A few years ago, I saw a relative newcomer doing squats with only 135, using a "non-cage" squat rack -- the one with the open back. (I never used one of those for fear of the very thing that happened to this fellow.) He lost his balance and fell backward on his ass with the barbell still on him. He was immediately advised by others around him to stay immobilized. Paramedics arrived, checked him out, strapped him up, and took him away. He returned a number of weeks later and seemed okay. I never spoke to him so I don't know what, if anything, may have happened to him. Despite the weight not being heavy, he was lucky not to have sustained potentially life-altering injuries. It is a hell of a cautionary tale for anyone who doesn't use the cage-type squat rack.
Pre-agricultural revolution hunter gatherers were significantly more healthy than the grain eating city-dwellers, it took until the 20th century until longevity and average height caught back up to where it was in prehistoric times.
if you guys aren't training to failure every workout, how are you growing?? You would plateau very quickly . I feel that if I'm not going to failure, i'm not trying hard enough and my body will stop building muscle. Isn't failure the stimulus to tell the muscle to grow? As for squats, i don't do them anymore. Too afraid to getting myself killed. Instead, i do lunges w/ the back foot raise on a bench and while holding 2 DB's. These actually work the glutes and hams better than squats. But they won't work your core or back as well, so you need to do back & core work to compensate
DOMS is required for growth. Any regimen is pointless if the result is a week spent out of the gym due to soreness. IOW, I can achieve the same level of breakdown from non-failure sets, but it will take higher totals (reps + sets + weight). Training to failure is more efficient. The muscle isn't going to grow simply because you miss a rep (to failure). Lunges are fine but they are not a suitable substitute for squats. You train to failure but are afraid of injury from squatting?
squats and DL's for the win! reminds me of people doing leg presses as the main movement... wtf. We used to go heavy 8x2 squats with bands etc. Mostly box squats for training. I loved the bands... we also had a speed day for explosive movement. Good mornings were also awesome. and lots of core workouts as well. all of it was mostly 5x3, 5x5, 8x2 etc for building strength. Every so often, you could switch to doing some high rep stuff for a few weeks then switch back, but we were constantly changing the workouts, using bands, boards, lockouts and for squats different box heights, chains, etc. wow that was good stuff... what do you think of this atticus? squats by yourself is not scary at all in the squat rack... we had the mono lifts though, i loved those too.
We also went by a percentage of our 1 rep max.. this was important. so we would do say reps with 65% or 85% of the 1rep max.
For bench presses, I train inside a power rack. it's very safe. been doing it for many years, and I know exactly where to set the spotter rods so I don't get crushed. i also train to failure on rows, pullups, curls, abs and lunges; there's nothing dangerous about training to failure with them. Squats and DL's are the only one that i won't train to failure on. (I won't go to failure on DL's because of a back injury years earlier)
The uninitiated won't do well on low rep as their form is usually sh*t and they w/o fail limit their ROM on most lifts. I am a big fan of periodization but applied asym. One week of high-rep to say three weeks of low rep. Also important to be randomly applied. Isolation exercises (save for biceps and a few others) are generally not worthwhile. Squats, DLs, bench, overheads; variations (rack pulls) and explosive movements (power cleans) are also important.