Compound leg exercises

[qbkilla]

I've never had knee pain from squats or leg press or belt squat. Pendulum is hit or miss. Every hack squat I've ever tried hurts my knees like a mfer. Doesn't matter how I place my feet, they all hurt.

Curious about other people, is there anyone who the hack feels fine but say...leg press or squats cause pain? Considering I've tried going wide, narrow, glute or quad focused on all these exercises...why would certain equipment cause pain while others don't with such similar movement patterns?

 

[Heath82]

Squats used to always hurt my knees… started putting compound movements towards the end of my workout where I’m using less weight and it went away

 

[massephase]

I've never had knee pain from squats or leg press or belt squat. Pendulum is hit or miss. Every hack squat I've ever tried hurts my knees like a mfer. Doesn't matter how I place my feet, they all hurt.

Curious about other people, is there anyone who the hack feels fine but say...leg press or squats cause pain? Considering I've tried going wide, narrow, glute or quad focused on all these exercises...why would certain equipment cause pain while others don't with such similar movement patterns?

For me all of those will cause knee pain if I am not careful with execution or if I overdo it with load and frequency. At once a week, the probability for overuse issues is low, but with 2x a week I will get problems after a while if the compound exercise is the first in order and the load heavy.

What helped me was going slow on the eccentric and keeping tension in the glute/ hamstrings in the deepest position. Also going really deep actually helped me as opposed to stopping short. Controlling the weight all the way, stopping in the stretched position and controlling out.

When it gets to the point where everything hurts, then the only solution for me is skipping quads for 2 weeks.

I did some routines where it was heavy legs 3 times a week and honestly is impossible for me

 

[K Bomb]

Honestly could be so many things.
Knee pain is an issue for me if my IT band is tight or I am bouncing out of the hole and not keeping tension on the quad.

Rolling the IT band and keeping tension on the quad are two general advices that may help. Previously I had knee pain doing heavy extensions, something I think many do. Nothing wrong with heavy controlled continuous tension extensions with a nice squeeze at the top, and doing extensions like this before heavy presses may help.

Hard to say more without seeing the movement.

 

[trackstar19]

I had to stop doing hacks entirely due to knee pain. Doesn’t matter my foot placement it just kills my knees. I can do regular squats, etc. and get some pain but it is manageable … the hack squat pain became unmanageable and that was while on bpc and tb500 so I can only imagine how bad it really could have been. I know a lot of people in the same boat.

Perhaps knee wraps, sleeves, etc. help I’m not sure I don’t mess with any of that stuff

 

[Fleezy]

i have to save hack squats until after leg press


they kill my knees if i do em before... perfectly fine afterwards

 

[Big A]

Hacks move in a straight line. The body is not designed that way. It moves in arcs. Hacks make the joints move unnaturally, so they can easily hurt. Squats move naturally.

 

[AllOkJumpmaster]

Hard to know, everyone's ergonomics, structures, and previous injuries can all be at play. There are many varioations of hack squat machines, pendulums, basket squats, leg presses....every machine is slightly different. Playing around with angles, foot placement, using pads to change angles can all be options for experimentation. That said, you absolutely do not need compound movements to build / maintain great legs. You don't need them. You can build great legs with just leg curls, seated hams etc. If you are adamant about compounds, you can also experiment with other variations...goblet squats, smith machine, sissy, SSB, front squat with front squat harness, or my personal favorite, The Marrs Bar.

Do you use sleeves or wraps?

 

[Fa Seeshus]

On leg press/hack machines i will pad the positioning of my hips so i can engage the glutes at the bottom and take stress off the knee. Each apparatus is different.

 

[Golden]

I blitz my quads with loads of leg extensions just to get my knees warm. With hack squats I’ve started reverse banding (think it’s called that) so that tension on my knees at the bottom is reduced. Seems to have taken away a lot of the pain for me

 

[psychor]

On hacks I have had to reduce the weight while still keeping my feet low and narrow because of knee pain and groin pain also. I had to really slow down the movement with a distinct pause at the bottom although towards the end of my last working set I may just keep moving in a piston like pattern but still not a hard bounce out of the bottom. I just got done with legs within the hour tonight(early morning where I am), and I was just thinking how my leg training has changed over the years. I've been lifting since around '92 when I was in the Marines.
I squatted for probably 20-25 years as my primary movement and then transitioned to front squats with my heels elevated for most of that time. After a few back injuries I stuck with front squats and had somewhat good results with it but still couldn't "nail" or hit my quads the way I wanted and wasn't getting the results for my efforts. I moved to hacks around 2020 and had the best gains in my quads even after all those years of squatting and front squats. I not to long ago was forced to go lighter on hacks due to constant groin strain(s) and even with going lighter I still had to be extremely careful because I've had a few groin injuries in the past and I could feel the pressure while doing hacks. Even though I foam rolled, stretched and strengthened my adductors over the years I still had the groin strain while doing hacks. I started split squats about 4-5 weeks ago and I wish I had done them from the beginning even though I did them sporadically from time to time. I place my back foot on a flat bench press and put an aerobics step with a heel elevation wedge on top of that and I'm able to get all the way down with full knee flexion and it really targets my quads like no other movement that I've tried with hacks coming in a close second in that regard. I now don't have any pain or discomfort in my groin or knees with split squats and I'm really isolating my quads more than I have with any other pressing movement. I hold one d-bell on my non-working side for my work sets. i started with bodyweight but have moved up the weight I use by 20 pounds from the first week I started and it feels safe but still effective. I really extend my knee as about as far forward over my toe that I can do safely with the weight that I'm using and I'm getting great results. Just wanted to share my experience as someone who wasn't blessed with good genetics and struggled for years trying to get my quads to grow even though I was doing everything I knew to do and working hard but not seeing the results relative to my efforts. Just my experience and .02 cents.

