PM

EXERCISE OF THE MONTH

UNILATERAL INVERTED HACK SQUAT

A unique but very effective exercise the inverted hack squat is a hack squat performed with the athlete facing the machine rather than away as occurs in a traditional hack squat (Figure 1). This exercise demonstrates one way of adapting current gymnasium equipment, to make it more specific to your particular sports needs.

The benefits of the inverted hack squat is that you can work through a range of motion in a position that is more specific to running and it can be performed both bilaterally and unilateral. More importantly it allows the athlete the opportunity to overload the body in the rear leg extension position, which occurs as you extend your leg back forcefully to propel yourself along when sprinting. It is important to remember to keep the torso and hips stable throughout the movement to ensure maximum transference and to reduce the chance of injury. The exercise can be performed slowly with a heavy load or in a ballistic fashion using a lighter load. As sprinting takes place in numerous sports, this exercise can be present in the resistance program of many sportsmen and women.  

You may have to look around to find a gym that has a hack squat which suits your dimensions. Unfortunately, many traditional hack squat machines have not been designed to be used in an inverse manner and as a consequence, you sometimes encounter a cross bar which prevents you performing the movement properly. For further information or professional assistance in developing a sport specific program contact PM.

Figure 1. An athlete performing an inverted hack squat on a specifically designed inverted hack squat machine. The  particular equipment was designed by Anthony Blazevich, BHMS (Hons) who is currently undertaking his PhD on the effects of resistance training specificity on sprint performance. He is the conditioning consultant to the NSW Country Rugby Team, North Coast Academy of Sport and previously to a number of NRL.referees. Although, this equipment has been specifically developed for use in the inverse fashion, individuals can perform the same training by using an appropriately designed traditional hack squat.