squats and alignment of knees

Question

Quoting wikipedia.org's article on Squats:

Another error where health of the knee joint is concerned is when the knee is not aligned with the direction of the toes. If the knee is not tracking over the toes during the movement this results in twisting/shearing of the joint and unwanted torque affecting the ligaments which can soon result in injury. The knee should always follow the toe. Have your toes slightly pointed out in order to track the knee properly.

Here's an illustration on wikipedia of a squat:

It looks like this persons form is bad because their toes aren't slightly pointed?

Answer 1

I don't think she is using bad form, her knees are inline with her feet. Her stance looks a little narrow but that is generally a matter of preference. As for the depth she could go a little deeper, but we don't even know that the squat is over since it's not a video, generally to go deeper it is easier with a wider stance. Other than that her back is straight and she is looking forward which is good.

For you personally wideness of stance is something you will have to figure out on your own, likely it has to do with the dimensions of your legs. Now on the other hand that person deadlifting in the backround might be using the worst form I have ever seen

Answer 2

We are seeing one still frame of a squat. That's not so good in determining good form. But from what we can see, the form is fine.

• The knees are tracking the toes. Great. If that continues to be the case, then there's no need to point the toes outwards. Some coaches, particularly those focused on Olympic lifting such as Diane Fu and Kelly Starrett, advocate a very toes-forward stance.
• Proper depth may or may not be reached - we don't know because this is only one frame of the squat.
• We can't see back angle or spinal position.

Answer 3

I would say that this is incorrect form for one simple reason. She isn't squatting below parallel. Parallel is defined as follows: When the crease in the hip is lower than the knees.

In order to reach parallel, she would have had to widen out her stance a bit and point her toes out slightly. This accomplishes 2 things. the first thing is that it would give her the range of motion needed to reach parallel. The second thing is that it would allow her knees to follow in the direction of her toes, which further allows her to reach parallel.

In short, a correct squat is butt to the ground. Widening out the stance and angling the toes out a bit are all only vehicles to help achieve the ultimate goal of butt to the ground.