The Hack Squat machine - Dangerous exercise.

[arce1988]

  Milos blew out his knee on the hack?

[Man of Steel]

I never had issue with knees doin hacks, but I did slip a disc in my back doin heavy hacks....that was a very bad workout....was never the same again.

[Coach is Back!]

Why did my milos post get deleted? What i postrd was a fact. What a bunch of crap

[hardgainerj]

You wrap it if its hurting when you train to properly stabilize it and keep you from twisting on it wrong.  But like I said before, I think that all hack squat machines are a waste of money because inferior compared to a freeweight exercise....especially something that you spent 30k to build which in my option looks like every other hack squat out there.  For 2k, I can fully equip a personal trainer who wants to open a private studio that will allow him to train any client that comes in.

relying on wraps and belts are counter productive

[hardgainerj]

Try them the tom platz style.

or you can just do sissy squats

[Ropo]

What makes Hacks dangerous? I use the machine as an alternate to squats and I don't see a problem.

People who doesn't understand their limitations. Like guys, who have good squat, and they think that they have good hack also, because there is strenght in the legs. They load the squat weight in the hack and try, snap crakle pop says the knees and after that and months of limping hack is very very dangerous. NO, it doesn't go like that. Before to load hack with the weight you can squat, you have to learn how to use that damn thing. How to stand, how deep to squat in it, and amazingly, where the knees goes. When you have deep and painless range of motion, then you can start add weights, and then, if you maintain that range of motion, it will be painless also with heavy loads.

[arce1988]

  Coach, can you please PM it to me? Thanks.

[240_Iz_Nutz]

People who doesn't understand their limitations. Like guys, who have good squat, and they think that they have good hack also, because there is strenght in the legs. They load the squat weight in the hack and try, snap crakle pop says the knees and after that and months of limping hack is very very dangerous. NO, it doesn't go like that. Before to load hack with the weight you can squat, you have to learn how to use that damn thing. How to stand, how deep to squat in it, and amazingly, where the knees goes. When you have deep and painless range of motion, then you can start add weights, and then, if you maintain that range of motion, it will be painless also with heavy loads.

I think that is backwards if you know proper foot placement. I used to do 5-6 plates a side to the point of touching the limit on hacks for high rep sets. Never a problem. You start doing a bunch of squat reps over 400 and it just hurts all over. And yes, it does depend on the equipment. 

[Van_Bilderass]

Milos blew his quads hacking 900lbs.

Milos doesn't believe in using heavy weights.

[Coach is Back!]

Milos blew out his quad ad knee running a short sprint. Most blow out a hammy, but nooo, he blows out everything in a 40 yard sprint so he can try out shoes...as if he were an athlete!!

[Van_Bilderass]

Milos blew out his quad ad knee running a short sprint. Most blow out a hammy, but nooo, he blows out everything in a 40 yard sprint so he can try out shoes...as if he were an athlete!!

Yeah but it was previously torn from the hacks.

[Vince B]

The trouble with bodybuilding is that novices do what they see the champs doing in the magazines. Sometimes those writing the articles just include a lot of exercises to have the champion demonstrate. I guess even the champs are following others before them.

The guys I respected re exercise knowledge were Ray Mentzer, Larry Scott, and Vince Gironda. They all knew how the muscles functioned and used exercises accordingly. Ray damaged his neck/spine doing full squats with 925 pounds. So even the knowledgeable can do silly things and get injured.

Don't do Hack Squats or deadlifts if you are a bodybuilder. Period. Be warned.

[Van_Bilderass]

Don't do Hack Squats or deadlifts if you are a bodybuilder. Period. Be warned.

If you don't do deads there's a much bigger chance of injuring your back from something like rows or squats. Deads are an injury preventative exercise IME.

[MAXX]

The trouble with bodybuilding is that novices do what they see the champs doing in the magazines. Sometimes those writing the articles just include a lot of exercises to have the champion demonstrate. I guess even the champs are following others before them.

The guys I respected re exercise knowledge were Ray Mentzer, Larry Scott, and Vince Gironda. They all knew how the muscles functioned and used exercises accordingly. Ray damaged his neck/spine doing full squats with 925 pounds. So even the knowledgeable can do silly things and get injured.

Don't do Hack Squats or deadlifts if you are a bodybuilder. Period. Be warned.

Ray was strong but he never did 925 full squat. Platz couldn't even do that. Platz max was 900 full squat if I remember right.

I remember an old article about him and Mentzer doing partial squats with that kind of weight though. Something Mike regretted doing because he sustained lower back problems from it.

[luvvsuNOT]

I'm very flexible. I can do a full split, sit in the lotus position and have no trouble dropping into a full, ass to ankles, squat position. But I can't for the life of me do a full squat with a weighted bar on the back of my neck. I have to bend forward so much so that it becomes a back exercise. A dangerous one at that. Remember, most of a person's height comes from their legs. I'm a tad over 6'3" and when I sit next to my girlfriend who is 5'6" I'm not that much taller than her. Standing, I tower over her. Try it with someone you are much taller than.

