| Reply to this comment, September 23, 2011 at 6:54 am There, I said it……..happy? See his butt? Like back squats, hack squats can be done with machines or barbells. You just load and go. If that doesn’t impress you, I don’t know what will. | Reply to this comment, September 23, 2011 at 11:42 am | Reply to this comment, September 24, 2011 at 10:13 am Of course, when ANY exercise is done haphazardly it can result in injury – squats included. | Reply to this comment, September 23, 2011 at 11:11 am Well, I kinda am bashing it – my bad. Note: Pictures coming soon! Leg presses are seated exercises done on a leg press machine. The best two out of the three are the leg press and barbell squat – though there are hardcore hack machine users who swear that the hack machine is the best. About ‘Runner’s Face’: Fact or Urban Legend? | Reply to this comment, January 31, 2015 at 4:01 am You can seriously limit the possible back rounding if you do single leg leg press - one leg at a time. There’s a risk of getting stuck at the bottom of a squat and not being able to get back up. You can strain your shoulders if you’re supporting a heavy barbell. | Reply to this comment, September 23, 2011 at 9:05 am The standard position is best for leg press beginners. More to the point, with a power rack, I can have upwards of two to three athletes using it at once, and I can get A LOT more use out of it – squats, rack pulls, single leg variations, pull-up variations, push-ups off the pins, not to mention I can also hang a TRX off it as well. With back squats, you may be tempted to bow forward a little to help manage the weight on your shoulders. | Reply to this comment, July 16, 2014 at 7:15 pm Given that there are pros and cons to both exercises, the leg press versus squats question may have to be settled by what’s available to you and what your workout goal is on a given day. Here’s Tips on How and When to Exercise That Can Help, Benefits of Strenuous Exercise and How to Add It to Your Workout, The Pros and Cons of Running on an Empty Stomach. 6 years ago. AVOID: Rounding your back during the movement or holding your breath. Squats can also be done without any weights. Instead of compressing the spine, the leg press causes a rounding of the back, which over time might create more damage. Ever. Adopting a squatting stance with your toes pointed slightly outward helps as well. This exercise works the quads more because there’s less range of motion — and less emphasis on the glutes and hamstrings — than with a squat. Some runner's faces may take a beating from lack of sun…. Plant butt firmly in seat with back and head againt backrest. | Reply to this comment, April 22, 2014 at 3:13 am There’s no school like the old-school, and barbells are the original old-school training … | Reply to this comment, July 5, 2013 at 1:19 am With that flattening out you end up having that changing of the curve in your low back. One of the most effective ways to prevent your lower back from rounding is to spread your knees outward and ensure that they remain in line with your toes throughout the squat. | Reply to this comment, June 19, 2012 at 9:18 pm The most important safety tip for both leg presses and squats is to avoid overloading the weight. On one side of the fence, you have those who are interested soley in aesthetics and really only care about gaining citizenship to Quadszillaville, USA. Not my experience. Advantage of Leg Press. The world will go on, I promise you. 2, 5; Less common causes of SI joint pain include: Infections 3; Scoliosis (abnormal sideways curvature of the spine) 3; Discrepancy in leg length 3 The machine will move the same way whether both legs are pushing equally or if one is doing more of the work. | Reply to this comment, December 31, 2015 at 9:13 pm Single-leg work is often overlooked and forgotten. Kabuki Education Week – Hosted by Kabuki Strength – is a unique opportunity to attend 40+ live hour-long lectures… Read more, That Time I Attended a LIVE Fitness Workshop in 2020 Back in September my good friend David Otey was in town to teach the Pain Performance Specialist Certification (PPSC) at AMP Fitness here in the heart of Boston. Personally I’m not a big fan of mustaches. | Reply to this comment, March 3, 2018 at 11:11 am Leg Press Instructions. Having said that, if we were to jump over to the other side of the fence – the side where yours truely hangs out – we’d find that there many people who deem the leg press as nothing more than an oversized coat rack. But when you get to the end position of that leg press, what happens is your low back is flattening out. Tony Gentilcore. The weight is placed on your shoulders, behind your neck. "While using this machine, most people start from a rounded position, and then snap back up too quickly with a hyperextension