sorry, just gotta say this. saw your comments on full squats on how it will give unnecessary stress on your knees. your knees will be fine going full squat if you maintain correct form. youre working the full range of motion when you full squat. youll work you glutes, hip flexors into more rotation. if your hips are not flexible you should try to fix that before full squats, at least by lighting up your weight. but, full squats, past the rumors and non-educated guesses, safe with correct form.
It's my experience that it is far safer doing regular ("half") squats than doing full ones. That isn't to say that I have done full squats, just that I've done regular squats and messed up the form. And anyone with half a brain can tell that if you mess up doing the easier version of a thing, then you really should not do the more complicated version of that thing.
And I don't just mean this for me. I happen to know through professional experience that most people don't comply well to "complicated" instructions. You tell them that the turkey and bacon sandwich has bacon on it, and they come back saying they didn't know their sandwich came with bacon on it. Another person will ask for a "turkey BLT"--when the menu lists those two sandwiches on different rows for a reason--and will laugh in your face when you tell them the bacon, lettuce, tomato sandwich is not the same as that turkey and bacon one.
You tell a regular person how to perform full squats, and they will fall on their ass cursing your name 'cause you "didn't tell [them] how to do squats properly." Or better yet, you'll say "If your hips are not flexible, you should try to fix that before doing full squats," but not say how to do that, and they'll blame you even if they didn't so much as try to correct their problem.
There is a reason CD racks say "WARNING: DO NOT CLIMB" and why coffee cups say "WARNING: THE HOT COFFEE YOU JUST BOUGHT IS ACTUALLY HOT."
All that I am trying to say to you is simple: It's very easy to mess up one's form while doing the simpler "half" squats, so most people should not try their hands at performing full ones.
And yes, a few days ago, I hurt myself doing squats. I didn't do them properly, and I am learning from my mistake, which is the most important thing when making mistakes. I'm just glad I didn't seriously injure myself; that would suck ass.
And I just want you to know that my knees would not be fine with correct form thank you very much, since my knees crap out on me skipping two steps at a time on most flights of stairs. But you wouldn't know that, because you thought everyone's knees were like yours? But yeah, I can't skip steps with or without momentum on my side. I know all too well how it would feel if I were to perform a full squat, as I know how much it hurts when my knees fail while lifting something "heavy," like a ten pound book bag.
Regardless of all this, contrary though it may seem, I thank you for your input, and hope that someone with better knees than mine will come across this question-slash-answer and not fuck themselves over while performing a full squat.