Are squats bad for your knees or back and would squats help me jump higher?!

Best Answer - Chosen by Voters

As long as your doing the squats right they shouldn't hurt your knees. Also, doing jumping squats will help you jump higher.

Any exercise that uses the lower leg muscles includes your knees help build up strength and muscle tone t the lower part of your body. Don't strain your legs & knees though. There are some very major cartliges and and if not done properly, can damage your them for life down there, so if I was you, I would find out from a gym or certified instructor the proper way to do your squats. These people are Certified in their knowlege about the muscles and how to do squats the right way, Don't be stoic..seek out the knowledge of these people. That is why they are there. SAVE YOUR KNEES, especially if you are feeing strain now.

Physical Therapy I have been in. They are amazing people in their knowledge and it works!

The answer above me is correct.

Squats are one of the best thing that you can do to help you increase your vertical but they can be stressful on the back as well.

You should do squats a maximum of 4 days a week.
So only do squats the 4 out of ther 7 days on the week.
Doing plyometrics will greatly help as well.

http://www.dunkerprodigy.com

Squats are great for getting better at jumping. However from the sound of it I do not think you are doing the correct type of squats. Instead of doing heavy lifting you should be doing jump squats. I recommend taking a medicine ball and doing jump squats with the ball held out in front of you. I would also recommend box jumps, that is where you jump from the ground onto a box or bench, and continue to increase the height as you get better and better. In order to jump higher it is important to do bother aerobic exercises as I have just shown you a few and heavy lifting. I would only recommend heavy squats once a week. If you build too much muscle mass you will hold yourself back from your potential. Look at NBA players, they have strong legs, but they are lean, not bulky. Bulk holds you down. Other exercises to help are jumping side to side over various objects such as cones, or stacked boxes etc. The best way to jump higher is training on jumping. Lunge jumps are a great exercise to develop the small muscles that help with the take off. You get into a lunge position holding a light dumbbell weight and then jump and in mid air switch legs and land softly on the opposite leg. Continue to practice jumping with weight and then when you take the weights away you'll be able to jump even higher. To measure progress you can take a measuring stick or just make your own marks on the wall and each week jump and test your progress. I wish you the best of luck. Look up online all different sorts of exercises to better jumping height. Plyometric exercises may be a huge help to you.

To address the knee pain, heavy weight will only cause this if you are doing the exercise improperly (form) or if your using to much weight. Don't worry about how much weight you use in the gym, just make sure you do the exercises right. Weight doesn't make you a better player or jump higher, form does. Like I said you should try doing jump squats which uses your own weight + medicine ball and maybe dumbbells. Everything comes down to your form in dunking, not how much your squated over the winter.

Pain Mgmt Therapist, Use to be Physical Trainer, Premedical student, EMT