I’m sure you’ve heard of the claim that you shouldn’t push your knees over your toes when doing a squat movement, otherwise you’ll put too much stress on your knees, which in turn is said to cause wear and tear and pain.
But does this statement make any sense at all from a scientific and biomechanical point of view?
In principle, it is true that the torque or load in the knee joints increases as they are moved further forward. The question to ask yourself though is, “So what!?”
A general assertion that the knees should not be brought in front of the toes during squat is unacceptable from a biomechanical perspective. Blanket statements about whether one of the exercise variants is good or bad are nonsensical. Context, as always, is very important here.
If you keep the knees further back, this must be compensated for with the help of the hip joints and the spine. The result of this is higher torques in the other joint systems. And a higher torque is rather accompanied by a higher training effect due to the higher demand on the muscles. The question of which variant is now better can be answered with one’s own goal.
Stay away from blanket statements like:
“That’s always bad!” or “You should never do that exercise!”
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