I remember back at my high school we had this machine…I have a home gym so I don’t get out very much to visit other gyms so sorry if this is a dumb question…
but is this machine still around and in use? is a standing squat equivalent to this machine?
Wow. Now that you mention it, I haven’t seen one in a while, either.
my mate who goes to another gym was trying to describe this too me, he said its the one thing he is too scared to try, looks interesting to say the least
I’ve seen someone do those on a smith machine, they put the bar in the arch of there shoe. It was interesting!
My high school had one as well. I thought it was called the hip press. One thing is for sure, a lot of weight could easily be moved on it.
Never seen one of those. Looks like a great machine actually. Would be pretty killer on the glutes.
I’ve worked out in two gyms that have had those, but you don’t see them too often anymore. Pretty sure you can still buy them though.
I always liked it. It just felt right to me. It’s really good for calves too. I actually preferred this machine to most donkey calf machines I’ve used.
Vertically pressing weight up and down hmmm well we use a squat rack now…
I have never even seen this other than in old training manuals and pics of old bodybuilding workouts…
Damn I’ve only seen one of those in Bill Pearl’s book.
an old school gym i used to go to had one of those. it was called a donkey press. there not seen much these days, but work awesome. probably a liability for some gyms. everyone sues these days.
The gym i used to frequent had to get rid of the belt that you can attach weight to because somebody dropped a 45 on his toes and sued (won). sad but true.
hardcore gym are going to be more of a niche in years to come. steel plates are becoming rare. i love the clinging sound iron makes but most gym have rubber coated plates.
My gym has one of these. I do significantly less weight on this than I do the regular angle leg press. I don’t mind the ego crushing, but I still don’t like the machine. It puts more strain on my hammies and less on my quads then the regular leg press.
[quote]PF_88 wrote:
I’ve seen someone do those on a smith machine, they put the bar in the arch of there shoe. It was interesting![/quote]
^ I think I’d call that dangerous instead of interesting 
I’ve also seen someone do that and I used to pray it didn’t slip and land on his chest!
OP: Wow I haven’t seen one of those since I first started training. I started in a gym that was used by a local weightlifting club and they had one of these leg presses. It felt good to use, but was a bugger to get out from underneath if you failed as it came all the way down and had no safety catches!
Not even close.
[quote]msd0060 wrote:
is a standing squat equivalent to this machine?
Not even close.[/quote]
what are the differences then? a vertical leg press is “similar” to a squat but upside down right? like how a push up is “similar” to a flat bench press? tell me what u think! i need to know!
im going to get a beer. id better some some responses cause i need to sit back and ponder this with my beer…heres my thank you ahead of time!
OH! and maybe i should rephrase that first question to “is a vertical leg press equivalent to a standing squat?” there that sounds much better!
Of course it’s not equivalent to a squat. But, it is a leg press, and they’re mostly sold as home gym equipment these days. They’re a hell of a lot cheaper than the angled leg press machines, so why not if you’re on a budget?
Just another item to utilize at home. I have a very extensive home gym, and the one thing I had to forgo was the leg press. I may at some point get one of these however.
By the time I had all the other slammin commercial stuff, there just wasn’t the money or the room frankly for the conventional angled press. That’s another nice feature, it’s much more compact.
That’s my take on it.
ToneBone
[quote]passionhawaii wrote:
msd0060 wrote:
is a standing squat equivalent to this machine?
Not even close.
what are the differences then? a vertical leg press is “similar” to a squat but upside down right? like how a push up is “similar” to a flat bench press? tell me what u think! i need to know!
im going to get a beer. id better some some responses cause i need to sit back and ponder this with my beer…heres my thank you ahead of time!
OH! and maybe i should rephrase that first question to “is a vertical leg press equivalent to a standing squat?” there that sounds much better![/quote]
In that vertical leg press, the torso is parallel to the ground. At full extension, the legs are around 90 degrees relative to the torso.
I’d love to see you squat with your torso parallel to the ground. Don’t forget to set your hips at 90 degrees during full extension.
[quote]2274 wrote:
passionhawaii wrote:
msd0060 wrote:
is a standing squat equivalent to this machine?
Not even close.
what are the differences then? a vertical leg press is “similar” to a squat but upside down right? like how a push up is “similar” to a flat bench press? tell me what u think! i need to know!
im going to get a beer. id better some some responses cause i need to sit back and ponder this with my beer…heres my thank you ahead of time!
OH! and maybe i should rephrase that first question to “is a vertical leg press equivalent to a standing squat?” there that sounds much better!
In that vertical leg press, the torso is parallel to the ground. At full extension, the legs are around 90 degrees relative to the torso.
I’d love to see you squat with your torso parallel to the ground. Don’t forget to set your hips at 90 degrees during full extension.[/quote]
it looks like you can raise the hip portion of the backrest so that youre not at a 90* angle, but yeh id agree with you that it would be difficult with that kind of an angle…but also, id think that this machine would take your back out of the work
[quote]passionhawaii wrote:
it looks like you can raise the hip portion of the backrest so that youre not at a 90* angle, but yeh id agree with you that it would be difficult with that kind of an angle…but also, id think that this machine would take your back out of the work[/quote]
Sounds like you’ve just answered your own question, ’ why is this not equivalent to a squat?’ BECAUSE it takes your back out of the work
The squat is a much more complete compound move because it utilises more muscle groups and therefore stimulates more potential growth etc.
That’s not to say that this machine isn’t useful, it’s just not the same or equivalent to a squat. If however there was some reason why you couldn’t squat (like a biomechanical thing or an injury…not just that someone doesn’t like squats!), then yeah you could use this. I’d still do things like step ups and lunges tho’ and not just rely on this for legs.
[quote]Lift and Eat wrote:
passionhawaii wrote:
it looks like you can raise the hip portion of the backrest so that youre not at a 90* angle, but yeh id agree with you that it would be difficult with that kind of an angle…but also, id think that this machine would take your back out of the work
Sounds like you’ve just answered your own question, ’ why is this not equivalent to a squat?’ BECAUSE it takes your back out of the work
The squat is a much more complete compound move because it utilises more muscle groups and therefore stimulates more potential growth etc.
That’s not to say that this machine isn’t useful, it’s just not the same or equivalent to a squat. If however there was some reason why you couldn’t squat (like a biomechanical thing or an injury…not just that someone doesn’t like squats!), then yeah you could use this. I’d still do things like step ups and lunges tho’ and not just rely on this for legs.[/quote]
hah yeh i know…i just wanted to see what other people might say…anyways…next thread!