Scratching around

Its been a while!

best pull my finger out!

any way i haven't actually been scratching around like hen searching for grain, but i guess i haven't put anything up here for a while so here you go my friends.

Georges squat!

You look at your program

B1 – Hack squat

Noooooooooo.

But for overall leg development the hack squat is awesome!

But why use the hack squat, why not just squat?

First of all I know what you’re thinking, why is it called the “Hack” squat,


so just in case you ere wondering.

Here are a couple of plausible reasons why?

The “Hack” squat wasn’t always done on a machine it began its life as a barbell exercise, see below

Here’s some plausible reasons;


1. Hack is simply a reference to the yoke placed around a draft animal's shoulders.

2. "Hack" is derived from the German word for ankle, Hacke (heel) because the barbell sits behind the heel or the ankles.

3. George Hacknshmidt - and then was popularised in the early 1900's by wrestler/strongman/writer George Hacknshmidt. Obviously "Hack"nshmidt may have loved the exercise and coined it as his own...who knows?

Only George knows....

So as you can see there are actually 2 types of hack squat, machine and also barbell hack squats and although the machine variation pretty much looks completely different to the barbell version, their mechanics are what align them, both variation are very quad dominant moves,

the hips don’t sit very far back as in a traditional Deadlift or back squat, so don’t recruit the posterior chain the same as the hack variations.

But with the hack squat that is the goal, unlike the back squat or deadlift where they both reap great benefits alone using strength protocols and low rep or max strength work.

The Hack squat differs in the fact that it is more specific in its target, it allows the user especially in the machine version to work very hard and close to failure without loss of stability or control thus eliminating the risk of failure with great loads on the shoulders.

This is why we rarely apply low rep work when using the hacksquat in sessions, it allows you to get in the zone, find the pain and push the barrier.

The hack squats works best when hypertrophy protocols are used

Generally the 6 to 12 rep range, but yes sometimes as high as 20 reps can be employed, the hack squat is also great for intensity techniques like drop sets and tempo work to really amp up the work!

Here a few tips;

-         Weight isn’t that important, it’s the feel of the exercise that matters with the hack squat, the focus should be activation of muscle and really feeling the contraction, if too much weight is on there you can lose this, so focus on squeezing the muscle on the hack squat rather than exploding.

-         Speed – like I said squeeze, don’t explode, maintaining time under tension really adds to the effectiveness of the hack squat, which is why I rarely let anyone lock out and always suggest a slow decent – try 4 seconds down! And then try pausing at the bottom.

-         Close and low – the machine hack squat demands and requires strong development of the vastus medialis aka VMO (the teardrop shaped muscle on the inside of your thigh just above your knee). Taking this a step further you can enhance this simply by the part of your foot you place your effort. On the hack squat I often suggest driving through the toes, this will recruit the “VMO” to a greater extent, which is why I sometime get you to place your feet slightly narrower and lower on the platform so as when you decend you find your heals raise slightly, this is not a bad thing, it just means at the lowest point the knee extensors have to work maximally to drive you back up, the further you go then your heals will touch the plate to assist with the rest of the rep.

-         High and wide – changing the foot position to high and wide shifts the workload further away from the quads and shares the load to wider muscular audience, you will feel the inner thighs and Glutes more in this position than the quads.

Always remember

George Hackenshmidt may have said

“To hit the BUTT Push from the back of the foot, push through the toes to hit the VMO’s”