Squats

Front squats, back squats or both? Feel free to discuss further variations.

I've only been doing front squats as I was told it would result in less damage to the spine compared to back squats. I'm not sure how accurate that is, but I feel more comfortable doing front squats as my lower spine feels really compressed during back squats.

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>what are goals, specificity of training and so on

do both if you dont know what you want

YES

front squats, back squats, hex squats, pistol squats, "olympic" squats, et c

do people have goals so specific as to influence their squat choice? I don't have any goals other than to get some exercise I enjoy so I guess it doesn't matter which I pick

I do strength sets of low bar, then hypertrophy sets of front squats.

>powerlifter competes in back squat amongst other 3 lifts
>therefore he does back squat to get better at back squat

>olympic weight lifter needs to push weight up from front rack position then he benefits more from front squats because theres better carryover

gee i dont know

My Leg day routine:

2 pl8 warmup

Back Squat (high bar)
1 x 6 @ 275
2 x 5 @ 295
2 x 3 @ 315

Front Squat
2 x 6 @ 225

I'd like to be able to squat 4 pl8 for reps at some point in my life.

I didn't know powerlifting was specific to back squats, thanks for informing me

if you dont have specific goals in mind or compete in sports, then it doesnt really matter if you do front squat or back squat
Sometimes you want to pick one over another due to your specific build (for example back squats might feel like shit for you and be heavy on "good morning" or butt wink, while front squats will feel perfectly good)

>back squat
>able to move more weight, reduced range of motionn
>more posterior chain engaged less quads

>front squat
>less weight, more "athletic" due to range of motion
>more quads, less posterior chain
>fantastic core exercise

with that being said differences to muscle activation are neglible.
For general athleticism do both, because both are fantastic movements
Lifting is not only matter of strength and hypertrophy, its also about being skilled in movement and joint angles, so if you want to get fucking strong at doing back squats then do back squats, not front squats, and vice versa. While one will improve the other, it wont necessarily improve it as well as more similar / same movement.

I keep hurting my left knee ,I squated less than half of the 6 months I lifted because of it even though my right knee is okay and I distribute the load evenly ,keep my knees out and go below parallel. I think I pushed it too much when I started going to the gym: my left knee started to hurt about a week ago but I wanted to get my deadlifts gone before I took a break ,after that it kind of started to shake a bit when I put weight on it so I didn't squat about a month and a half then came back to squats and was way more careful about myt form it was okay about a week or two and then the pain came back so I didn't squat the whole summer just to be sure it's healed and after 2 weeks of light squatting I get the same pain somewhere inside the knee ,did I damage my cartilage irreparably? Can I do something about it?