Half Squats Are Great!

I appreciate all the comments whether in agreement or disagreement. In the end what matters most is results and for me it is doing partial squats. Of course I will closely monitor any knee/joint pain or problems as I agree with those who brought up this point that there is a good chance of having those issues.
Challenging conventional thought is important- maybe you will change your mind or maybe it further reinforce your beliefs.

i have seen some absolutely HYOOGE forkers that live of smith machine bench presses, leg presses and leg extensions etc., they are usually very genetically gifted or taking lots of AAS or BOTH. for the average guy who is not enhanced, needs to bear heavy loads on his axial skeleton with Full ROM compound movements IF he wants to get big.

[quote]SkyzykS wrote:
Wouldn’t conventional wisdom be to do full squats at what ever weight you can, and build from there, with half and quarter squats as supplemental or for sticking points?

Not to jump all over you, but blaming leverages is a bit lame. Sounds like the new genetics.

Reason I say this is one of my lifting partners is 6’3" and squats over 500. Has a damned good good morning and one hell of a deadlift to though.
[/quote]

height doesn’t mean shit regarding leverages, without context. it’s about ratios of body parts to other body parts. i know a 6’4" skinny guy who pulls 6 plates and a quarter and it’s largely because his arms are so damn long, they go past his legs.

When we are talking half squats here,

Its still paralell, right?
Not ATG but paralell?

Because there is some motived to only going paralell for sure, you can train more often and lift higher weights which will make your core stronger too…

But those 90% of gym style squats were its more like a “stick your ass out and do a 1/4 good morning” well those may get some results to start. But are far less usefull. Big squats have alot of possitive effects on the body that wont be acheived if only doing 1/2 squats.

[quote]Frank.S wrote:
When we are talking half squats here,

Its still paralell, right?
Not ATG but paralell?
[/quote]

Not really. To my understanding half squats is when you’re halfway to parallel and quarter squats is when you bend your knees and go down just a little bit. Some lifters consider parallel to be the same as full squats. Real full squats are ATG.

Husker, if partial squats are working for you, great. You should be doing more than just look at your legs, though. Use a tape measure around your quads, do what you’ve been doing for a month, then try ATGs for another month and see if there’s a difference. The eyes and mirror can fool you, but tape measures, the camera, and the scale don’t lie. Sorry to sound so trite.