I'd still recommend learning to squat under load. I'm fine under my own body weight. Put a bar on my back and problems show themselves again.
Squats are great for building leg strength but have a high risk of back & knee injury under heavy loads if done incorrectly. Even if you do them correctly, a heavy load might force you to lean forward which can damage your back. There are much safer lifts for those of us who aren't experts, such as hex bar squats.
Leaning forward damages your back? Then why are you suggesting deadlifts?
Squats are not hard to do correctly. Risk of injury is probably not higher than deadlifts. And squats work more than just legs. They do work the legs hard, but they also work the back. Front squats will also work the upper back quite a bit.
I agree, front squats are great! But I personally feel squats do minimal to back muscles.
The amount of work the lower back does is directly related to how far forward the body leans (at the hips; I'm assuming we're not discussing bent-back lifts). The lower back does a lot of work in a deadlift to counteract the torque the weight creates via the upper body lean. In a low-back back squat, the amount of work the lower body does is reduced somewhat because the lean and therefore the torque reduced. It's reduced even further in a high-bar squat, and in a front squat the back muscles are mostly doing isometric work in conjuction with the abs to keep your spine from collapsing.
Even if your squat form is bad and you're leaning excessively, you're probably not putting more stress on your back than in a deadlift. Unless maybe you're dive-bombing your squats and letting your lower back round a ton at the bottom.
Of course as anything in fitness it's always up for debate.
[1]https://startingstrength.com/article/squat-mechanics-a-clari...
That is, rather than lifting the bar using the legs, lifting the bar by bending back. Of course, Rippletoe would never recommend doing this, and while leaning forward doesn't guarantee improper form, it can sure make it easier.
Leaning forward is okay while doing squats. A heavy weight causing you to lean forward out of your position is bad.
E.g.: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NvOuty_Fnc
Edit: Shrimp squats are an exception, I suppose.
Well, yes and no. In unnatural movements like the hip belt “squat” where you have no range of motion and have almost created an isolation movement, sure. In more natural movements like a lunge or squat, where the muscles must work together and you use reasonable range of motion, not necessarily true. It’s more commonly the legs that fail in a squat.
You do realize that the glutes and hamstrings are part of the legs, right? They execute the hip hinge that makes bending at the hips possible. When you take the back out of a squat, you largely remove these as well.
> Also there is only a limited amount of repeated compression that the vertebral discs can handle.
This is a definite “citation needed” sort of claim. The spine produces synovial fluid and heals like the rest of the joints.
Obviously there are limits to how much it can heal, but that applies to every joint and consistently studies indicate better joint health among strength training individuals. A few dozen squats a week is definitely not the maximum the spine can handle.
Back squats and front squats are good because they involve the posterior chain.
Often all of that has to work together. A squat with a small load will show you where you are deficient and will help you improve as you learn to squat properly.
> At best, we might undertake ［squatting］ during Crossfit, pilates or while lifting at the gym, but only partially and often with weights (a repetitive maneuver that’s hard to imagine being useful 2.5 million years ago)
I kind of go along with that. Squatting with a bar on your back is a weird maneuver.
Wouldn't our ancestors carry far less, maybe max 90kg, then people do today? It doesnt make sense to brutally punish your joints with much more than that for part of that action and completely ignore the other part of it.