One of the most overlooked muscle groups in a beginning bodybuilder’s training program is the legs. They don’t impress like the chest and arms, so beginners make a common mistake and avoid training them, not realizing the high overall growth effect that the leg muscles have on the entire body. Recent research has shown that if intense leg training is done before arm training in a training session, the overall growth effect on the arms is magnified. This is the result of the release of human growth hormone due to the size of the leg muscles.
The best way to capitalize on this benefit is to build your training sessions so that your ‘difficult’ body parts are trained immediately after training your legs. There are quite a few good exercises to build your legs, such as squats, front squats, leg extensions, leg curls, and stiff-legged deadlifts. Hack squats are not as popular as these other exercises, but they are an effective muscle builder.
This elevator is named after George Hackenschmidt, a strongman, fighter, and writer from the early 20th century. He advocated this exercise because of its ability to rapidly build leg strength and avoid overdevelopment of the hip, common in barbell squats. In his book The Way To Live, he mentions that the exercise is named after him. In North America, the name Hack Squat is the term most often used to describe this exercise.
Steve Reeves, of Hercules and Mr. America fame, began using the hack squat to develop a sweep in his thigh muscles while preventing hip enlargement and even developed equipment that allowed him to perform the move more effectively. Several photos I’ve seen show him working out at Vic Tanny’s gym in California, near famous Muscle Beach.
But what is the best training program to use for hack squats? First, let’s take a look at proper exercise technique. There are some really great hack squat machines on the market that eliminate the balance issue found when using a barbell. But let’s say you don’t have access to them and train with barbells and dumbbells. After choosing to use a barbell or dumbbell, place your heels on a block, keeping your legs together. Hold the weight behind you and lower yourself until your glutes are close to touching your heels. Press up through your legs as you exhale. Avoid locking up at the top of the movement. Repeat until you reach muscle failure.
As mentioned above, there are numerous hack squat machines on the market. Most have bars for loading weight plates, but a couple have selected weight stacks to make weight shifting easier.
The reasons I like hack squats are the lack of heavy back and shoulder resistance compared to regular squats, the ability to train the thigh muscles while limiting hip overdevelopment, and the lack of weight balance when using a hack squat machine. Another great feature of this exercise is the stimulation it gives to your hamstrings, which is a result of the deep descent I recommend. Try this exercise and you will add a new tool for the rapid development of leg muscles.
Below is a sample workout routine for legs using hack squats. The routine is based on the HIT, high-intensity training protocol, so make sure you push yourself 100% on each set, taking them to complete muscle failure and resting minimally between sets:
heating
barbell squats 1×15
hack squats-1×12
leg extensions-1×15 (3 forced reps at the end of the set to be done every other training session)
leg curls-1×15
Standing Calf Raises-1×20
Seated Calf Raises-1×15
