maratoolNarrow Stance Hack Squats
How to do the narrow stance hack squats
- Like the Hack Squat, this exercise works the muscles of the leg. The narrow stance targets the external muscles more efficiently.
- Lie face up on a Hack Squat machine with your shoulders against the pad.
- Place your feet facing forward at a distance of 6 inches apart with your toes point slightly outward.
- Release the dock levers and place your hands on the handgrips.
- Drawing your abs in, extend your body standing upright.
- Lower your body to a squatting position so your knees are bent as if you were sitting down.
- Return to the starting position.
Muscles worked
The prime movers are the quadriceps across the front of the thigh, which straighten the knee and, just as importantly, control it on the way back down.
Because more than one joint is moving, the work does not stay in one place: the hamstrings assist hip extension and slow the knee down; the calves control the ankle and hold the heel position; the glutes finish hip extension.
Every exercise for:QuadricepsHamstringsCalvesGlutes
How this movement works
The working muscles shorten as they drive the load away from you, and more than one joint changes angle to do it. Load spreads down a chain instead of sitting on one muscle, which is why a compound push handles more weight than any single-joint alternative — and why joint position, not the muscle, is usually what fails first.
It is filed under strength: produce force against resistance for a countable number of repetitions, and progress the resistance over time.
What you need
The machine fixes the path, removing the balance demand and letting you train close to failure without a spotter. The cost is the stabilising work a free weight would have made you do.
Every exercise using:Machine
These train the quadriceps too, using equipment this one does not:
- Narrow Stance Squat with Barbellbarbell
- One-Arm Overhead Kettlebell Squatskettlebell
- Pile Squat with Dumbbelldumbbell
- Quadriceps-SMRfoam roll
- Rear Leg Raisesbody only
Difficulty
Listed at intermediate level. It assumes you already own the underlying pattern and can hold position under load — if the position breaks before the target muscle tires, drop back to a beginner variation until it does not.
Of the 173 quadriceps exercises in this database, 62 are listed at intermediate level.
Illustration: Everkinetic — CC BY-SA 4.0 — license. Modified versions are shared under the same license. Full attribution →
ⓘ Informational only — not a substitute for professional fitness or medical advice.