September 2024

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I’m one who can appreciate the great diversity of squats in the world. High squats, low squats, front squats, back squats—they’re all beautiful. And yet, people on the internet love to argue about which squat is the best.

So here’s a little guide to squat depth, and how to find the squat that’s right for you. The short, easy answer is that you probably want to squat “to parallel,” and I’ll explain what that means, but there are advantages to squatting lower and higher than parallel, depending on your goals in the gym.

What is squat depth, anyway?

When people talk about how “deep” a squat is, they’re referring to how low you get your hips. Some strong and flexible people can squat all the way down until their thighs are touching their calves and their butts are nearly on the ground. Sometimes this is called an “ass-to-grass” squat.

If you can only bend your knees partway before the movement falls apart, you might be told that you’re squatting “high,” or that you aren’t squatting “to depth.” If the person who says this is a coach, trainer, or a friend whose advice you value, listen to them, and try to squat deeper. (In a minute I’ll give you some tips for how to do that.) On the other hand, if that person is some internet rando or a busybody at your local gym, you do not owe them any specific squat depth and they should mind their own business.

Generally, the higher a squat is, the easier it tends to be, meaning you can move more weight. When you’re training you’ll want some to find a way to be consistent. For example, if you squat 225 pounds to parallel at the beginning of your training program, and 315 as a super-high half-squat by the end, you cannot legitimately say that you added 90 pounds to your squat, as the parallel squat and the high squat are basically two different lifts. Pick a depth, and stick to it.

Most people should squat to parallel

The most common way to judge a squat, even when you are by yourself in the gym, is by powerlifting standards—not because anybody expects you to compete in powerlifting (although you can if you want to!), but because it’s relatively easy to know when somebody hits that depth, and that’s as good a standard as any.

Powerlifters compete in the squat, bench press, and deadlift, and when they squat, a literal judge (three of them, actually) decides whether the squat passes muster. You can look up the rulebook for the federation you compete in and see exactly how they define legal squat depth. Usually the rule is that your hip joint (or the crease of your hip) needs to go lower than the top of your kneecap. Roughly, this corresponds to your thigh being parallel to the floor, and so people will describe this position as “parallel.” Here’s a video showing what this depth means, and how judges see it:

Do not try to judge this in the mirror while you are squatting! Your eyes aren’t at the right level to judge it accurately. Instead, video yourself from the side (with the camera at or below hip level), or ask a friend to watch you squat and tell you if you’re hitting the right depth.

Benefits of squatting to parallel:

You get more range of motion, thus engaging your muscles better, than if you did a higher squat
Most people can achieve a parallel squat with training, so even if your mobility isn’t great when you first start training, this is an achievable goal.
You may be able to squat more weight this way than if you go lower
It’s easier to keep your heels in a stable position on the floor in a parallel squat than in a lower squat (see the point above about mobility)
You have a consistent basis of comparison from one set to another. (If your squats get higher the more weight you load on the bar, you aren’t actually as strong as you think.)

When you might want to squat “ass-to-grass”

What about squatting lower than parallel? First, if you’re using “parallel” as your gauge, technically any squat lower than parallel still meets the requirement. If you enter a powerlifting competition and squat until your butt is nearly touching your shoes, that’s still a legal squat. There’s no such thing as being red-lighted for going too low.

But usually people only squat that low if they have a good reason to do so. Sometimes that reason is personal preference: You may find that your squats are more comfortable (and you may even be able to lift more weight!) if you let your hamstrings kind of bounce off your calves at the bottom of the squat. As long as it’s a controlled, precise movement, it’s safe and may be effective for you, depending on your body type.

You’ll also often see olympic weightlifters squatting very low. That’s because they use squats to help train leg strength for lifts like cleans and snatches, and when you do a clean or a snatch you’ll usually end up in a low squat position. Essentially, they train the specific positions that their sport demands.

Low squats are also popular among some gym-goers who want to work on mobility at the same time as strength, or who want to make sure they’re training their legs through their full range of motion.