of the lower back, and end up looking like a … Squats may help improve flexibility in your knees. I do leg press regularly already 3 1/2 years without back problems. | Reply to this comment, July 2, 2014 at 7:47 am | Reply to this comment, February 12, 2014 at 7:27 pm | Reply to this comment, September 23, 2011 at 7:44 am Stuff to Read While You’re Pretending to Work: 12/18/20, Appearance on the Pain Free Performance Podcast, Your Questions About Different Bodybuilding Exercises | Bodybuilding and Wellbeing Fitness, Weekend Fitness Tips #2 « Cube Dweller FitnessCube Dweller Fitness, [R2SR] a weight loss log - Page 7 - www.hardwarezone.com.sg, Weekly Review: Whey Protein Enhanced Coffee, Action Thinking, Garage Home Gym, FIT, Infographics & Leg Press | John PhungWeekly Review: Whey Protein Enhanced Coffee, Action Thinking, Garage Home Gym, FIT, Infographics & Leg Press, How to set up a very affordable home gym | BPPT. | Reply to this comment, September 23, 2011 at 8:07 am Yes, I do realize that I’m lending myself up to public criticism for even bringing this topic up, and that’s okay. I dislike the old school vertical leg press for this reason. Push hard with the heel, to the point of the toes coming up. STARTING POSITION: Sit in the machine, positioning your back and sacrum (tailbone) flat against the machine's backrest. Employ tempo training. I’d be remiss if I didn’t recognize that the leg press IS an excellent choice if your main goal is hypertrophy and building legs the size of Kansas. Because most of your body moves to perform squats, they tend to engage other muscle groups, such as your abs and hips, whereas leg presses just involve movement of the legs. Abdominal Bracing Exercises to Take the Strain Off Your Back. I think the phrase “functional training” has gotten so convoluted and watered-down within the past few years, that no one even knows what the heck it means anymore. Because of poor ankle flexibility I keep my feet high at press plate. | Reply to this comment, September 23, 2011 at 12:26 pm Granted, this is the small business owner in me speaking, but from a cost-benefit standpoint, leg press vs. squats is a no-brainer. Also you don't have to load as many plates. Lets get it on! Straighten your legs and release the leg press handles. | Reply to this comment, October 11, 2011 at 1:41 am Some types of squats are done with the weight starting on the ground and your knees bent. With your back fixed against a pad, you have a tremendous amount of weight lowering onto you, which, overall, is not ideal, especially with an achy lower back. Okay, enough of the jibber-jabber. | Reply to this comment, July 28, 2015 at 5:21 pm There aren’t many sports (or real life events for that matter) which ask for an individual to step into a contraption, slap 400 lbs on, sit down, and proceed to push said 400 lbs up and down an incline at 45 degrees using what mounts to a eight inch range of motion. The right exercise for you may have more to do with what you want to get out of your workout. | Reply to this comment, May 12, 2014 at 10:54 pm | Reply to this comment, September 23, 2011 at 8:44 am While this resistance machine offers a lot of benefits, it poses potential danger if stability is not maintained throughout the workout. | Reply to this comment, January 28, 2013 at 1:51 pm People with poor flexibility and/or who try to bring the sled too far back will round their low back terribly. Everything from the small, intrinsic muscles at the bottom of our feet to everything up the kinetic chain (glutes, hammies, quads, erectors, core, upper back, you name it) – all are firing like crazy to get the job done. | Reply to this comment, September 23, 2011 at 9:39 am Here, pretty much every muscle in the body is engaging and playing a role in the movement. Invariably there’s going to be an internet warrior or two who’s going to chime in and tell me how much I suck at life and otherwise go off on some tangent about how I don’t know what I’m talking about – all from the comfy confines of his their parent’s basement. The Leg Press is an awesome mass building compound leg exercise. The research is mixed on what is best. | Reply to this comment, February 15, 2016 at 10:21 am Anabolic window refers to the short time after training when your muscles are repairing and recovering. Using a weight you can’t control can cause knee injuries, back problems, and other issues. | Reply to this comment, December 28, 2011 at 12:09 pm This article tells you whether you can lose weight by walking 1…. Barbell Only. Though leg presses and squats work the same muscle groups, they do so from slightly different angles and with greater emphasis on one group or the other. | Reply to this comment, March 26, 2020 at 9:45 am Done incorrectly, the leg press can be a low back death