Holy crap what happened here! 30 rep hack squats...

[ward065]

yesterday in my leg workout i did my squats and hack squats, for my hack squats i did Two Sets of 30 rep hack squats- totally deadly- set 1 with 400lbs and set 2 with 380lbs.

As i was wrapping up my second set i noticed my legs became NASTY RED......which went away after my workout thankfully! But my left leg got swollen or something on the side of my quad...it was red....it almost felt like one of those prop injection things, but the thing is i haven't hit my left leg in 2 weeks with any gear. So today it hurts like hell when i walk, what happened did i slightly pull a muscle or something? When i stretch my leg it does help, but the pain is still there- and it's still slightly red and swollen. I think it had to do something with those hack squats- i may have pushed it just a bit too hard. Any advice here?

[Papi93]

Does your foot plate go out far enough? Sometimes the foot plate is so close that you can not walk your feet out far enough and it puts a great deal of stress on your quadriceps. These type of hack squat machines I have always avoided because they provide too much knee extension (quads) and not enough hip extension (glutes and hams) for me.

[SwoleCat]

Ditto, I bet that is what it was. I use the smith machine and keep a narrow stance and put the feet in front of me to mimick the knee-killing hack squat machine.

~SC~

[Papi93]

I've only had the good fortune to train on a hack squat that had a long foot plate once. No knee pain and my quads never looked better. As Swolecat said, this can be imitated on the Smith Machine. The nice part about a good hack squat machine is that it stabilizes your torso and places all the stress on the legs. With the Smith, your hips always want to pop forward, at the top, and you really have to fight this to keep tension on the legs. Not sure if you have this happen to you Swolecat?

[SwoleCat]

Yeah, it forces you to not lock out at the top, but that's actually a good thing.

~SC~

[Papi93]

Yeah, it forces you to not lock out at the top, but that's actually a good thing.

~SC~

I guess I didn't word it correctly. I've found it easier to keep constant tension on the legs with a good hack squat machine. The trouble I have with the Smith Machine is that the hips went to come forward, at the top, and release the tension on the legs. Do you have any experience with this?

[Papi93]

Flexor? ?Donde estas, mi hermano?