We hear this one all the time. Some people will say you should never bend your knees past 90 degress - ask them to get off the floor from lying down, or how they get off the toilet.

Here's my response to a recent email

New Traceur,
At Primal fitness we teach people to bend past 90, but this is with personal supervision. What I would suggest is that you do unweighted squats as conditioning at least 3 days a week, working up to where 50, 75, or even 100 squats isn't a big deal for you,, and lay off anything that could be considered a drop until that time. Then, do some small drops, like 10 a day from a foot, and see where you are naturally more stable. Drops over about 5-6 feet will never be "good for you" as an exercise to build leg strength, and should be practiced sparingly and probably only in your second year of training when conditioning is up and you are very adept at landing and rolling.
M2

i understand doing squats to condition the legs against the pressures of gravity, but can you advise a certain type of leg position?  i had this dilemma last night and ended up with the conclusion that i can push myself forward from any jump under 5 feet or so.  however, i'm not sure if i should roll at such a low height.  i don't need to take the pressure off of my knees, but it's the only way i can think of keeping my forward momentum, unlike bending my knees, where my only option is to try to spring myself upward, land, then resume running.  solution, please?

Rolling after a drop (talking in terms of smaller drops especially) makes it feel like you're keeping forward momentum, and so you think you're keeping your speed up. However, but simply doing a standard landing, then exploding upwards and forwards into a sprint, you achieve a faster speed, but with a stop in between.
The idea of a roll is to disperse the force of the impact of the drop, and keep it 'flowing'. Not necessarily faster, though.

I just want to point out the importance of avoiding uneven knee compression.

Anyone who's read Mark Rippetoe's Starting Strength knows what I'm talking about, he goes over it in the squat section.

When crouched, and your knees are bent (yes, past 90), make sure they're in line with your toes.
If you keep your toes pointed forward, facing straight infront of you, make sure your knees are doing the same, and are in line with them.

If they point out ward, and form an angle, make sure your knees point out in the same direction. Like I said, if you don't, you'll be putting too much uneven compression the outside or inside (depending on how you land) of your knees.

If, when you look down at your toes upon landing, and they're like this:
 |   |
, then make sure your knees point forward with them.
If they look more like this:

 \     /
, Make sure your knees point the same way as your toes.

The knees and toes should be vertically in line together.



PS: Landing, but not allowing your knees to bend past 90 means you have to finish the landing by bending over a lot at the hip, and I'm sure your legs can bear the brunt of the landing way better than your spine and hips can, since your knees flex and more fluidly compress into it, while bending at the hip means you have to arc your back way too much.

Exactly!