Conflicting info on squats, presses, & dips

Expert Discussion Strength Training
1

Conflicting info on squats, presses, & dips

http://www.multisporthealthcenter.com/page12.html

I have a few questions:

  1. Some advocate full squats because it’s a full range of motion, etc. and some are saying only go to parallel because more depth will damage the patella and cartilage. Who’s right? Why should I go full? Why should I not? I just want this to be resolved because I keep hearing one sided arguments.

  2. In the above mentioned article, he recommends only doing presses with dumbbells and the eccentric motion only being until your shoulder is perpendicular. Do you have a reason to disagree with this? I do standing overhead presses down to my chin and dumbbell bench presses down to my chest. Should I change that?

  3. Are dips really dangerous? Only dangerous when you go all the way down? Or safe if you go to perpendicular?

My shoulders crack ALOT, but I have no pain. When I saw a doctor for my knees he said I have “loose joints” and recommended incline presses over military presses. He said I could not do anything to fix my shoulder integrity. I find that hard to believe since he also told me to do leg extensions over squats. Shows how much he knows.

It just seems weird to me that people are saying all these exercises are dangerous. Gymnasts do tons of dips and olympic lifters do tons of overhead presses and full squats. How are their joints?

It just scares me that my joints used to crack a little and now crack alot more. I cna definitely see how dips did this. I was going past parallel on those, so I think I’ll stop going so deep, but I really like that exercise and don’t want to stop.

My knees used to grind alot. They’ve stopped doing that, but now sometimes they feel tight and I have to squat down so the joints pop. They pop pretty loud sometimes.

I’m lifting for general strength, size, and explosiveness as well as basketball. So, I’m not just concerned about looks, I want to make sure my body is healthy. Hopefully some of you all can help.

At the end of the article, it says you can get away with the exercises if you have a proper rotator cuff program. Any suggestions?

2

The only thing I have to say is regarding squats and that’s that my knees are kind of bad now b/c my football coaches, when I played, used to make us max out every 4 weeks and we’d have to go past parallel to make sure we even went parallel, plus we did A LOT of leg extensions (2x’s a week…heavy) and that’s why my knees are bad, but since I quit maxing out going past parallel and since I’ve been squatting deep regularly, I’ve noticed my knees aren’t SO bad, but they’ll probably never be the same. I think it’s a personal preference issue.

Oh, and as for using dumbbells over straight bars and only going perpendicular, I think that’s a crock since you aren’t getting any ROM. How the hell is that supposed to work?

3

This is complete crock! This guy says, (i quote), “Dumbbells should be used for all chest-pressing movements lowering the weight until the upper and lower arm are perpendicular to one another.” Now correct me if I’m wrong, but doesn’t this happen when perfroming bench press with a straight bar??

As far as squatting goes, i’d be more worried about my back than my knees. If you perform squats properly the pressure on the knees is somewhat minimal-unless you don’t even get to parallel! I completely agree with 400 stud on this one. Also if you want more info check out this link:

http://www.charliefrancis.com/community/showthread.php?t=3469

4

I noticed one of the bones, I think my breastplate, cracking when doing weighted dips, that’s why I don’t do them anymore.

5

I agree with 3,4,5 7 and 8

dips are a safe excercise. Just dont go below upper arms horizontal

6

It seems only natural that most doctors have their experience from rehab rather than developing athletes, and that is why they remain so cautious about certain exercises.