Quote:
Originally Posted by blankall
A lunge is going to be much harder on the knees, since there are various points in the lunge when the weight is not evenly distributed across both legs. A proper squat where the knees are pushed outwards and follow the toes shouldn't be too hard on the knees. The problem becomes when people treat a squat like a leg press. If you initate the squat (either up or down) with the legs and not the hips, there is going to be a natural tendency to draw the knees inwards, which puts huge pressure on them.
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The squat tends to expose hip, glute, hamstring and ankle mobility issues, which a lot of people develop from sitting at a desk day after day.
If someone takes the time to develop proper range of motion, which can often be done by just squatting, the squat is a much better exercise in my opinion than the deadlift. The deadlift takes a lot of coaching in my mind to do it properly.
Strangely enough, I have a problem with my right foot pushing outwards when I squat. It is pretty funny to watch. Squat on a smooth surface, and like clockwork my right foot moves outwards. This has to do with years upon years of hip extension issues, and only recently have I actually begun making an effort to fix it.
MobilityWOD is a fabulous resource to help people fix their mobility issues.