Barbell Hack Squat
A squat-like stand-up with the barbell held behind the legs, driving the knees forward to load the quads.
How to do it
- Set a loaded barbell on the floor behind your calves with a shoulder-width stance.
- Reach back and grip the bar with a double overhand grip, arms straight.
- Brace the trunk and set a slightly more upright torso than a deadlift start.
- Drive the feet into the floor and extend the knees and hips until you are standing tall.
- Keep the bar close to the back of the legs as it travels up.
- Lower the bar down the same path until it is just off the floor and repeat.
Key technique cue
Don't push the hips back like a deadlift; stay upright with the bar close to the legs.
Common mistakes
- ✕ Sitting the hips back like a deadlift, which drags the bar into the glutes.
- ✕ Setting the feet wider than the shoulders so the hands cannot stay close.
- ✕ Rounding the torso instead of staying upright over the quads.
- ✕ Letting the knees cave in as you stand.
Benefits
- ✓ Loads the quads with a barbell when no hack-squat machine is available.
- ✓ Keeps the torso more vertical than a conventional deadlift.
- ✓ Hits the vastus medialis hard at the top of knee extension.
Progression: from easier to harder
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Step 1 -
Step 2 You are here - Barbell Hack Squat
- Reverse Hack Squat
About the exercise
The barbell hack squat is the original hack: a bar behind the calves, hands pronated on the shaft, then a stand-up that looks like a reverse deadlift but keeps the torso more vertical so the quads take the load. The quads are the target with abs, adductors, calves, glutes, hamstrings, and lower back as secondary, at an intermediate grade. The bar stays behind the body for the whole rep. A back squat shares the same knee-and-hip extension, but the hack's behind-the-legs load is what shifts the work onto the front of the thigh. It is not a machine hack squat; it suits quad-emphasis accessory work and gyms that have a bar but no hack-squat sled.
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