@fireblaze Interesting, were your feet towards the top of the platform? Also which way were you facing?
When my face was towards the pad, it definitely felt more posterior chain focused. Also if I’m facing away from the pad, if my feet are too high on the platform (similar to high feet positioning in the leg press) I felt nearly all of it in my hams and glutes
@oscarwip Any sources on this? Everyone including me I see do this gets a massive quad pump
Maybe your form is different and is emphasizing glutes? I fail to see how this would be glute dominant if your back side is literally posted up against the pad
@lepomis you'll obviously get a quad pump if you're doing anything that extends the knee. But with the v squat, because of the arc of machine, you'll notice that your butt automatically shoots back from the bottom position shifting a lot of the load to the glutes.
Don't get me wrong, this is still a great exercise, but I would prefer something like a hack/pendulum/smith machine squat/ leg press if I would want to preferentially target the quads.
@dawn16 Same, it forces you to get your knees over toes while not allowing lumbar flexion, so it’s perfect for me. I just couldn’t shake the lower back pain from high bar squats as I round my lower back the instant I break parallel, so frustrating
@lepomis I work these in quite often. Tbh the past 3 months I haven’t even done a barbell squat. I have always had strong legs and my barbell squat was one of my favorite exercises and I was always able to go very heavy on it. At least heavy for me. At 145lbs I was putting up 315 for sets of 8. I always had that mindset that squat was something you had to do to get big legs. I watch a lot of Eugene Teo and Mike Israetel videos now because when I started there wasn’t nearly as much free bodybuilding resources like today. After watching them I realized I was honestly neglecting machines like this because I had a bad mindset and looked down on them as an easy way around squats. I’ll say switching over to belt squats, hack squats, and the V squat or front squat machine(whatever you call this) has really helped my leg growth tremendously. I truly feel like these machines isolate the legs much better while taking a lot of load off the back to maximize growth. I switch up which ones I use. I do legs twice a week. One day is a quad focused day and I’ll do one of these 3 with leg press, walking lunges, and leg extensions. Sometimes I’ll sub either leg press or lunges with a glute focused machine. I’ll also add in one hamstring exercise and one adductor exercise. I always start with calves to isolate them too because I have poor calve genetics so I isolate them in the beginning for growth. Then my second day is a hamstring focused day but I’ll have one quad focused exercise added in also which will be another one of these machines. I also do an abductor exercise on this day. This has proven to give me the best growth over the last few months and I highly recommend trying machines more if you have that mindset that I had about squats. The belt squat is my personal favorite if I’m being honest.
@tri21mom Man we are very alike haha I also have terrible calf genetics so I’m gonna steal that regarding moving calves to the front of my session. Hamstrings are the only things that noticeably grow on my lower half
I agree though, finding what works is much better than doing what is “supposed” to be done
@tri21mom Yup just started going much deeper and feeling the flex over prioritizing the contraction, had to drop the weight by like 60% but man does it burn haha
@lepomis Machine hack squat is my main supplemental lift for developing quads. Leg presses forces me to use much bigger weights, which leads to CNS fatigue. I use full range of motion, going straight to the bottom of hack squat machine. None of that half-repping above parallel - this never gave any significant results. 3-4 sets in a 10-15 rep range.
I still do low bar back squats - they're placed as a main lift, and I program them strictly for strength. 12-week peaking program, 3-5 sets in 1-5 reps range. That's enough for me.
RDL, leg curls , core stability and calf raises on top of that and you get a full lower body workout.
@confusedgirl98 Good point, think some kind of squat, Bulgarian/split squat, and leg extension will do the trick? That’s my general quad routine at the moment, trying to get 12-20 sets per week
@lepomis Guess so, you'll have to experiment and find what works best for you.
I only do about 10 sets per week. Split over lunges, BB squats, V/Hacksquats, and leg press, and the good girl/bad girl machine, if you can't that as quads
@lepomis I'm 5'8 with short stems and a long torso so could be a biomechanical difference, but many of the elite guys in the gym who had different proportions reported something similar
@lepomis I know a lot of people say it doesn’t target quads, maybe that has to do with their body proportions, I have really long legs, so I can get in a very deep knee flexion with v squats. I really don’t feel them in my glutes or hams at all. I love them, plus I only have to use a couple plates per side to get a killer pump.
