I have a hard time feeling comfortable on the hack squat machine. The one at my gym is on a diagonal plane and it feels like all the weight is on the top of my toes and my knees. It’s almost impossible to find my center of gravity on that thing, so yes you could say I struggle with 225 on it.
The best thing I have found for quad size is strict form leg extensions, doing these with a 3 Mississippi static hold at the top of the rep, focusing on total quad contraction. Man those things burn! I’ve put some serious size of my quads from this.
I realized it was working when i ripped my khakis at kroger last month…
[quote]zephead4747 wrote:
Lets talk hammys. I don’t have a plate loaded leg curl machine at my gym, I’m going ghrs right now, and squats, dls, etc. If you have acess to free weights and cables what are your havorite hammy movements that are easy on the low back and cns?
[/quote]
Stiff leg deads with elevated toes have taken my hammys to a new level
What kind of reps do you guys use? Do you like different rep ranges for different exercises?
I used to do 4x14 on squats, 4x14 on leg press, and 4x14 on leg curls. I started pyramiding up on all 3 with sets of around 14, 12, 10, 8, 8 ,6 and then a few heavy 2-3 rep sets.
I’ll be seeing how that compares to always going for high reps.
How do you guys handle reps?
[quote]Artem wrote:
What kind of reps do you guys use? Do you like different rep ranges for different exercises?
I used to do 4x14 on squats, 4x14 on leg press, and 4x14 on leg curls. I started pyramiding up on all 3 with sets of around 14, 12, 10, 8, 8 ,6 and then a few heavy 2-3 rep sets.
I’ll be seeing how that compares to always going for high reps.
How do you guys handle reps?[/quote]
4x14? that’s a new one
[quote]zephead4747 wrote:
Ramo wrote:
The vastus medialis kicks in at the very bottom of a deep squat. Make sure you bury all your reps. No reason for bodybuilders to be squatting anything but rock bottom, at least most of the time.
If you have a powersquat machine, use that too. Deep hack squats. Leg Extensions with a contraction at the top. Quads can handle a lot of volume so don’t be shy…use 30 sets on leg day if that’s what it takes.
how do you compare the powersquat verses smith backsquats (obviously atg) with the feat a little bit out in front?[/quote]
I’ve never done a single rep of any exercise on the Smith machine so I really have no idea. The powersquat machine that we have, though, really does allow you to push your hips back and approximate your squat groove without having to beat yourself up with the barbell. It ain’t the same thing, but it can help to get some extra volume in or to back off if you’re beat up.
[quote]waylanderxx wrote:
I have a hard time feeling comfortable on the hack squat machine. The one at my gym is on a diagonal plane and it feels like all the weight is on the top of my toes and my knees. It’s almost impossible to find my center of gravity on that thing, so yes you could say I struggle with 225 on it.[/quote]
Does your Hack Squat machine look like the one in this video? The video is me doing deep Hack Squats, which btw I definitely feel in my entire quad far superior to BB squats, including the teardrop area. When I first started doing them like 3.5 months ago I could barely do 225x10 reps, this video was taken 11/24/08 and is 515x7. It was approx 3 months of progress, maybe a week or 2 more.
Before switching to Hack Squats my legs sucked, they were like 23.5 inches. 3 months later they are up to 26.5". Attached a pic to show my leg shape. They still need a lot of work however.
Video: - YouTube
[quote]jehovasfitness wrote:
Artem wrote:
What kind of reps do you guys use? Do you like different rep ranges for different exercises?
I used to do 4x14 on squats, 4x14 on leg press, and 4x14 on leg curls. I started pyramiding up on all 3 with sets of around 14, 12, 10, 8, 8 ,6 and then a few heavy 2-3 rep sets.
I’ll be seeing how that compares to always going for high reps.
How do you guys handle reps?
4x14? that’s a new one
[/quote]
Yeah… I was making gains every workout though, so I stuck with it. I was told that higher rep ranges were better for building the lower body, so I did that. What are some more effective set schemes? Does that 14, 12, 10, 8, 8, 6 rep scheme sound good?
I have been working in the 3-8 range, but i think im going to start doing some of the other movements up into the 15+ rep range, i only heard good things about it.
I saw a video of Trey Brewer doing some leg extensions, his coach said something along the lines of “the only way to use this properly is to hold it at the top, it really hits the quads and help with separation/detail”
I don’t know the truth to it, but Trey has some crazy legs.
looking at the pic, I don’t see your vastus medialis mm. lagging behind the rest of your thigh development. looks pretty balanced to me.
[quote]josh86 wrote:
waylanderxx wrote:
I have a hard time feeling comfortable on the hack squat machine. The one at my gym is on a diagonal plane and it feels like all the weight is on the top of my toes and my knees. It’s almost impossible to find my center of gravity on that thing, so yes you could say I struggle with 225 on it.
Does your Hack Squat machine look like the one in this video? The video is me doing deep Hack Squats, which btw I definitely feel in my entire quad far superior to BB squats, including the teardrop area. When I first started doing them like 3.5 months ago I could barely do 225x10 reps, this video was taken 11/24/08 and is 515x7. It was approx 3 months of progress, maybe a week or 2 more.