So the squat does very little for me as a leg exercise. It's more of a hip and but movement because I have to widen my stance and can only go done maybe parallel at most. Same with the traditional leg press. I can barely break parallel with that machine. Any lower than I start to curl up like a snail and my lower bar loses contact with the pad. Now those leg presses where you are sitting upright is ideal. You can go as deep as you want no problem. Problem is my gym doesn't have kind of equipment. Only squat rack, traditional leg press and hacks. At least with hack I drop into a full squat position and my feet are positioned forward enough so I don't get the shearing effect. I tried this feet postioning while squating using the Smith machine but I just don't like the feel.

BTW, what's wrong with mimic movements done by champions that have been very successful. Jay Cutler has temendous quads. He does hacks and he also does squats. Who is to say that it's the squats and not the hacks that help develop his quads. He also does squats on the smith machine.

BTW, barbell squats bother my knees and lower back far more than Hacks. I've tweaked and injured my lower back many times insisting on doing squats. I've never had an injuries or knee pain using the hack squat. Remember that the best way to push a car is to turn backwards and rest your lower back against the back of the car and push with your legs. You have a lot more power and leverage than if you face the car and push in a running motion. Pushing backwards duplicates the hack movement very closely.

[luvvsuNOT]

If you don't do deads there's a much bigger chance of injuring your back from something like rows or squats. Deads are an injury preventative exercise IME.

And it seems like dead is a very natural movement. Just picking up something off the floor. Something we all have done at some time or another. It would seem to be one of the few useful movements in weight training.

[Van_Bilderass]

Platz couldn't even do that. Platz max was 900 full squat

Not even close. Not even 800. If I were to guess maybe a little over 700. Never saw any singles from him in pics or video though.

Did he do a single at the WBF event?

[MAXX]

Not even close. Not even 800. If I were to guess maybe a little over 700. Never saw any singles from him in pics or video though.

Did he do a single at the WBF event?

Alright my bad then. Makes it even more unlikely that Ray did full squat with 925...

[Psychopath]

What's even more dangerous is paedophiles fleeing countries after making advances on 14yr old girls.

[NotMrAverage]

For any tall man there is a benefit of doing the hack. Vince aint one of them

[Ropo]

The trouble with bodybuilding is that novices do what they see the champs doing in the magazines. Sometimes those writing the articles just include a lot of exercises to have the champion demonstrate. I guess even the champs are following others before them.

The guys I respected re exercise knowledge were Ray Mentzer, Larry Scott, and Vince Gironda. They all knew how the muscles functioned and used exercises accordingly. Ray damaged his neck/spine doing full squats with 925 pounds. So even the knowledgeable can do silly things and get injured.

Don't do Hack Squats or deadlifts if you are a bodybuilder. Period. Be warned.

That is just silly. There is lot of bodybuilders who do these exercises week by week without injuries, and you think those few twats who has been able to hurt themselves are the ones who are right about the matter. How about Ronnie, Haney etc. who has done hack's, deadlifts, and furthermore, even win some titles? They all are dorks and just lucky to survive? How about this: You are just demented old fart. Period. That explains all. You don't think about the time frame, the difference about the machines in their times and ours. I mean, I have seen some fucking disaster-piece of shit hack machines by ergonomic point of view, but also some good ones. There has been machines where I can't do single squat without knee pain, and machines where I can do sets of 50 reps with no pain at all. That's why there is no point at all what you are saying. Hack squat is good exercise for them who are clever enough to LEARN HOW TO DO IT CORRECTLY. For everybody else it is shitty, but that serves them right, because they are idiots.

[SquatsRule]

Do barbell hacks instead.

[anabolichalo]

Milos blew his quads hacking 900lbs.

Milos doesn't believe in using heavy weights.

milos never lies

milos is an upstanding member of society

[anabolichalo]

The trouble with bodybuilding is that novices do what they see the champs doing in the magazines. Sometimes those writing the articles just include a lot of exercises to have the champion demonstrate. I guess even the champs are following others before them.

The guys I respected re exercise knowledge were Ray Mentzer, Larry Scott, and Vince Gironda. They all knew how the muscles functioned and used exercises accordingly. Ray damaged his neck/spine doing full squats with 925 pounds. So even the knowledgeable can do silly things and get injured.

Don't do Hack Squats or deadlifts if you are a bodybuilder. Period. Be warned.

you cannot take this seriously

[Vince B]

Guys here don't want to learn because they know everything already. Guys like Ronnie Coleman tore muscles that ended his career. Same thing happened to Dorian Yates. There in no need to do such heavy lifting for hypertrophy. Trouble is muscleheads like to boast about how much they can bench and squat.

Ray Mentzer told me he did two reps with 925 in the squat. How low it was I don't know. Still a heck of a lot of weight to handle. The guy was a giant musclewise. He was much bigger than he looked. And he was bigger than his brother Mike.

Deadlifts are silly and shouldn't be done by bodybuilders. Amazing how bodybuilders are so dense they literally can't learn anything except what is in the magazines. Exercises not to do: Bench Press, Deadlifts, Hack Squats, Upright Rows, any movement using over 500 pounds.