Lattice QCD (LQCD) is a theoretical non-perturbative approach for
the study of QCD dynamics numerically and from first principles.
For more than a decade, LQCD has been very successful in the calculation of the
hadronic spectrum, making postdictions of well-measured hadronic masses, as
well as, predictions. Nowadays, LQCD is widely used for hadron structure
calculations and is becoming a reliable tool, providing input to the
experimental and phenomenological communities. Over the last years, progress in
the simulation of LQCD has been impressive, driven by improvements in the
algorithms and increase in computational power, that have enabled simulations
to be carried out at parameters very close to their physical values
(physical point).

In this talk I will present recent results for the so-called quasi-PDFs, a new
direct approach to compute parton distributions functions (PDFs) directly in LQCD.
The quasi-PDF approach was introduced by Xiangdong Ji in 2013 and was
intensively developed thereafter. Main focus will be given in the unpolarized and helicity
PDFs calculated at the physical point. A careful investigation of systematic
uncertainties, such as excited states and renormalization will be presented,
that aims at obtaining reliable estimates. The light-cone PDFs are reconstructed
using large momentum effective theory (LaMET) that allows comparison with
phenomenological parameterizations of experimental data. We find several
similarities between the lattice and phenomenoligical data for the unpolarized
and polarized PDFs, and demonstrate the importance of simulations at
the physical point. This presents a major success for the emerging field of direct
calculations of quark distributions using lattice QCD.