Barbell Hack Squat
Trains the Quads.
- Equipment
- A barbell
- Mechanic
- Compound
- Force
- Push
- Level
- Intermediate
How to do it
- Set a barbell on the floor and stand in front of it with the bar behind your heels.
- Stand with your feet about hip-width apart.
- Squat down and take the bar with an overhand grip just outside your legs, arms straight.
- Set your back flat and your chest up, with the bar resting against the backs of your calves.
- Stand up by driving through your legs, keeping the bar close to the backs of your legs the whole way.
- Lower it back to the floor along the same path.
Common mistakes
- Turning it into a deadlift by hinging at the hips. The bar is behind you so that the torso can stay more upright and the knees do more; if the hips shoot back, it is a deadlift done from an awkward starting position.
- Letting the bar drift away from the legs. Behind the body, a bar that travels backward pulls you with it, and the only thing holding it in is the shoulders.
- Scraping the calves and Achilles on the way up. Standing with the heels slightly raised on plates, or simply accepting a shorter range, is the usual fix; forcing the bar through the ankles is not.
- Expecting a barbell load. The grip is behind the body with the arms straight, so what can be held usually runs out before what the legs can lift — which is why the machine version exists.