An important caveat is that not everybody feels comfortable squatting low. If you don’t have good ankle mobility, you may not be able to get into a low squat position while keeping your body balanced and your feet firmly on the ground. This position may also put more strain on your knees than you would like, leading some people with knee injuries to prefer higher squats. (That said, deep squats are not proven to lead to knee injuries, no matter what that busybody at your gym says.)

Benefits of squatting low:

You train a larger range-of-motion for your leg and hip muscles than with a parallel squat.
You may see more muscle growth for your glutes and adductors, according to some research.
You keep your hips and ankles limber.
You will be better prepared for snatches, cleans, pistol squats, and other movements that require mobility in a deep squat position.

When you might want to squat high

Allow me to pause while the purists clutch their pearls, faint, and wait to be revived, before I note that it’s actually not a terrible idea to purposely squat above parallel. There is a place for this in many people’s training!

I define high squats as those where your hip joint doesn’t even get close to being on the same level as your knee. These are sometimes called “half squats” (because you’re only going halfway to parallel) or sometimes even “quarter squats,” if you’re just bending your knees a bit.

Half/quarter squats can be a legitimate training tool, especially for people who train for sports that involve running and jumping. You rarely find yourself in a full squat position in, say, basketball, so training full squats may not be a high priority in the weight room. On the other hand, training half squats can let you load up even more weight than you would use for a parallel squat, letting you overload the upper end of that range of motion.

High squats are also often done out of necessity. If you don’t yet have the mobility for a parallel squat, your choices are squatting high or not squatting at all. In most of those cases, squatting high is the better option of the two. To make sure you have a consistent target for every set of squats, you can use a box, placed just behind you, and squat down just until your butt touches the box. (You can also use a shorter box over time if you are working toward lower squats.)

Benefits of squatting high:

Half squats can build strength for running and jumping sports
Squatting high is better than not squatting at all
Squatting high may be a stepping stone to getting back to normal depth when dealing with an injury or other issue that prevents you from doing parallel or lower squats

How to squat deeper

What if you want to squat deeper, but you can’t? Most of the time, your issue is ankle mobility. Even though your legs are doing most of the work, and your back is helping to support the weight of the bar, the weak link in your squat is the flexibility of your ankles. Your ankles need to bend pretty deeply to allow you to squat to parallel or lower.

I put together a guide improving your ankle mobility for squats, but for a quick fix, you can put plates under your heels or wear specialized weightlifting shoes, like these. In addition, make sure to do some calf and ankle stretches before beginning your squats for the day. A few more stretches at the end of the day (or on non-lifting days) can help to get you more ankle mobility over the long term.

You can also work on ankle mobility over time by stretching and foam rolling. Also, try different stance widths and different types of squats (front squats, goblet squats, high bar, low bar) to see if some are more comfortable for you than others.

How to figure out which squat depth is right for you

Okay, so what if you don’t compete in any squat-centric sport, and you can see upsides to each of the depths we discussed above? Here’s squatting’s dirty secret: It doesn’t matter. The squat police won’t come to arrest you if your squats are too high (though some of your gym buddies may heckle you about it, because why aren’t you going deeper?).

You can move more weight if you only do a partial squat, and every gym has people who will tell you about their huge squat PRs but then it turns out they weren’t getting anywhere near parallel. If you are cheating your squats so you can brag about your numbers, swallow your ego and squat to parallel already.

Nor will the squat police come for you if you squat extremely low—but once a week or so, a stranger ˆtell you you’re going to ruin your knees squatting like that. You may ignore them. Low squats aren’t inherently bad for your knees, so if you feel fine, you can keep on keepin’ on. (I discuss this myth at length in my guide to squats.)

That said, if you don’t like squatting low, but you do it because somebody told you you “should,” feel free to ditch that advice and squat to the level you prefer. Squatting ass-to-grass does not make you a better person.

