Every day should be a great day to get fitter.
Athletes participating in every sport should constantly work to improve their overall leg strength.
However, special occasions require us to shift our focus, even for just a short period of time, to recognize the sheer greatness of world-class competitors. In honor of the 2024 Summer Olympic Games, we’d like to focus on the sports and athletes that can most benefit from building really strong legs.
Don’t be surprised if the podium finishers in the Olympic sports where leg strength is most important are regularly putting in time on their gym’s combination leg press hack squat machine. If the best athletes in the world are busting out set after set, what’s stopping you from doing the same?
Weightlifting
With a long and storied history dating back to the first modern Olympic Games in 1896, Weightlifting arguably requires more lower body strength than any other Olympic discipline.
Consisting of two loaded barbell movements (the snatch; the clean and jerk), many argue that the sport requires more technique and power than overall strength. However, upon “catching” the barbell in a squatting position during each attempt, athletes must return to a standing position to complete the lift. Considering that even the smallest athletes are able to clean half of their respective bodyweights, they are required to lift at least 200 pounds using only their leg strength.
Olympic weightlifting athletes often use the hack squat configuration of leg press hack squat machines to practice moving heavy weights from a squatting position. Instead of beginning each repetition from a standing position, they will start from the bottom, forcefully rising in order to mimic the motion of rising from the bottom of a snatch or clean. This exercise’s impact on leg and trunk development is exceptional (Clark, Lambert, Hunter, 2019).
Weightlifters are the strongest athletes relative to their respective bodyweights out of all of the athletes participating in the Olympic Games. If you want to get really strong, it doesn’t hurt to give what they’re doing a try!
Athletics
One of the few discipline that has been contested at every modern Summer Olympic Games, Athletics consists of a multitude of events ranging from the high jump to the marathon.
Athletics draws competitors of different shapes and sizes; the hammer thrower and the racewalker have very different body types. However, leg strength is vital to success in any of the current 48 events these athletes specialize in. For example, an Olympic hurdler has developed world-class leg strength and power, enabling him to easily clear barriers approaching chest height while maintaining an incredibly high rate of speed.
In order to develop these dual lower-body capabilities, it wouldn’t be surprising to see the hurdler load on the plates to the leg press configuration of the leg press hack squat machine to perform heavy presses and to develop massive overall strength. Upon finishing these, he could take some weight off and perform light, fast presses in order to replicate the “bounding” that each jump requires (Liu, Chen, Ho, Füle, Chung, Shiang, 2013).
Despite hurdling being one of the most obvious examples of an Athletics event requiring superior leg strength, traditional sprinters, distance runners, throwers, and jumpers all benefit from dedicated “leg day” training.
Golf
This inclusion may be as surprising as it is new. After being contested in two of the first three modern Olympic Games, Golf took over a one-hundred-year break before returning to the competition in 2016.
Like Weightlifting discussed above, Golf is mainly perceived to be a technique-based sport. Unlike Weightlifting, few associate technique and strength to the game with the age-old stereotype of older people driving around in motorized carts prevailing. However, world-class golfers, such as Tiger Woods, are often impressive all-around athletes and are accustomed to walking for close to 25 miles over the course of a 4-round tournament.
Despite the unexpected amount of general athleticism and high cardiovascular capabilities Olympic Golf requires, athletes must possess exceptional levels of lower body power in order to blast 300-plus yard drives with regularity. Developing strong leg drive and powerful hip rotation alone don’t give top golfers beautiful golf swings…but they really help to develop them (Gulgin, Armstrong, Gribble, 2009).
The leg press hack squat machine provides golfers with two very effective exercises to add massive distance to their drives. There are few exercises that allow lifters to safely add as much resistance as the traditional hack squat does. Golfers who commit to driving hard out of the bottom of a hack squat will see massive improvement to their leg drives on the links.
Switching over to the leg press configuration of the combination leg press hack squat machine, Olympic golfers can perform weighted single-leg presses. By working each leg individually, golfers can improve their lateral stability. The main benefit of this is more controlled hip rotation, ensuring that all power generated is efficiently transferred during the swing.
Golf is an incredibly relaxing and enjoyable sport to enjoy with friends. Olympic golfers find a lot of enjoyment in the sport, too…their impressive lower-body strength just allows them to drive the ball a lot further!
You Don’t Need to be an Olympian to Benefit from the Leg Press Hack Squat Machine
Even if you prefer to watch the Olympics and have no aspirations to listen to the national anthem as you’re awarded a gold medal, you can improve your lifting totals, running speed, and driving distances with some dedicated leg training.
As we’ve discussed, the combination leg press hack squat machine is preferable due to its overall functionality and it is an excellent tool for new lifters and Olympic athletes, alike. The BLP01 combines the best of both leg pressing and hack squatting worlds while being incredibly easy to transition and possessing advanced comfort-enhancing features.
Even if you don’t have any Olympic aspirations at the moment, give yourself a few months of regular leg training. You might surprise yourself with the progress you’re able to make.,.but get moving; the 2028 Summer Olympics are only a few years away!
Summary
Olympians are undoubtedly world-class athletes. Their training programs are impressive, but are not as unattainable as they may seem. Can you get similar gains from the leg press hack squat machine?
References
Clark, D., Lambert, M., Hunter, A. (2019). Trunk muscle activation in the back and hack squat at the same relative loads. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 33: 60-69.
Gulgin, H., Armstrong, C., Gribble, P. (2009). Hip rotational velocities during the full golf swing. Journal of Sports Science Medicine, 8(2): 296-299.
Liu, C., Chen, C., Ho, W., Füle, R., Chung, P., Shiang, T. (2013). The effects of passive leg press training on jumping performance, speed, and muscle power. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 27(6): 1479-1486.
