King Joes Barbell Club

The squat is, perhaps, the single best exercise for leg strength and development. Squatting significantly strengthens the muscles responsible for knee and hip extension: quadriceps, hamstrings, and glutes, as well as the smaller stabilizing muscles such as the torso musculature. The squatting motion and position is also the foundation for many other exercises, such as deadlifts, Olympic lifts, and even every day lifting tasks.If you could only do one weight training exercise to promote muscle strength, tone, power, and core strength it would be hard not to choose the full squat exercise.The squat is a lower body exercise used in strength training. It is also a competitive lift in powerlifting and an essential movement in the sport of weightlifting. The exercise's main emphasis is on the quadriceps and the glutes, but it also involves the hamstrings, the calves, and the lower back. The squat is often called "the king of exercises" by those who believe it capable of inducing more and faster muscle growth than any other exercise.

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The deep knee bend had become the squat, partly because of concerns that the knees could be seriously damaged. Originally, the lifter did an actual deep knee bend, until the buttocks nearly touched the floor. There were often repetitions involved. For example, in 1939 Harry Fields set an unofficial world record by doing 15 deep knee bends with 400 pounds of weight.

Again, a rack came into use to hold the weight at a suitable level. For competition, the rules were changed to require only that the lifter lower the body until the top surface of the legs, at the hip joint, is lower than the top of the knees. With those changes, the deep knee bend had become the squat.

The US Army actually banned it
Scientific support for the notion that squatting is harmful to the knees dates back to studies carried out in the 1950s and 1960s. This research basically suggested that the squat exercise, even when properly done, stretched knee ligaments in both medial-lateral and posterior-anterior directions, leading to increased instability in the knees. Because of these investigations, some branches of the military in the USA actually discontinued the use of squatting in their training programmes

   Just as calluses build up on the hands with the application of stress, ligaments, tendons, and other connective tissues thicken in response to the stressed imposed upon the joints during weight training. Also, strengthening the muscles that move the knee joint improves its stability, and there's some evidence that even the portion of the bone into which the tendons insert becomes stronger, further improving the joint's integrity. While proper stress produces adaptation, overly stressful exercise can cause breakdown of bodily tissue.

The NSCA state:

"Squats, when performed correctly and with appropriate supervision, are not only safe, but may be a significant deterrent to knee injuries."

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