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It’s officially National Voter Registration Day. Even though November’s presidential election still feels like it’s an eternity away, it’s never it’s never too early to come up with a voting plan—especially in light of news like Ohio removing 155,000 inactive and out-of-date voter registrations from the rolls.

In other words, now is the time to check your own voter registration status. Even if you think you’re registered, check. Check early, and check often. Here’s how to do it.

Why you should check your registration information

Before you request an absentee ballot or look up the address of your polling place, your first step is to take a minute to make sure that you’re actually registered to vote. States try to keep their voter registration lists as accurate as possible. This means removing registrations of voters who are no longer residents, or marking some registrations as inactive.

You may be marked inactive if you:

Do not respond to election officials’ postcards or letters and
Have not voted in the last two federal general elections (a midterm and a presidential election)

If your registration is inactive, you may have to take extra steps before you can vote. If you do not, you may have to cast a provisional ballot.

Checking and updating (as needed) your registration ahead of time ensures:

Your name, address, and party affiliation are up-to-date.
You have time to make any necessary changes if your registration is marked inactive.
You can vote.
You know your correct polling place.

The easiest way to check if you’re registered to vote

Credit: Meredith Dietz

While there are plenty of sites that’ll offer to check if you’re registered, many of them are run by political organizations and will also snatch up your email address in the process and begin sending you those dreaded political spam emails. To skip that headache, it’s best to go to the source: either your state’s official web site, or vote.gov.

The easiest way to get to your state’s official page is to search “Am I registered to vote” on Google. Using your location data, Google will displays a direct link to your state-specific voter registration site. If you’re not in your home state, search for “Am I registered to vote in [state]” instead. Once you’re on your state’s site, type in your name, address and any other information required (you may need to have your driver’s license or ID handy) in order to double-check your registration status, party affiliations, and ballot preferences.

What happens next

If you find that you’re already on the registry and listed as an active voter, you’re all set to vote. But if you haven’t voted in four or more years, your voting status may be listed as “inactive.” If this happens, take a look at your state’s election office website to find out how to reactivate your voting status (the process differs from state-to-state).

Remember: Registration requirements and deadlines vary by state. You can find that information through the U.S. Vote Foundation or your state or territory’s election office. Check early and regularly, especially before such a major election.

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You may still be paying off your credit card bill from July’s Prime Day, but Amazon is not done with you yet—an October Prime Day-style sale is around the corner. Here is everything you need to know about the shopping event right before the Black Friday madness.

What is Prime Big Deal Days?

Prime Big Deal Days is the fall version of Prime Day. It’s a two-day sale with deals on virtually every category you can think of. While Prime Day is the biggest sale of the two, Prime Big Deal Days has grown since its first iteration back in 2022.

When is Prime Big Deal Days?

Amazon announced that Prime Big Deals Days 2024 will run for 48 hours from Oct. 8 through Oct. 9. This will be the third October Prime Day Amazon will be launching.

Do you need to be a Prime Member to shop for Prime Big Deal Days?

You will need to be a Prime Member to shop Amazon’s Prime Big Deal Days. Prime membership starts at $14.99 per month. You can see if getting a yearly Prime membership is worth it for you or not, but remember you can always cancel your Prime membership once the sale is over. Keep in mind that Amazon offers free 30-day trials, so you can shop all two days of the event and still get some early Black Friday deals if you time it right. You can see how to sign up for a Prime account here.

What can you expect for Prime Big Deal Days?

Prime Day happens in the summer, and you’re more likely to see deals on outdoorsy stuff, like gardening equipment, grills, and hot tubs, outside of its usual tech and Amazon device deals. Since Prime Big Deal Days happens in the fall, you can expect more deals on gaming and indoor gym equipment. Amazon has already announced some categories that will be on sale, including: electronics, fashion, home, kitchen, toys, and Amazon Devices.

Early Prime Big Deal Days deals are already live

As is usually the case, Amazon kicks off their sales with some early deals that lead up to the main event. Right now, you can find up to 55% on select Amazon devices, including Ring cameras, Echo smart speakers, Echo Shows, Fire TVs, Fire Tablets, and more. You can also see all of the early Prime Big Deal Days deals here.

