I’m running Hypertrophy I and am almost finished with Week 1. One thing that shocked me this week was how much less weight I was able to squat on the hack squat machine relative to the barbell squat. Currently, my e1rm for barbell low-back squat is around 240. However, for hack squats, my set of 10 @ rpe9 was with only 50lbs loaded. I believe the empty hack squat is 75lbs unloaded, so this should have totaled to 125 lbs. It was very difficult! Is this usual for hack squats relative to barbell squats, or was I making a mistake somehow? I went all the way to the bottom of the hack squat, where the slider stops, so well below parallel, almost like an ATG squat.
Seems pretty typical to me, especially if you’ve never done it before. For reference, I squat in the low 600’s and use high 200’s to low 300’s on the pendulum squat (similar to a hack squat).
A LBBS gives most folks every mechanical advantage to lift the most weight. As it turns out, it doesn’t transfer well to a lot of other things.
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That’s interesting! Have you found LBBS strength to transfer to split squats (rear foot elevated or otherwise), HBBS, or overall “athleticism” better or worse than other variations? Vice versa as well, curious if variation helps with LBBS numbers substantially.
I don’t know that overall athleticism has a definition, so I’ll decline to comment on it.
In any case, I do think a stronger squat (of any kind) transfers to most lower body movements to various degrees. The more overlap between the movements with respect to joint angle, muscle lengths, etc., the more transference in general. I think people should do a variety of squat patterns. I do not think only doing LBBS is the best way to get better at the LBBS.
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That’s fair. Was mostly thinking of the general S&C consensus some years back that unilateral work transferred very well into sprint times, skating, etc, but not sure how substantial that actually was.
In any case, I do think a stronger squat (of any kind) transfers to most lower body movements to various degrees. The more overlap between the movements with respect to joint angle, muscle lengths, etc., the more transference in general. I think people should do a variety of squat patterns. I do not think only doing LBBS is the best way to get better at the LBBS.
I think your templates reflect that philosophy well.