How Deep Should You Squat?

A lot of controversy has come into the fitness world on squat depth. Some people claim you need to squat as deep as you can, some claim you only need to squat to parallel, and others say you should only do partial squats. The truth is, the answer isn’t black and white and it greatly depends on your goals.

In this article, we’ll talk about why you might want squat at different depths, if different squat depths emphasize different muscles, if full depth squats are actually bad for your knees, and how to improve your range of motion.

Do Different Squat Depths Emphasize Different Muscles?

When it comes to this question, there can be some variability depending on one individual’s squat form versus another’s. However, there has been some research to see what the differences are, in general.

Schoenfeld et al. [3] ran a study where they had subjects do either a partial or full depth squat. They looked at the level of activation in a number of different muscles that are pertinent for making a squat happen. Overall, the results were pretty similar except for a few small differences.

They found that the glutes, biceps femoris (hamstrings), and erector spinae (low back) were more active than the quads and calves in a partial squat relative to their activity in a full squat.

There is one thing you should notice about these results. You see, a squat is the combination of two things happening. Your hips extending and your knees extending. Put these together, and you get a squat. The muscles that were more active in a partial squat were the ones that are involved in hip extension and not knee extension. This is likely a result of there being a greater percentage of hip extension at the beginning of a squat than knee extension.

Does this mean that partial squats are better for building your glutes? I wouldn’t say so. I would argue that full depth squats are superior for building glutes than partial squats despite these results. Read the next section to see why.

Squat Depth for Hypertrophy (Muscle Growth)

As previously mentioned, the depth you squat depends entirely on what your goals with the squat are. So, if your goal is purely to build muscle how deep should you squat?

There have been a few studies to look at this. The general consensus is that a full depth squat is more effective for building muscle than partial squats [4,5]. In both of the referenced studies, “full depth” is defined as the subjects’ hips going below their knees; thereby going below parallel.

The authors of the referenced studies believe there are two reasons that full depth squats beat partial squats for hypertrophy. One reason is that the full depth squats tend to produce a greater overall time under tension than the partial squats, which means the subjects’ legs felt more overall resistance. The second reason is that training muscles at more greatly stretched positions tends to yield a better response for building muscle. This is why it is also beneficial to use a full range of motion for movements like curls, bench press, etc.

Squat Depth for Strength

As annoying as it can be to hear, this tends to depend on your goals. Your body will get stronger at whatever you train it to do, which is why we must be specific with our training. Training partial squats will build more strength at partial squats than full depth squats will. In that same breath, full depth squats will make you stronger at full depth squats better than partial squats will.

Now, I don’t see much reason why you might want to get stronger at partial squats only and not at the full range of motion. Whether we are talking in terms of solely getting better at squats or how they transfer to day-to-day life, it makes more sense to me to train the whole range of motion. However, of course, you should train whichever one you prefer more in this instance.

One caveat to this is if you are a powerlifter. As said before, you should be specific with your training. In powerlifting competitions, a squat is considered a complete rep when you hit parallel (the bottom of your hamstrings being parallel with the floor). When competing, you generally don’t want to squat farther than parallel because that little bit of added time under tension could cause you to miss the rep. Because of this, if you are a powerlifter, you should spend your training squatting to parallel to maximize the transfer to competition.

Squat Depth for Performance

When we say performance, we are talking about an athletic endeavor such as a field sport (soccer, basketball, football, etc.).  The same idea of specificity applies here, and is arguably most important here.

Let’s think about a specific event in sports: vertical jump. If you are a basketball player going for a rebound, you likely aren’t going into a full squat before jumping up for the ball. Your vertical jump is almost exactly the same as a partial squat, except you don’t have a barbell on your back when playing basketball. Therefore, if the goal of your squats is to improve your sports performance, partial squats will likely be a better option.

Drinkwater et al. [2] ran a study looking at this. They compared partial and full depth squats with different weights. The relevant finding for us here is that a greater rate of force production was seen in partial squats, which is what you are looking for when improving your vertical jump.

How to Increase Squat Mobility

Whether your goals in your training call for partial squats, parallel squats, or full squats, you should at least be capable of and have the mobility to sit into a deep squat. Improving your squat mobility is what we’ll talk about in this section.

For many people, the reason they can’t get into a full squat is because they lack ankle mobility. If your knees aren’t able to travel far enough over your feet because your ankles aren’t mobile enough, then it will either feel like you are “hitting a wall” on the way down or your back will start to bend more than it should.

Another note about ankle mobility. If you have heard that your knees going past your toes is dangerous, I can assure you right now that this is a myth. There is no good research to suggest that your knees become significantly more at risk once they go past your toes. In fact, they have to go past your toes in a deep squat, otherwise your back can be put greatly at risk- which is much more worrisome scenario. What is true is that your knees should be tracking over your feet as you squat, if they begin to cave in then over time knee pain can occur. Another reason why knee pain may occur when squatting is the amount of weight you are squatting or how often you are squatting [6].

Now, the ankle mobility situation is squat specific. Although, there are more ways to generally increase the range of motion and mobility of muscles and joints. Here are two ways that do just that:

1.     Foam rolling before you train [1]

2.     Following a complete warm routine

3.     Performing pause squats where you pause in the lowest depth you can get

References

1. Effects of 5-Week Foam Rolling Intervention on Range of Motion and Muscle Stiffness

   • PubMed ID: 33044364

2. Effects of Changing from Full Range of Motion to Partial Range of Motion on Squat Kinetics

   • PubMed ID: 22222322

3. Muscle Activation Differs Between Partial and Full Back Squat Exercise With External Load Equated

   • PubMed ID: 28538321

4. Neuromuscular Adaptations Associated with Knee Joint Angle-Specific Force Change

   • PubMed: 24504427

5. Impact of Range of Motion During Ecologically Valid Resistance Training Protocols on Muscle Size, Subcutaneous Fat, and Strength

   • PubMed ID: 23629583

6. Effect of knee position on hip and knee torques during the barbell squat

   • PubMed ID: 14636100