Hack Squats and Knee Pain: How to Make Hack Squats Safe for Knees?

Hack squat machine is the latest rage which people have adopted for better health and body strength. Like every other exercise, hack squat also has some advantages and disadvantages and this guide talks about it from the knee perspective. Meant for lower body development, hack squat is a popular exercise which tends to provide you benefits of better health. Gym exercise helps in making you fit and helps to build bigger legs so experts recommend hitting your quads heavily to strengthen yourself from this exercise.

While going for hack squats, you need to take care of your posture in order prevent getting a knee pain or injury. In contrast to traditional form of weight squat, there is no need to balance yourself, but hack squat has to be done in a correct way using the correct technique. Otherwise the first effect your body feels of a troublesome exercise of hack squat is on your knees. Being sensitive part of the body, there are chances that soft bones will get injured in quick speed. There is a protocol to perform in exercise, especially in hack squats owing to the great amount of strength that goes into making the hack squat moves.

Hack squats will damage your muscle and ligaments of knee if you have placed your feet in the wrong position. It is important to learn the right way of doing Hack Squats from your trainer and it is best if Hack Squats are done under the supervision of your trainer. Not taking a pre-workout diet becomes the second reason for hack squats damaging your knees.

When you starve, heavy exercises like hack squats rob your body from sufficient stamina to withstand the burden of doing hack squats. Knee being the weight bearing joint, cripples down from excess weight, which it feels from upper body through hack squats.

It is very important before you start on any heavy form of exercise or weight training including Hack Squats to learn to make your exercise moves in a right way and using the right technique. Lifting heavy weight is a game and taking right positions is the key to save your knee from wear and tear and bones loss resulting during Hack Squat exercise. Experts recommend that you should keep in mind the following points if you love weight training including Hack Squats:

A diet rich in protein (only to the extent that it does not damage your kidney) and calcium ensures your bone loss is curtailed. Include protein rich food and if possible, natural and local food does the needful. Ask your doctor or weight trainer to ensure you have a diet rich in essential nutrients. A golden tip we share is that, as you age, focus more on a diet which is rich in protein instead of calcium.

While doing and before taking your position for hack squats, form and maintain a good body posture. Position your feet and point your toes outward, this makes your quadriceps muscles firm and also eases the pressure from the ligament of knees.

It is the position of your toes which has to be correct, knees should not jut out past your feet; otherwise the pressure on your knees cannot get minimized. Take care that you are not locking your knees together and legs have to be kept straight. When you are settled comfortably at your position, lift up and move the safety handles. Your thighs need to be lowered and while you lower down, inhale slowly. There needs to be a contract between quadriceps and hamstrings and strengthen your heels to their original position, but keep exhaling slowly during this process. Locking the knees together can be very injurious and during pulling up the weight, this has to be kept in mind.

While maintaining the posture for hack squats, don’t overload your knees and this is possible when your toes are not placed outwards. Besides that, be aware of any discomfort resulting from any stance that you take during hack squats. If you have trouble arising out of some stance, it is recommended to stop doing Hack Squats immediately.

Execute the hack squats through weightlifting gear; so it is important to get good quality shoes and there has to be a rubber thread which provides your feet a firm grip on the floor. Knee wraps are necessary, so that undue pressure is not exerted on the knee joints. This especially is important in case you have some past knee-related injury. Besides protecting your knees, knee wraps also keeps considerable amount of strain and pain at bay which you experience during weight lifting in hack squats.

You want to increase muscle mass, it’s well and good, and if you have to begin it with hack squats, it’s better. But your knees can get injured when the same hack squats are done carelessly and without any gear. So these things have to be kept in mind to avoid any kind of wear and tear arising out of hack squats. With little care like lifting the weight safely and keeping your back straight when performing hack squat, goes a long way in maintaining your body posture and boosting your muscle mass miraculously with hack squat.