trap. Place your feet on the resistance plate, toes pointing forward and adjust your seat and foot position so that the bend in your knees is at approximately 90 degrees with your heels flat. Placing your feet lower on the footpad increases your knees’ range of motion. There’s a risk of back injury, from leaning too far forward during the squat or rounding your back. Kabuki Education Week is Coming I’m excited to announce that I’ll be one of 40+ industry leaders taking part in Kabuki Education Week that’ll be taking place February 1-7, 2021. A barbell hack squat is done by standing in front of the barbell, bending your knees to reach down behind you to grab the barbell, and then standing up with the barbell across your buttocks or upper hamstrings. Exercise #3: Leg Press. A 2018 study looked at the strength, body composition, and functional outcome of participants who did either back squats, leg presses, or a combination of the two exercises. | Reply to this comment, November 21, 2012 at 5:48 pm But before I go on, I know what some of you may be thinking:  “Well there aren’t many sports or real lift events that require us to stand in a power rack, place a (loaded) barbell on our back and squat it, either. | Reply to this comment, September 23, 2011 at 8:08 am It makes about as much sense as Tom Selleck shaving off his mustache. And that’s why I feel squats have MUCH MORE carryover to sport and real life events compared to the leg press – just by the mere fact that you actually have to, you know, work harder to complete the task. The leg press locks your back into position while demanding lower-body movement to accommodate. © 2005-2020 Healthline Media a Red Ventures Company. No. This is just MY opinion, and believe me, I’m not that much of a pompous ass to think I’m 100% correct in my line of thinking. To start, sit with your back against a padded backrest and your feet on two large footrests. | Reply to this comment, December 28, 2011 at 1:08 pm Conversely, with squats, the body itself has to provide the INTERNAL stability to perform the movement correctly so as not to tip over, fall on your face, get stapled by the bar, etc. You may be tempted to pile on more weight than you can handle. Learn how to avoid pushing your range of motion beyond your capability for…. Valid point. | Reply to this comment, September 23, 2011 at 12:32 pm | Reply to this comment, October 11, 2011 at 11:20 pm At the end of the study, the researchers concluded that both exercises were beneficial as part of a lower-body workout program. The leg press is a machine-based lower body exercise that can be used to build quadriceps hypertrophy and improve squat strength. | Reply to this comment, September 26, 2011 at 3:53 pm To prevent injury, be sure that you do not exceed the recommended angles (approximately 80-90? For leg press, 90 degrees has given me the best results in the quads (with the least amount lower back involvement). This … The closer your knees come to your chest, the more likely your lower back will round and lose contact with the pad. You risk injuring your knees if you try to press too much weight or lock your knees when extending your legs. The resultant lumbar flexion produces herniating conditions for the disc!”. They’re done in a vertical position, so your … Pushing with one leg at a time can aid with leg strength imbalances.This is an amazing glute workout. Use a lighter weight than you normally would if you were only doing leg presses or squats on their own. Front squats tend to be easier on the knees than back squats, and they may also be safer for your back. Does Walking 1 Hour Every Day Aid Weight Loss? You'll burn more calories and boost your…, Overstretching can result in an injury, such as a strain or a sprain. | Reply to this comment, September 23, 2011 at 6:50 am I’m picking up what you’re putting down. Here is how…, Abdominal bracing is a technique that can help you protect injury-prone areas like the neck and lower back from straining. A useful cue for this is to focus on “spreading the floor apart” with your feet. To start, sit with your back against a padded backrest and your feet on two large footrests. With some squats, you start with your legs straight and the weight behind your neck. Single Leg Press: For those with lower back concerns this is possibly the best and safest way to use the leg press machine as it keeps the pelvis in a more neutral position. Move to Single-Leg Work. For instance, it’s not uncommon for physical therapists to program leg presses for those post-surgery in order to regain motor control and/or strength in the quadriceps in a more controlled setting. But, I hope that my off the cuff post was able to shed some light on why I’m not a huge fan of leg presses. 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