Hack Squat Machines

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Hack Squat Machines for Sale: Load the Quads, Spare the Back A hack squat machine puts your back against an angled pad and carries the load on your shoulders or hips, so you can drive through a squat pattern without a bar on your spine. The machines here run from linear sleds that track close to vertical, through 45-degree sleds, to machines that pair a hack squat with a leg press on one base. Linear Hack Squats, and Why the Angle Is a Separate Question These get treated as one choice and they are two. Linear describes the carriage: the sled rides on linear bearings and rails, which is what makes the travel smooth and repeatable under load. The angle is a different spec entirely, and a machine can be both. One of ours is a 30-degree linear sled, which is the pairing people least expect when they have only ever seen a 45. The angle is measured off the ground, and it is what changes how the lift feels. A 45-degree sled is the familiar reference point, the one most people have used in a gym. Drop to 30 and the rails sit closer to horizontal, so the sled travels more across the floor than up it and the movement leans toward pushing the load away from you. Go steeper and it runs nearer vertical, which is closer to a squat. The angle also decides how much floor the machine wants, because the carriage and every plate on it travel that whole path. The badge does not always settle it either. Some machines sold as hack squats, selectorized ones in particular, are closer to a seated leg press set at a slight angle. The test is what your body is doing: a hack squat has you standing on a platform with the pad behind your back and shoulders, taking the load through a squat pattern. If you are seated and pressing a plate away from you, it is doing a different job whatever the label on it says. What Plate Loaded Gets You on a Hack Squat Rack Every hack squat rack on this page is plate loaded, and that is the norm for the category rather than a compromise. There is no stack to run o