Will full squats damage my knees?

[CC dad]

After years of doing what I now know are half squats (parallel to the floor) Im now trying to learn to do full squats (ass to the floor as D. King says). Everyone in my gym is all over me about it. "Your gonna destroy your knees!" ,or "You can't do as much weight that way thats just dumb!". I'm going light on the weight now just trying to get the form right. That is working pretty good for me since Im doing Iorn Manual (homegrown muscle phase 1) for the third time. I figured I would take advantage of the high reps and low weight that I would be doing anyway to get my form right. Anyway are these people right is this gonna hurt my knees or not? Im not trying to be a powerlifter on anything. I just wanted to try something different. If it's going to hurt me in the long run I'll stop. Thanks guys!

[David.W]

Originally posted by C&C dad:
After years of doing what I now know are half squats (parallel to the floor) ....

Hi C&C dad, as im far from qualified to give any advice, I will add (for my own reassurance) I thought a half squat only drops a little passed 45o where as a squat goes slightly passed parallel, and a full squat is ass to grass. I believe for a beginner (like me), the weight should reduce the deeper you go, and I remember some good threads here about it not being bad for the knees.

[DKing]

One of our resident gurus posted a study a while back that looked at the knee stress on female athletes while squatting to 70, 90, and 110 degrees (I think I am right about the exact degrees but you get the picture, one above parallel, one at, and one below) and it showed that the stress was the same for all three. So take your squats as low as your flexibility will allow.

Danny

[CC dad]

Thanks guys.