Squatting Below Parallel

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I was desperate

So it was the bank of Scotland?

I think so

It was a long time ago when I was young. It was just the most convenient place at the time. It was in the middle of the night and out of the way

You just spoiled a good story with the truth.

Sorry

Oh I should have lied and said it was out of some kind of dirty protest against capitalism

I was thinking that we finally had skis for bears as in real bear skis.

It's worth noting that squatting all the way down is partially down to not being fat, and partially down to the flexibility of your ankles and hips. Beyond that, it's mostly a matter of building up the strength through the entire range of motion. It's far better to maintain the flexibility from a young age by doing regular deep squats, but you can typically redevelop it later on, so long as there aren't any injuries involved that prevent it.

I wish I was more flexible me

Sometimes when I'm skateboarding I accidentally do the splits and it feels like I've been torn from a***hole to Christmas

To be honest I don't know what this "parallel" thing is that we're supposed to squat below. Probably because it's not specified what is supposed to be parallel to what. Can anybody explain?

Parallel to the floor. There's folks out there that think that things like squats shouldn't be done any deeper than that. Sometimes folks describe it as keeping your knees bent to less than 90 degrees.

Granted, if you're loading up on a bunch of weights in the gym, then yes, going all the way down until your butt hits your calves is probably asking for trouble, but if you're in reasonable shape and injury free, you should be able to do it with some practice. Although it is definitely easier the shorter you are.

I see. Thanks. I often squat like that if I need to reach the floor with my hands for some practical reason that doesn't involve lifting anything heavy off the floor. I suppose I could bend at the waist instead, and keep my legs straight and perpendicular to the floor, but squatting doesn't seem to harm me.

That's good. I'm glad you're still flexible

Actually I just took a look, and it turns out that I'm not squatting below parallel at all. My left thigh is parallel and sits on my heel, while my right thigh is "above parallel," again sitting on the (right) heel, and the knee touches the floor. It works for me. I don't do it for exercise, I do it to reach stuff. It's stable. I don't much like the idea of exercising, I prefer to get exercise as the by-product of doing something useful. Otherwise it gets boring.

Doing squats is one exercise that helps me loosen up my ankles and hips, and strengthen my knees. I wasn't able to before, but now I can sit my butt on my ankles, and keep my heels flat on the ground.

Yeah I was just thinking that
It feels really good to get that stretch right from your ankles and up your calves