Does the competition also offer sales?

You can also expect major retailers to have their own competitive sales, the big ones being Best Buy, Target, and Walmart. Target already announced their sale, Target Circle Week, which will take place from Oct. 6 through Oct. 12.

Some tips for Prime Big Deal Days

If this will be your first October Prime Day, there are some basic things you need to know about Amazon sales; you can share your Prime membership with family members even if they don’t live with you; you can set price alerts for products you want and your Alexa devices can notify you when they go on sale; there are usually some “Invite-Only” deals that you can sign up for; there are tools you can use to see if the deal you’re looking at is good or not. But if you only take one bit of advice for shopping on Prime Big Deal Days, let it be this one: Don’t buy anything you weren’t going to buy anyway. A good way to make sure you do this is by making a list of the products you do want, and only having eyes for those.

When you have a big mess in your home, you may already use the pile method to fix it: You drag the mess out to the center of the room, then start dismantling it bit by bit. But what about when the mess is contained—as it technically should be—in containers, drawers, closets, and other hidden spots? Using containers to, well, contain your possessions is the best way to stay organized, but that doesn’t mean you can’t or won’t end up with a disaster inside of them. In fact, when everything you own is stashed away, it can be hard to register that it even is a mess, since it all looks so presentable from the outside. Duplicate items and messy container interiors are a scourge, but you can use a modified version of that pile technique to fix it all.

The “out in the open” technique

What you’re going to do in this case is something called the “out in the open” rule. It comes courtesy of decluttering gurus The Minimalists, who also came up with the popular “packing party” technique. When you do a packing party, you box up everything you own, then spend three weeks living like you just moved into your home, unpacking only what you need. After three weeks, you’re left with boxes of stuff you didn’t need access to for 21 days, which likely means you don’t really need most of it at all. The Minimalists call “out in the open” the “reverse” packing party because instead of boxing everything up, you’re unboxing it and making a big pile of stuff to kick off your decluttering.

Essentially, you pull everything out of where it’s stored. Closets, boxes, containers, baskets, drawers, cupboards—it’s all fair game. Once everything is out in the open, you’re forced to deal with it instead of continuing to ignore it, like you do when it’s out of sight. This means you’ll end up throwing or donating some and reorganizing the rest.

How to actually use the “out in the open” technique

This is a pretty labor-intensive approach to decluttering—it won’t be one of those things you can do in a few minutes. You are, after all, committing to making a giant mess before you even start cleaning. This technique also stands contrary to most of my typical advice because with this, you should try to do larger swaths of your home at once. Usually, I suggest decluttering and cleaning smaller areas, but here, you’re going to want to do multiple containers, closets, and storage areas at once.

The reason is that one thing you want to do is look for duplicates of items. If you’re following the Organizational Triangle (and you should be), you should be storing similar items together in the same place, but that’s the kind of rule that’s easy in theory and harder in practice. Are all the scissors in your home in the same drawer? What about all your lip balms? Your tech chargers? Pulling them from different sources and storage locations, getting them all together in the pile, you’ll see how many duplicates you have. The pile itself also serves the larger purpose of simply making it visually clear how much volume you have. Seeing the excess stacked up can counteract the hesitancy you may feel to get rid of things “just in case” you need them in the future, might miss them, or think they have a sentimental value. If you struggle with throwing or donating things because of feelings like that, this mess could be the answer.

Once you have everything emptied out into a big pile, use a technique like the 20/20 method to quickly weed through it all. Ask yourself two questions: If I needed this item in the future, could I replace it for under $20? Could I replace it in under 20 minutes? If the answers are yes, get rid of the item. If you have duplicates, get rid of all but one. Once the pile is pared down, place whatever remains back into the storage boxes and areas it all came from, taking care to store similar items together so you know where they are when you need them.

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How Deep Should You Squat?