Hack vs Free Squats

[royale13ii]

Hack squats enable me to lift much more weight than the conventional squat, so I'm assuming it works not as many of the same muscles? I like sticking to the basics, but when the squat rack is taken, I find myself "hackin it".

Should i omit completely and just wait for the squat to be open? Cause I definately won't bring myself to the Smith machine.

Thanks all!

 

[Scotsman]

There are two factors in why you move more weight with the hack.

1. You don't have to stabilize or support the weight with your back.

2. Due to the incline and the slide mechanism you aren't actually lifting the amount of weight you have loaded.

Hacks are a great way to blast quads but for overall development stick with mainly regular squats. I know some may disagree with me but as far as I am concerned the smith is best used as a coat rack.

Cheers,
Scotsman

 

[tehkevroy]

Free Squat

 

[captainahole]

I know that it is near impossible to always get the squat rack. Hack is a good fill in when this happens or you can even do a prewarm up on the hack followed by squats that will work.
Easiest day to do squats is monday. All the elite are doing benchpress. lol.

I always say that I never have to fight for the squat rack on mondays.

 

[tropo]

There are two factors in why you move more weight with the hack.

1. You don't have to stabilize or support the weight with your back.

2. Due to the incline and the slide mechanism you aren't actually lifting the amount of weight you have loaded.

Hacks are a great way to blast quads but for overall development stick with mainly regular squats. I know some may disagree with me but as far as I am concerned the smith is best used as a coat rack.

Cheers,
Scotsman

That was funny...yeah, move it out of the gym to make some way for decent equipment. It's the only piece of equipment I don't use in my gym. You end up pushing in all sorts of unnatural angles.

 

[tehkevroy]

I know that it is near impossible to always get the squat rack. Hack is a good fill in when this happens or you can even do a prewarm up on the hack followed by squats that will work.
Easiest day to do squats is monday. All the elite are doing benchpress. lol.

I always say that I never have to fight for the squat rack on mondays.

haha same for my gym bro except we got 1 smith machine and all stupid people are using it hahah so I can use the rack squat