Pendulum Squat
oec:pendulum-squat
A machine-based squat variation utilizing a swinging counterbalanced lever arm to heavily load the quadriceps through a deep range of motion with reduced lumbar strain.
Generated by gemini-3.8-flash from the sources below. No person has checked this record. Don't rely on it for safety.
Also called: Pendulum Hack Squat, Machine Pendulum Squat, Pendular Hack
How to do it
Setup
- Step onto the footplate and press your entire back and hips firmly against the back pad.
- Settle your shoulders beneath the shoulder pads and place your feet roughly shoulder-width apart on the platform.
- Extend your hips and knees to take the weight off the stops, then rotate or pull the safety release handle outward.
Movement
- Inhale, brace your core, and keep your head and torso firmly pinned against the backrest.
- Control the descent by bending at your knees and hips, allowing your knees to travel forward over your toes along the machine's curved path.
- Lower yourself smoothly until your thighs reach or break parallel with the footplate while keeping your heels flat.
- Drive through your midfoot to push the platform away, extending your knees and hips back to the starting position without locking out aggressively.
Breathing
Inhale and brace your torso before descending, then exhale forcefully as you drive through the sticking point back toward the top.
Cues
- Keep back glued to the pad
- Drive knees forward over toes
- Push the floor away through midfoot
Common faults
- Allowing the pelvis to tuck and lift off the back pad at the bottom of the rep.
- Limit your depth to the range where your hips remain in full contact with the backrest.
- Heels peeling up off the footplate during deep knee flexion.
- Reposition your feet slightly higher on the platform to accommodate your ankle mobility.
- Hyperextending and slamming the knees into lockout at the top.
- Reverse the motion just short of complete knee lockout to maintain constant tension on the quadriceps.
Safety
- Test and verify the height of the safety stop mechanism before loading heavy plates.
- Keep one hand close to the safety catch lever to quickly re-engage the stops if muscular failure occurs.
Muscles
Joints
- Hip: Flexion, Extension
- Knee: Flexion, Extension
- Ankle: Dorsiflexion, Plantarflexion
Details
- Movement
- Squat
- Modality
- Hypertrophy, Strength
- Mechanics
- compound
- Force
- push
- Laterality
- bilateral
- Kinetic chain
- closed
- Level
- intermediate
- Equipment
- Plate-loaded machine; Weight plate
- Record
- Repetitions and Load
- Load
- external, total
Related
- substitute for Barbell Back Squat
- substitute for Hack Squat
- substitute for Leg Press
Sources
- wger: Pendular hack, by polloperro (CC-BY-SA-4.0)
- wger: Pendulum Squat, by schweezer (CC-BY-SA-4.0)
This record: CC-BY-SA-4.0.