Are squats, full squats especially, bad for the ACL?
Some trainers feel that full squats put excessive force on the ACL and can lead to a tear. Tom Incledon, writing in the www.testosterone.net on-line magazine, said : “The (ACL) is put on “slack” when the knee is bent. The ACL is taut when the knee is in a fully extended position. The ACL is one of the strongest ligaments in the body and virtually impossible to tear when the knee is fully bent or without being exposed to some sort of trauma or excessive twisting/rotating movement. Squatting isn’t trauma. Running, planting your foot, and then cutting to the opposite direction is trauma. Getting hit on the outside of your leg and having the leg rotate inward is trauma. Landing from a jump without having any muscular deceleration to break the fall is trauma. And getting hit in the knee with one of those old-time wrecking balls is trauma, but again, squatting isn’t trauma.” I would think that going to a heels-touch-the-butt full squat could be dangerous if the squatter would lose control of
