Back Squat

Move · Resistance Training · Movement, Typed Supps

How deep you sit decides how much of the lift your hips take and how much your knees take.

Stage by stage

Set-up (Bracing and bar position): Intra-abdominal pressure stiffens the trunk, and where the bar sits sets how far you lean and how much the hips take.
During the set (Sticking point above parallel): The hardest instant is usually just above parallel, where hip and knee leverage are poor at once.
Immediately after (Systemic fatigue): So much muscle is loaded at once that breathing and general fatigue often end the session before the quadriceps do.
Weeks later (Neural gain and bone loading): Strength climbs first through recruitment and coordination, while axial loading gives hip and spine a strong bone stimulus.

Muscles trained

Primary: quads
Secondary: abs, adductors, glutes, hamstrings, lower back

Intensity

5 METs (Resistance (weight) training, squats , slow or explosive effort).

Time to effect

Weeks: The bar starts to feel more stable and the same weight moves faster within the first few weeks — that's your nervous system learning to brace and coordinate the lift, not new muscle yet.
Months: Genuine strength gains on the bar and, with consistent training, visible growth through the quads and glutes, typically build over 2 to 3 months.

Related supplements

Creatine Monohydrate

Common myth

"Squats are bad for your knees." In reality: Research comparing people who squat regularly, including deep squats, against those who don't consistently finds no elevated knee injury rate, and properly loaded squatting may strengthen the tendons and cartilage around the joint rather than wear it down. Knee pain usually traces to poor bar path or a rapid jump in load, not the movement itself.

In the glossary

Evidence grade