 

[KingOfSushi]

If hacks hurt, you don’t have to do them. Stick with what has been working.

 

[qbkilla]

Hard to know, everyone's ergonomics, structures, and previous injuries can all be at play. There are many varioations of hack squat machines, pendulums, basket squats, leg presses....every machine is slightly different. Playing around with angles, foot placement, using pads to change angles can all be options for experimentation. That said, you absolutely do not need compound movements to build / maintain great legs. You don't need them. You can build great legs with just leg curls, seated hams etc. If you are adamant about compounds, you can also experiment with other variations...goblet squats, smith machine, sissy, SSB, front squat with front squat harness, or my personal favorite, The Marrs Bar.

Do you use sleeves or wraps?

Never used either. No history of knee pain they are in great shape...just the hack. Even with 0 weight added that thing hurts. Big A's explanation makes sense, never thought about that, hack does really lock you into that straight line.

 

[tenny]

hacks used to be my fav. movement. i would do 7...8 plates per side. and feel safer
doing it, as opposed to squats (i still did them) but hacks just take most of the core out of
the equation. i would also roll a floor pad up, put it under my hips.

now what hurts my knees are leg curls, they just feel like its pulling my lower away from the upper leg.
if i do them i will just do static holds, with a long...maybe 10 second neg. for a few reps.

 

[Mufasa123]

That machine has been irritating people's knees as long as I remember (so late 80s/early 90s). That's a clue right there. I've not experienced pain on them but also haven't used one since the early 90s myself.

There is the original barbell exercise known as hack squat. Not done commonly but some people love them.

 

[bbxtreme]

Hacks helped bring my legs up in the 2024 season. They were my core movement.

This season I can’t go near them or standard leg press without knee pain. I tried every sleeve, stance and trick.

I’ve moved to Cybex free motion leg press (squat press) and belt squats now as my core movements. Zero knee pain and can really focus on controlled tension with weight through the quads.

 

[gauge22-v2]

Hacks have always killed my knees....and yes this was in my 20s as well.

One thing that has helped my aching knees now is doing sissy squats, unweighted, at the end of quad day. I have no idea why but perhaps the ROM and the massive stretch you get is doing something....

 

[Sectør]

Hacks usually hurt my knees but what I’ve found has helped

-Light 10 minute walk to get the joints warmed up
-some light quad/hamstring/hip stretching
-proper warmup progression with no weight, then Light weight then working set weight

But most importantly I’ve dropped the load I was doing and went to more of a time under tensions style where I’ll do a 2-3 second negative into the hole and the explode out. I feel like if you’re diving into the hole quick then trying to quickly reverse all momentum then it really stresses the knees out and causes pain

But the slower more controlled reps where you go into the hole slow, maybe even do a slight pause before doing the positive part of the rep—it’s really helped my knees a lot. Still get knee pain here and there, but it used to be so bad after my leg workouts where even just driving home from the gym with my foot on the gas peddle was causing me knee pain to where I felt I needed to pull over out of traffic, and now I don’t get that anymore

 

[artie farkalarty]

I love hack squats. Maybe it’s got to do with my anatomy/ limb length, but I always feel them with minimal to zero knee pain. I do think the ergonomics of specific machines is a thing too. I love that Cybex squat press and leg press in general but some are set up wierd. Currently at the place I’m training they have a LP that just feels wonky. The seat and footplate or just not on the same plane so I can’t put my feet on the middle of the plate or it feels like a high leg press with a 6” ROM. In order to feel it in the quads I have to put the balls of my feet on the edge of the plate. Limits the weight I can use but at least it’s giving me quad activation. Feels somewhere between a LP and sissy squat so I barely use it. Just an example.

 

[Brocksamson2.0]

I've never had knee pain from squats or leg press or belt squat. Pendulum is hit or miss. Every hack squat I've ever tried hurts my knees like a mfer. Doesn't matter how I place my feet, they all hurt.

Curious about other people, is there anyone who the hack feels fine but say...leg press or squats cause pain? Considering I've tried going wide, narrow, glute or quad focused on all these exercises...why would certain equipment cause pain while others don't with such similar movement patterns?

how much glute work are you doing?