The Barbell Hack squat or hackenschmidt pull is a very old school exercise, or rather the beginning of the 20th century. The name is thought to come from the German word "hacke," which means "heel.
This exercise was invented and popularized by Georg Karl Julius Hackenschmidt.
It looks like a barbell pull from the floor, but with a twist that the bar is behind the legs.
Today, hack squats are inferior to leg presses because some people believe that these squats hurt their knees.
It's a great lower-body strength exercise, not many people have heard of the Hackenschmidt pull, but everyone knows about the barbell squat.
Applications and benefits
Without having a gakk squat machine, you can use gakk squats in your training, which will not be at all worse, and in some moments even better than the trainer.
You won't need any racks at all to perform, just a barbell.
No insurance is needed, if you have taken to failure just put the bar on the floor.
In addition, they are less stressful on the lower back (the muscles of the extensors of the spine) than the squat with a barbell on the shoulders, but at the same time a little more than the leg press. In general there are a lot of advantages.
The sphere of application is the whole strength training. Bodybuilding, powerlifting, strongman.
Working muscles
Gack squats were often used by bodybuilding pioneers to develop the medial broad thigh muscle and the tibia drop muscle.
EMG results showed that both barbell and gack squats have the same effect on the lateral vastus femoris (quadriceps externalis), but the gack squat has a stronger effect on the gluteus and biceps (the posterior thigh muscles are responsible for bending the leg at the knee joint).
So the injury hazards are exaggerated, but you should keep an eye on your technique to maximize the effect of the exercise and to avoid injury
Techniques of the Gakk squat and pulling
- Take the starting position with the barbell's barbell's head touching the shins from behind
- The posture should be similar to the posture of classic pulling, especially the lumbar spine.
- Start the movement with legs, with back in the second part of the amplitude
- Completely straighten out and lower the bar along the same path as before
Conclusions
This is an interesting exercise that makes sense to pay attention to. You can include the Gakk squat in your training after the main pull as an additional multi-joint exercise to pump the legs, the working weight should be medium. Or sometimes put it in your leg day instead of classic squats.
Useful Links
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmOd7VUyYnI
