they are called sissy squats for a reason
just sit down and do leg extensions
yes they are named after Sisyphus:
http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/sports_body_training_performance_bodybuilding/real_men_do_sissy_squatsExcerpt:
Let's get the obvious out of the way first: The sissy squat isn't for sissies. In fact, the name has nothing to do with the sexual orientation of people who do it, and everything to do with the mythical Greek king who inspired it — and who, let me tell you, was no poofter.
Sisyphus, as the legend goes, was the king of Corinth, and pretty much a total dick. He was greedy, he killed travelers and guests (the ultimate crime in Greek mythology), and he seduced his own niece. But what really put his balls in the wringer was the time he tried to cock-block Zeus.
Avid readers of Greek mythology know that Zeus, leader of the gods, combined a temper worse than John McCain's with the judicial instincts of Vlad the Impaler. Mess with him once, and he messed with you for eternity.
He sent Sisyphus to Tartarus, the lowest part of the underworld, and gave him a single task: push, pull, or carry a big stone up the side of the highest mountain, and leave it at the top.
Unbeknownst to Sisyphus, Zeus rigged the game so the former king could never actually reach the top with the stone. Each day he rolled it up as far as he could, and each day the gods arranged for him to fail, sending the rock rolling back down.
In its own way, weight lifting is a Sisyphean task — we lift weights day after day, week after week, year after year, and the weights never stay lifted. They always end up back where they started.
But that's not why the ultimate victim of "training to failure" has an exercise named after him. It's because of what all that work did for a certain part of his physique.
When you see Sisyphus depicted in ancient or modern art, he's almost always shown with bulging thighs, the finest pair of legs in ancient Corinth. He was the Tom Platz of classical mythology.
I saw my first rendering of Sisyphus some 50 years ago, and like any impressionable musclehead I was amazed at his leg development. The drawing I saw showed Sisyphus pushing with his back to the rock, digging his heels in for leverage.
I first heard about the sissy squat in 1960. An article in Joe Weider's Muscle Power magazine described the technique and mentioned the bodybuilders who used it — guys like Steve Reeves, Doug Strohl, Reg Lewis, and Monty Wolford.
I tried it and gained an inch on each of my thighs in less than three weeks. Even today, with all the options we have in our gyms and all the information that we didn't have in my youth, I consider it one of the most productive exercises you can do for your quads.
