Reverse Hack Squat: What Happens When You Squat Backwards?

It may look a little silly.

You’re in the middle of a packed gym, hiding your face and sticking your butt out towards everyone.

That’s gotta take some serious confidence. But although it may look a little ridiculous, is the reverse hack squat so effective that it’s worth it?

Find out if flipping around on the hack squat machine will work wonders for your glutes.

First up, let’s get to know which muscles hack squats— of any variation— will work.

What is a Hack Squat?

If we want to flip things around, first, it’s important to understand what a regular hack squat is and how it works your muscles.

No, it’s not named that way as a “hack” to get more muscular legs.

Hack squats are named for their originator, pro wrestler and strongman George Hackenschmidt.

This 1800s athlete was also nicknamed “the Russian Lion” (if there is a Russian Lion squat variation, please let us know! That sounds gnarly).

Hackenschmidt is credited with pioneering the hack squat machine and the bench press. What this machine was designed to do is target your quadriceps more specifically and take some of the effort of a squat out of your back.

Let’s take a look at the leg muscles you’d be working if you did the same.

Reverse 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 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.

Reverse Hack Squat Benefits

Targets Glutes and Hamstrings

So keeping this in mind, we know that the regular hack squat mostly targets your quads.

Naturally, if we flip this move backwards, hack squats target the other key leg muscles in your posterior chain: the hamstrings and glutes.

This has to do with the angles of your knees and hips. In a traditional front-facing hack squat, the upright position of your back helps to lessen the angle of hip flexion compared to a traditional barbell back squat. If your torso doesn’t come as far forward, you don’t flex your hips as much.

Because of this, your knees take over and do most of the flexion here. This means your quads are working overtime to extend your knees once you push back up to come out of your squat. It’s a great exercise to isolate and grow this muscle.

When we flip things around and reverse hack squat, the most obvious change about the move is that your back is no longer pressed against the machine’s back pad.

Since your back is now floating free, it’s got less upright support to reduce your hip flexion angle. Your body tends to come more forward here, putting more resistance on your hip flexor muscles.

This means that to counter your movement, the hamstrings need to work harder to extend your hips while you come out of your squat. Your glutes lend a helping hand too.

Essentially, it’s the opposite movement pattern to the front hack squat, so it targets the muscles on the opposite sides of your legs.

Improves Posterior Chain Health

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

When we think about it, the full back body is interconnected from head to toe. These muscles help us sit down, lie down, and stretch out our 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 of 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 of 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, several modern lifestyle factors majorly contribute to back pain prevalence.

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

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 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 most efficiently— no matter who’s looking.

How to Reverse Hack Squat

To start:

• Set-Up: Load up your machine with a comfortable squat weight. Note that you may be able to lift more weight than you think with a hack squat vs. a barbell squat. That being said, don’t overdo it too much. This will tire you out fast.
• Body Position: Step onto the platform of your hack squat machine. Face the front of your body toward the back plate. Place your shoulders under the shoulder pads. Stand with your feet slightly wider than hip-width. Turn your toes out slightly. Grab the side grip handles for support.
• Squat: Slowly bend your knees to let the backplate move down on the machine. Keep your back straight and planted against the back pad. Keep going until the angle between your thighs and calves is at 90 degrees or slightly less.
• Reverse: Exhale to drive your feet into the footplate and reverse your movement. Push through your heels and straighten your legs to come back to your starting position.
• Reps: For strength, try 5 sets of 4-6 reps with a heavy weight. If you are training for hypertrophy, aim for 4 sets of 6-8 reps with a moderately heavy weight.

Big Picture

Training reverse hack squats is a great way to build your leg muscles and your confidence.

This hack squat variation works the opposite leg muscles compared to a traditional hack squat. Where regular hack squats keep your back straight to target the quadriceps, reverse hack squats let you take your back off the back pad.

This switch-up helps target the hamstrings and glutes.

These muscles, along with the lower back are known as your posterior chain. When it comes to dealing with back pain, it’s important to strengthen posterior chain muscles to the best of your ability.

Strong muscles in the back body may be a good way to alleviate the soreness you feel in the lower back.

References :

Casiano VE, Sarwan G, Dydyk AM, et al. Back Pain. [Updated 2023 Dec 11]. In: StatPearls [Internet]. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing; 2024 Jan-. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK538173/

Tataryn, N., Simas, V., Catterall, T., Furness, J., & Keogh, J. W. L. (2021). Posterior-Chain Resistance Training Compared to General Exercise and Walking Programmes for the Treatment of Chronic Low Back Pain in the General Population: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Sports medicine - open, 7(1), 17. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40798-021-00306-w