How to Barbell Hack Squat?

Although you may be used to hack squat machines, sometimes the equipment you’re looking for isn’t available at the gym. In this case, barbell back squats can be your best bet.

Say you head into the gym fired up and ready to go for a heavy leg day. But to your dismay, when you get there, all the hack squat machines are occupied.

If you’ve experienced this firsthand before, you may be wondering about a good hack squat alternative.

This is where barbell hack squats come in. By adjusting your equipment expectations, you can still get a great leg workout in.

Let’s analyze the best alternative method you can use to get a hack squat workout in.

Barbell Hack Squat— Muscles Worked

If you’re researching the hack squat machine, you may wonder what makes it different than squatting with a barbell.

Hack squats target your quadriceps muscles. Although they do work the other muscles in your legs, the hack squat is a great way to train if you’re hoping to isolate your quads.

During hack squats, the working muscles include:

Quadriceps

Your quadriceps femoris muscles (“quads”) flex your knees. When you get to the bottom of your squats, you’ll need a deep bend in the knees to help your body descend into the squat. Engaging your quadriceps will help you get there, so it’s important to make sure they’re strong.

Hamstrings

The hamstrings sit on the backs of your thighs. These muscles extend your hips at the top of a squat. They also help with knee flexion when you descend. This makes hamstrings an integral part of your squat. Always stretch your hamstrings after you squat. It’s a good idea to warm them up too.

Active workouts like high knees or leg swings will help prepare these leg muscles for healthy hack squats. Many people have tight hamstring muscles due to increasingly sedentary lifestyles. The effect of hamstring tightness includes inhibiting your stability and agility.

Because the hamstrings serve a double purpose of hip extension and knee flexion, they’re extra susceptible to injuries. Stretch, stretch, stretch and really make sure your muscles are ready to go before you get your hamstrings into deep squat positions.

Glutes

The gluteal muscles (your butt muscles) help keep the pace of your movement as you drop and come back up in your squats. This muscle group is made up of three muscles: the gluteus maximus, gluteus medius and gluteus minimus.

These are some of your strongest lower body muscles. It’s a good idea to engage your glutes at the top of a squat. Not only is this proper form, but it can be one of the best exercises for a round butt.

Calves

Your calves keep your body stable and connect you to your feet to stay grounded. The calf, made up of the soleus muscle and the gastrocnemius, helps you to plantarflex your foot (point your toes downward).

After you come to the bottom of your squat, your calves will engage to help you drive up through the heels and feet to bring yourself back up to a standing position.

How to Barbell Hack Squat

Although hack squat is in the name, this hack squat variation is one you can work without a machine.

For limited equipment workouts, this hack squat alternative is a good one— all you need is a heavy barbell and a little willpower!

• Set-Up: Grab two weight plates, and place your heels on them so the heels are elevated. Bring a loaded barbell behind your body.
• Squat: Bend your knees to sink your butt down. Grab the barbell with an overhand grip. From here, drive your body up, holding the barbell and lifting it up towards the back of your hamstrings near your butt. This is your starting position.
• Reps: Repeat this movement for reps, coming to a 90-degree bend in the knee, or slightly deeper angle each time you bend.

Though this variation looks much different than the machine hack squat, barbell hack squats work your muscles the same way. Elevating your heels on weight plates and lifting your barbell behind the back towards your rear helps keep this move quad-dominant in the same way that a hack squat machine would be.

This is a great alternative way to train if all the hack squat machines at your gym are taken.

Not only this, but it put far less strain on your spine. A traditional back squat loads weight on to your shoulders and upper back. But since you only lift the weight up to below hip height in this variation, you’re not straining your spine.

Research on technical factors that limit back squat performance indicates that things like head position and spinal rounding can influence your squat performance.

In turn, your squat stance determines how healthy this movement is for your body. Remember, the key is to be able to squat for longevity.

Yes, it’s impressive to lift some heavy weights, but not at the expense of getting injured or creating postural problems for yourself where they didn’t exist before.

This low-to-the-ground variation helps you take the strain out of your back.

Barbell Hack Squat Benefits

Targets Quads

The barbell hack squat puts extra pressure on your quadriceps muscles so they can grow.

Because they are made to hit your quads specifically, hack squats can be a serious strengthener for these lower leg muscles.

Strong quads are one of the best ways to get big legs. If you’re training for aesthetics, these muscles look seriously sexy when they’re well-developed.

Women and men can both benefit from stronger quads. On the female body, strong calves can look great and give you the look of wider hips.

And the short shorts trend for men is still in. Think about when Paul Mescal’s legs went viral. It’s clear that shorter hemlines are here to stay, so dudes can benefit from building thick thighs and strong calves too.

Less Back Pain

Some people can’t perform a regular back squat due to back pain. Loading your barbell onto the upper back and shoulders puts a lot of strain on your back if you struggle with any kind of back injuries.

The hack squat helps you avoid some of the lower back activation that you’d get from a traditional squat.

Although this comes at a loss to strengthening your core, you do take a lot of the pressure out of squatting if you have back pain.

Back pain is one the common reasons that people seek emergency medical care. In fact, back pain management is thought to account for about $200 billion in medical costs per year!

That’s an astounding amount to be spending on our backs. The better alternative to treating an achy back is not letting it happen in the first place.

If you’re prone to back pain, this version of a squat is a great way to reduce it or at least ensure it doesn’t get worse.

Improves Posterior Chain Health

Basically, the posterior chain means any muscles that run down the back (posterior) side of your body.

When we think about is, the full back body is interconnected from head to toe. These muscles help us sit down, lie down, and stretch out out spines.

More specifically, “posterior chain” in athletic training and physiotherapy usually refers to the muscles of the lower back body. Specifically, the hamstrings, glutes, and lower back.

Good posterior chain health is an important component to reducing back pain.

Using posterior-chain resistance training compared to general exercise has been shown to effectively reduce chronic lower back pain.

Back pain is one the most common causes of emergency medical treatment. We spend over $200 billion yearly on back pain management. Although it’s preventable in many ways, there are several modern lifestyle factors that majorly contribute to back pain prevalence.

Think about how we move, get from place to place and work in modern soceiety.

With work from home culture and spaced out neighborhoods that force us to drive everywhere, many of us stay seated a lot more than our ancestors did.

Although it may feel cozy to sit down, too much sitting, especially with poor posture, comes at a devastating cost to the health of your back.

Improves Confidence

Let’s face it, you’re fully getting after it and sticking your butt out into the middle of things. Duh.

If you were workout-shy, now you’re not.

Being willing to take on a move like the reverse hack squat that may feel a little silly or awkward is a confidence booster.

It shows you that no one else in the gym is really focused on how cool you look. Everyone is just here for themselves and to get a little stronger than they were the day before.

By being willing to push past looking silly, you can fearlessly take on the type of wild moves that will get your body jacked in the most efficient way— no matter who’s looking.

Big Picture

If you’re short on equipment but not in the mood to rearrange your gym schedule, you need to try the barbell hack squat.

Thankfully, this move is simple and all you need is a loaded barbell.

Although it may take some time to perfect lifting the weight underneath your butt, the barbell hack squat helps you stay upright and keep pain out of your lower back.

References

Encarnación-Martínez, A., García-Gallart, A., Pérez-Soriano, P., Catalá-Vilaplana, I., Rizo-Albero, J., & Sanchis-Sanchis, R. (2023). Effect of Hamstring Tightness and Fatigue on Dynamic Stability and Agility in Physically Active Young Men. Sensors (Basel, Switzerland), 23(3), 1633. https://doi.org/10.3390/s23031633