Squats, deadlifts, and bench press are exercises that you can never go wrong with. They work the major muscles as well as the stabilizing muscles in the body. However, weight-loaded machines such as the pendulum squat can offer more variety and benefits than the regular traditional squat. If your gym has one, then you certainly do not want to skip the pendulum squat benefits in your next leg workout.
More effective than the squat?
There are several pendulum squat benefits that may convince you to add the exercise to your next workout. In fact, a lot of people argue that it is far more effective than the squat since it puts your knee at a great angle which can target more muscle fibers.
Since the machine does not require you to stabilize the weight, it makes for an excellent tool to load up far more than you would have if you had just done regular barbell squats. Moreover, it gives you a lot more variety in terms of foot positioning which targets different areas in the leg. The key factor with pendulum squats is to get a high-quality machine that can offer more versatility in terms of options.
Speaking of high quality equipment, the pendulum squat can often be too bulky and unnecessary. A lot of people are working out at home which means that using a big piece of equipment for a single exercise probably isn’t the ideal choice. The GR8FLEX offers a much better solution. The pendulum squat machine is very similar to the hack squat machine which is applicable on the GR8FLEX piece of equipment. In fact, you could argue that the hack squat on the GR8FLEX is more effective at targeting the leg muscles since it uses your own bodyweight as well as resistance bands to make the squat harder at the lockout. Moreover, you could use several other variations such as the single leg squat, leg press, and calf raises.
Top Five Pendulum Squat Benefits:
Greater range of motion:
One of the biggest pendulum squat benefits is the ability to go through a larger range of motion than in the squat. Since the machine is made in a way where the exercise goes through a pendulum-like motion, it allows your knees to travel much further and your hips to sit back. The range of motion is one of the biggest contributors to muscle protein synthesis which can help with muscle gain.
Safer:
The regular barbell squat can be relatively risky if you do not have a spotter or if you have no safety rack. Moreover, the risk of the barbell sliding is always there which can be dangerous. The pendulum squat is 100% safe since it’s a machine. Even if your muscles cannot complete the movement, you can just extend all the way down and get out of the machine safely. Furthermore, the machine puts very little stress on your lower back and knees which can reduce the chances of injury.
The ability to go up in weight:
Another great pendulum squat benefit is the fact that you can add more weight compared to the squat. This is because barbell squat strength is a lot more dependent on your core strength, stability, and leverages. Pendulum squats depend only on your quad, glute, and hamstring strength which means you can typically go much heavier.
Different foot position:
The smallest foot position placement changes can greatly change the intensity of the exercise. Moreover, it can also change where you put the tension the more. You can change your foot position to a wide stance to target the inner thighs and then go with a narrow foot stance to target the outer quads. You can also choose a higher foot position to target the hamstring and glutes or go with a lower foot position to put more emphasis on the quads. This variety is key when it comes to bringing up lagging muscle groups.
Scalable in the degree of intensity:
It isn’t much you can do in the regular traditional squat to make it harder other than add more weight or change your position. However, the pendulum squat gives you more options to make the exercise a lot harder. For instance, you can add a resistance band to the handles which will make the exercise harder at the top and easier at the bottom. You can also easily do drop sets or supersets with the pendulum squats which can drive more muscle-building metabolites and supercharge your legs.