Hack squats differ from the usual ones in that when performing such exercises, the quadriceps are better worked out and, more accurately, their side part is swinging.
Due to the indicated peculiarity of these exercises, they are used specifically for building quadriceps and honing the lateral muscles of the thigh, which, in turn, makes it possible to more clearly show the separation between the biceps of the thigh and quadriceps.
Features
Hack squats in the simulator belong to the formative type of exercises designed to thoroughly study the side parts of the quadriceps. They are equally suitable for beginners and experienced athletes. As a rule, such squats are performed on three or four sets of 8-12 sets, after a leg press or squats with a barbell. Hack squats are ideal exercises for people who are engaged in high jumps, lengths, jogging, soccer, volleyball and other game sports.
Correct execution
Stand in the simulator and place your shoulders under the rollers located on top. Press your back firmly against the support. Spread your legs shoulder-width apart by extending your feet slightly forward so that they are closer to the upper edge of the platform. During the exercise, the legs should be slightly bent at the knees. Fix the chin parallel to the platform, keep the torso in a straight position and hold it in tension, without tearing it from the support. When doing squats in a hook machine, do not forget to maintain a natural deflection in the lower back.
Take a deep breath, hold your breath and slowly lower yourself until your hips are parallel to the platform. A right angle should form in the knees. Still holding your breath, strain the quadriceps and climb strongly (but without a jerk). Lifting should be a continuation of the squat, that is, the exercise is performed as one continuous movement. When the most difficult part is overcome, you can exhale.
Recommendations
Hack squats should be performed with the feet wide apart and the socks turned outwards. In this case, most of the load will fall directly on the front of the thighs, while the buttocks, back and back of the thighs will be almost completely released, but this will only benefit quadriceps . Hack squats in the simulator is an isolated exercise. On the one hand, this is its drawback, but this feature can be considered an advantage, as squats of this kind are successfully used to effectively expand the front projections of the hips. To do this, put your feet next to and parallel to each other. By changing their position, we transfer the load directly to the outer parts of the quadriceps.
How to avoid injuries during exercise
To exclude the possibility of damage to the knee joints and not to overload the lower back, it is necessary to place the legs clearly under the pelvis - in the middle of the platform or closer to its inner edge. In addition, this position does not cause a constant desire to tear the torso from the support. To observe the correct technique for doing the exercise and not to tear your back from the support, you can also imagine that you are doing squats against the wall. Hold the plane as hard as you can and slide up and down. Such visualization will help you learn to relax the muscles of the lower back and keep your back straight throughout the approach.
Benefits
Hack squats are safer exercises than barbell squats, since in the latter version you need to tilt the body strongly forward and bend your knees. As a result, the muscles of the back of the thigh, which are attached to the hip and knee joints, are stretched to the stop and try to turn the hip joint forward, causing rounding of the back. This will not happen when doing a hook exercise. For this reason, squats with a barbell are considered more dangerous.
When doing squats, the hook load focuses on quadriceps much more than when working with Smith's simulators and squats with a barbell. In the considered option, the external head of the quadriceps is mainly worked out. Please note that moving your feet to the top of the platform increases the load on the top of the quadriceps. And the lower you sit down, the more buttock muscles will be involved, but at the same time the load on the muscles being worked out will not change.
Useful Tips
Remember to hold your breath, as this will help you to preserve tension in the muscles around the lower back. If you breathe in prematurely, then the pressure inside the chest will decrease, the stability of the spine will drop. And you can in no case linger at the bottom point, immediately rise up. The direction of movement needs to be changed quickly, but without a jerk.
Hack squats (photos of trainees are presented above) with a competent approach is not only hard and exhausting work, but also a rather painful process (at first). You must remember that swinging the muscles of the legs is not at all the same as, for example, the pectoral muscles. We can say that in such a training, the most important thing is the ability to work, overcoming one's own abilities. Therefore, it is hook squats that are the most effective exercises for working out the muscles of the legs. This type of training was invented by Georg Gakkenshmidt - the famous multiple champion and champion in weightlifting and French wrestling.
Good luck in training!