The Squat in 2017
BFS has certified teachers and coaches across the country in proper weight room safety and technique for 42 years. And the squat is always the centerpiece of developmental and athletic performance. Discover BFS for your school with a Professional Development Day!
For more than four decades, BFS has promoted the idea that the squat should be a core exercise in any workout to improve athletic performance.
Because the squat was such a controversial exercise at the time BFS opened its doors in 1976, almost every article that appeared in BFS magazine about the squat included a section about how it could help prevent injuries, not cause them, and improve athletic performance. BFS Founder Dr. Greg Shepard and his team of clinicians also took our message on the road, each year giving hundreds of clinics at schools and athletic training facilities promoting the value of squats.
As the popularity of the strength coaching profession grew and interest in weight training increased, research studies were conducted that examined the benefits, and alleged risks, of the squat. Let's look at what these pioneering sports scientists discovered.
One of the major concerns about the squat in the early days of the strength coaching profession was that it could increase laxity in the knee. This concern can be traced to a research study about squats published in 1961 by professor Karl K. Klein and MD Fred L. Allman, Jr. Their study suggested that full squats - not parallel squats - could increase knee laxity thereby increase the risk of knee injury.
It was found in later studies that its results could not be reproduced. Other researchers found the opposite the results of Klein and Allman - those who performed full squats did not have greater knee laxity than other populations. It was also found that weightlifters and powerlifters tended to possess tighter knee joints than control groups and were less susceptible to knee injuries. But the damage had been done, and it took a long time for the athletic and medical community to accept the truth about squats.
READ THE FULL STORY IN THE FREE JUNE ISSUE OF BFS MAGAZINE