Before switching to Hack Squats my legs sucked, they were like 23.5 inches. 3 months later they are up to 26.5". Attached a pic to show my leg shape. They still need a lot of work however.
Video: - YouTube
You’re definitely moving a lot of weight there, but i think if you go deeper you might get a better growth response. If you still wanna push that kind of weight then maybe hit your heavy set and then hit a real deep atg set after in the 15-20 rep range. I used to do them like you are in the video, but once i really went deep on the hacks, my quads really blew up. Just a thought.
Yah josh thats basically the same machine. Whenever I do them I feel like the weight is so far out though. I feel my back arch towards my stomach and it feels like my knees are going to pop. The only thing I can think of trying is just moving my feet in closer so that my knee is over my toe, idk I’ll have to try it.
[quote]matso1236 wrote:
I have been working in the 3-8 range, but i think im going to start doing some of the other movements up into the 15+ rep range, i only heard good things about it.
I saw a video of Trey Brewer doing some leg extensions, his coach said something along the lines of “the only way to use this properly is to hold it at the top, it really hits the quads and help with separation/detail”
I don’t know the truth to it, but Trey has some crazy legs.
[/quote]
ha i started doing those after i watched that same video
they definitely work
[quote]zephead4747 wrote:
Lets talk hammys. I don’t have a plate loaded leg curl machine at my gym, I’m going ghrs right now, and squats, dls, etc. If you have acess to free weights and cables what are your havorite hammy movements that are easy on the low back and cns?
[/quote]
Rev Hyper (yeah, I know you don’t have one available, but you asked for easy on the low back and CNS… )
Glute-Ham maybe? I don’t use those much if at all…
You could do some sort of leg curl (or even a sort of bastardized rev hyper without the spinal-decompression or whatever you call it effect) using a low cable station…
Pull throughs hit the lower back some…
DB leg curls are a possibility.
All the other stuff (off the top of my head) is kinda low-back intensive…
[quote]B-Mac13 wrote:
josh86 wrote:
waylanderxx wrote:
I have a hard time feeling comfortable on the hack squat machine. The one at my gym is on a diagonal plane and it feels like all the weight is on the top of my toes and my knees. It’s almost impossible to find my center of gravity on that thing, so yes you could say I struggle with 225 on it.
Does your Hack Squat machine look like the one in this video? The video is me doing deep Hack Squats, which btw I definitely feel in my entire quad far superior to BB squats, including the teardrop area. When I first started doing them like 3.5 months ago I could barely do 225x10 reps, this video was taken 11/24/08 and is 515x7. It was approx 3 months of progress, maybe a week or 2 more.
Before switching to Hack Squats my legs sucked, they were like 23.5 inches. 3 months later they are up to 26.5". Attached a pic to show my leg shape. They still need a lot of work however.
Video: - YouTube
You’re definitely moving a lot of weight there, but i think if you go deeper you might get a better growth response. If you still wanna push that kind of weight then maybe hit your heavy set and then hit a real deep atg set after in the 15-20 rep range. I used to do them like you are in the video, but once i really went deep on the hacks, my quads really blew up. Just a thought.
[/quote]
I don’t think I can really go much lower, I’ve bottomed out the machine a few times on accident. If you notice my first 2 or 3 reps aren’t as deep as the later ones, I always feel still on the first couple and then really get deep on the later reps.
Also I do currently do a heavy 6-8 set followed by a still heavy (385 lbs last time) 20 rep set.
I have the same problem if i go ATG on the hack squat i have at my gym, my back starts going off the pad, so i figured i was doing something wrong.
I am going to play around with it next leg workout and make it work.
I didnt see sissy squats so I figured I would mention them. The extreme ROM of these seems to work the lower portion a bit more. Same principle as going ATG in the other squat methods.
You guys need to realize that different things work for different people.
Shawn Ray used to stick around 2-3 plates a side for squats.
Ben White sticks with leg presses as the base of his leg workout (Paul Dillet was the same).
Lately, the only thing I have been doing is leg extensions and then about 9-10 sets of hack squats going as low as I can and I can barely walk out of the gym by the time I finish…literally.
My legs are about 31" right now.
[quote]Professor X wrote:
My legs are about 31" right now.[/quote]
That’s impressive…I have def. heard of some BB’ers sticking to leg press, over squat variations. It is primarily an individual preference.
I have an Olympic lifting background so i squat high bar an atg. I feel i have pretty solid quad sweep and I attribute this to the style of squatting i perform (I also squat with the toes slightly out).
Damn X. 9-10 sets…that would make me want to kill myself. Props to you on that, lol.
Hammer Strength horizontal leg press.
i set the thing close enough to where i have to stand up on it and then just drop my hips so i slide in then my legs are about 6-8 inches from my shoulders. getting the first rep out is extremley difficult but afterwards you can use a bounce to help you out.
i stick to about 4 sets of ~10
then move to 1 all out set of 20
then i take the weight i did the 20 set with and do 3 sets of ~10
then i move on to leg exts.
doing deadlifts with a wider stance and narrower grip hits my legs well too, both hams and quads
my legs still have a lot of work to do. being tall sucks for bodybuilding.