Let's have a discussion on squats... coz this has never been covered before

[Abaddon]

ATG squats v. Regular squats - Bodybuilding.com Forums

TG is only safer on the knees if you know how to squat correctly. Even if you think you know how to squat correctly and are feeling pains somewhere, you most likely aren't. For ATG, you're going to have to allow your knees to fall over your toes a little bit, which might stress the patella tendon if you're not accustomed to the movement. If you know how to warm-up then your knees should be okay. Main thing is to make sure that you are DRIVING YOUR KNEES OUT to the sides when you are squatting. Weak glutes/hamstring (PC) and strong quads in relation will cause your knees to sometimes buckle during the up portion of the lift. This means you need to strengthen your posterior chain muscles, abductors, etc. Your knees should stay in 1 spot during the lift (until lockout). Drop the weight a bit, suck down your ego, and learn how to squat correctly ATG before you tear a patella tendon. Also, knee soreness might come about from too much of a narrow stance. Widen your stance out more if you can, but only enough so that you can still hit ATG.

Also, unless you're on a program which calls for continuous ATG Squats, it might be better on the knees if you were constantly switching up your squat styles. Such as one time do ATG, another do powerlifting wide-stance squats, another do box squats, another do heals-touching squats, another use a different bar if your gym has variety, etc. This will help so that you don't get drilled into the same movement over and over, as well as allowing you to train different muscles each time to keep progress going.

Anyone want to agree/disagree/flame black this piece of advice?

[BendtheBar]

Well first, many, many people have poor squat form. So unless I am confident they know how to squat properly, I wouldn't recommend ATG.

Second, unless you have some time in with squats slightly below parallel and have learned your body, you shouldn't be doing ATG. This "time" varies, and depends on the individual.

Third, from a biomechanical and leverage standpoint, each of us is different. My normal squats below parallel are nearly ATG squats. My hammies touch my calves just below parallel. So putting everyone in the same box doesn't work well.

Here is a discussion we recently had on this topic:

Squat-ATG VS PARALLEL

[Abaddon]

facepalm.
...serves me right for not reading said thread. I really just wanted to get some mileage out of the BB.com link...