I personally don't and haven't tried But Do you?🤨

Hey Ben, How would you rate a pivot-style leg press like this (where the movement path is an arc) specifically for quad-biased training? I currently travel 10km to access a hack squat, but a new gym is opening just 3kms away. The catch? They have everything except a hack squat. I’ll be limited to a Smith machine and this specific pivot leg press. Can this machine truly replace the hack squat for quad hypertrophy? In my experience, standard 45-degree leg presses don't allow for the same deep knee flexion as a hack squat. Does the arc-like path of a pivot press offer any advantages for hitting the quads?

On the biceps one, I felt like I was raising my shoulders, so I lowered the weight in the next set. On the hack squat, I felt like I really struggled on the last one, but watching it now, I look way too fresh hahaha

I've been running the "one-week program" Alexander Bromley and Basement Bodybuilding posted on YouTube a while ago, and I find it very enjoyable. I'm in my second week of running the program, and it's great fun while being effective. It's a 4-day push-pull split, which I've never done before but am enjoying, and it also fits my schedule a lot better than a 4-day upper-lower, as upper takes a long time to train. These workouts take about 45 minutes to an hour to do, which is great as I have a lot of university work to do this month! The program looks like this: Day 1: Pull Lat Pulldown, 3x8-10 T-Bar Row, 3x8-10 Close-Grip EZ-Bar Preacher Curl, 3x5-7 Cable Rear Delt Fly, 2x12-15 Day 2: Push Feet-Up Smith Machine Flat Press, 3x7-9 Seated Smith Machine Shoulder Press, 3x7-9 Lying Dumbbell Lateral Raise, 2x8-12 Seated EZ Bar Overhead Extension 4x8-10 Leg Extension, 3x8-10 Day 3: Rest Day 4: Pull Single Arm Lat Pulldown, 3x8-10 Cable Row, 3x8-10 Strict Curl, 3x8-10 Seated Hamstring Curl, 3x10-12 Day 5: Push Smith Machine Incline Press, 4x7-9 Smith Machine Behind-The-Neck Shoulder Press, 3x7-9 Dumbbell Lateral Raise, 3x15-20 JM Press, 3x7-9 Leg Press, 3x6-8 I like the variety of exercises, rep ranges, set/volume ranges, and the frequency each muscle is trained at. It means each day feels significantly different, which my novelty-seeking ADHD brain loves. I particularly like the fact that the quad work consists of a leg extension on one Push day, and leg press on the second, 3 days later. It means my right knee doesn't flare up, which it has been doing on and off for a year and a bit now. No joint pain yet, but we'll see how it goes. I substituted the T-bar row for a chest-supported dumbbell row as my gym doesn't have a T-bar, and the strict curl is meant to be done single-arm on a cable, with your upper arm anchored against the column, but the way my gym's cables are set up (next to the column instead of in front of/behind it) means that if I did it this way, the cable would be at an angle relative to my arm path. The point of anchoring the uppper arm was to prevent you from cheating to progress, so to keep the spirit of the exercise but using equipment I actually have, I decided to use an EZ bar and lean against a wall to prevent me from rocking back and forth to help move the weight.

As I mentioned a couple of weeks back, I went on vacation, then got sick, and as a result, lost a lot of muscle. But I was motivated to get it all back and keep going. It's been ~15 days of being back in the gym and eating right, and I've gained back over a quarter of an inch on my arms already! They're still a lot smaller than before (about 3/4 of an inch still to go), but the progress in 15 days is promising especially because I've done it while fasting. The key has been sticking to what I know works; training and diet wise. I'm gonna keep going and keep y'all along for the journey.