and squat to parallel already.
Nor will the squat police come for you if you squat extremely low—but once a week or so, a stranger will tell you you’re going to "ruin your knees" squatting like that. You may ignore them. Low squats aren’t inherently bad for your knees, so if you feel fine, you can keep on keepin’ on. (I discuss this myth at length in my guide to squats.)
That said, if you don’t like squatting low, but you do it because somebody told you you “should,” feel free to ditch that advice and squat to the level you prefer. Squatting ass-to-grass does not make you a better person.