Muscle Ventures Video Analysis

If you are looking for an exercise that thoroughly isolates the quads and has the potential to build impressive size look no further than the Roman Chair Squat. This is an old-school exercise that is forever disappearing from the landscape of many gyms. As Bud and I (Nancy) planned this leg workout we decided to venture to the Outback gym. This is the small gym in my hometown that I workout at on the weekends. The Outback gym boasts many older pieces of equpment and the Roman Chair Squat is one of them. As you can see I am preparing to begin the exercise and from the look on my face I know what I will be feeling in my quads very shortly.

This exercise can be done with body weight progressing to holding a weight plate once strict form is achieved and the bodyweight version becomes easy. The Roman Chair Squatting device is small. There are adjustable pads that touch your shins and stationary pads that secure your calves. These pads hold your legs and feet in place so that when you move into the squat position you will not fall over.

To begin the exercise adjust the shin pads snugly against your legs. Begin the exercise in an upright position then lean back slightly-this lean places the tension completely on the quads. Keeping your back as straight as possible bend your knee's and lower yourself towards the floor reaching at least a 90 degree bend in the knee. As you rise upwards come to a fully extended poistion in your legs while maintaining the rearward lean. Again, this will keep the stress on the quads. The most common mistake is to rise to a completely upright position which releases the tension on the quads.

Bud (Quicktime, 6.4 MB; WMV, 7.8 MB)

As you can see Bud begins the exercise leaning back a bit. As he lowers his body he maintains a straight back and also reaches the 90 degree bend in his knees. As he rises to the top he keeps his torso leaning back and in doing so maintains maximum stress on his quads. He displayed great form in his roman chair squat debut! By the fourth set of these Bud was holding a 10 pound weight plate.

[Bud: Nancy is a little too kind here. The video details a little how it was difficult for me initially to get proper form.]

Nancy (Quicktime, 4.8 MB; WMV, 5.9 MB)

As you can see in the start photo, I'm not quite into proper position-there is no backward lean. As I lower my body my back stays very straight and I get a very good drop-a bit below parallel. In the last photo maximal tension remains on the quads due to the lean.

Additional Links

• Serious About Fitness has a great how-to article on The Roman Chair Squat. Combine their article with these videos, and you have a pair of great resources for learning this exercise.
• Bud provides a fuller account of our visit to Outback . He was very impressed with the atmosphere and variety of equipment.

The picture shows me racked by shock after my first experience with the "Butt Blaster" one of Nancy Arnold's most storied leg exercises from her home gym, The Outback, in Dexter, MI. It's really a pretty simple incline single leg press that somewhat mimics a hack squat. In my experience, it hits a very concentrated area in the head of the gluteus with involvement from the hamstrings in the mid movement and quads in the final extension. It's the focus on the head of the gluteus that really makes the difference.

Perhaps the most difficult aspect of the machine is mounting it. As you can see from the photo, there are two handles you grasp in front and this odd middle pad. You move the middle pad up or down to support your abdomen when your leg is the most extended. When you have successfully adjusted everything, your elbows should comfortably rest on the front pad and your knees on the knee pad with the middle pad comfortably pressing against your abdomen.

To perform the exercise, place one foot against the back platform and hook it under the toe bar. Then, push back through the heel until your leg is fully extended. At this point, your other knee should be on the knee pad and the middle pad should provide more support to your abdomen than in the resting position. Slowly return your leg to the start position stopping just short of touching at the bottom. This maintains maximal tension on the muscles involved throughout the exercise. After performing the desired number of repetitions, switch to the other leg. With this machine as always, it's best to start with lighter weights and build up.

As the manufacturer indicates, it's hard to get wrong form with this machine. There are, however, a few cheats, you can fail to fully extend your leg and not bring it all the way down. You can also fail to control on the way down.

Nancy and I (Bud) show two renditions of how the exercise is performed below. I start with Nancy because she provides an excellent illustration of form, not employing any cheats. One thing many readers will note is the level of exertion on Nancy's face. It's not an easy exercise.

Nancy (Quicktime, 7.7 MB; WMV, 9.4 MB)

In watching the video, note that positioning on the device is a little awkward. Nancy has had a lot of experience with it, but still has a hard time getting on. Once she is on though, she moves well, getting a full range of motion.

Bud (Quicktime, 8.5 MB; WMV, 10.4 MB)

In my video, Nancy gives me a lot of instruction about achieving range of motion and controlling the weight on the way down. I seem to do pretty well though. My observation is that I probably could have done more weight, but I was not so thrilled with the middle pad.

Additional Links

• Our video for this exercise comes from our recent trip to Outback Gym in Dexter, MI. It was quite a fun experience.
• ExRx provides an excellent set of gluteus exercises and instructions on how to perform them.

Here, you see me at the end of a set of straight arm pushdowns showing the love to my training partner Nancy. The straight arm pushdown (sometimes called pulldown) is a basic cable weight training exercise that works the latissimus dorsi. The exercise really isolates the lat, and by the end of a set of these, I guarantee you'll be feeling mean.

The exercise is not too hard to set up. On your cable machine, raise the attachment point as high as it will go. Then, secure a straight or EZ Bar handle to it. When you grasp the bar, your hands should be able to extend up at a 45 to 55 degree angle from horizontal without the weight stack touching. Then, keeping your arms fixed with a slight bend in the elbow and chest high, push the bar down to the point that it touches your legs. Return under control and start again.

The difficulty in this exercise arises from the fact that your lat is always under tension and extremely well isolated. You can emphasize the narrow or the wide part of the lat by choosing a shorter or longer bar. You may also need to kneel to get the desired range of motion without the weight stack touching at the highest extension of the arms. In the analysis presented below, Nancy Arnold and I (Bud) chose the longer EZ bar to emphasize the outer lat. Nancy has a bodybuilding competition coming up, and the lats are a key competitive element.

There are a few form breaks on this exercise. One is to excessively bend and possibly flex the arms, having the dual effect of shortening the distance the weight is pulled and possibly involving the biceps and triceps at different points in the movement. The second is to involve the lower back and rock the torso to gain momentum. The third is to hunch over the bar at the end of the movement, relieving tension on the lat by bringing body weight to bear.

Nancy (Quicktime, 2.1 MB; WMV, 2.9 MB )

In this video, Nancy is pushing 100 lbs. on a 1500 calorie diet, frankly a pretty remarkable feat that many guys could not achieve. We start the exercise with her continuing a conversation we had started about the demands bodybuilding places on competitors to achieve ultra-lean physiques.

In the video, Nancy's form is close to impeccable. One area that might be questioned is the angle of her arms at the top of the movement. Nancy is on the low but still acceptable side because the length of her arms makes up for the lower angle and allows her to achieve a good range of motion.

At the end of the video, I note she is at 100 lbs. and tell her that is poor. Why? She had pushed 100 lbs. on the previous set and had clearly mastered the weight. She could have gone up. We both try to push each other to do the most we can with acceptable form. It's lifting as heavy as you can with good form that builds muscle mass. Nancy went up to 105 on the next set.

Bud (Quicktime, 2.6 MB; WMV, 3.5 MB)

In this video, I'm pushing 130 lbs. My chest is high and my arms are only slightly bent. I'm getting a long range of motion raising my arms to a 45 degree angle or better. However, I'm not perfect. On my last couple of reps, Nancy detects me hunching over at the end of the movement to relieve pressure on the lats and calls me on it. I try to straighten up. I did not go up in weight on later sets even though I wanted to because I had reached the limit of what I could do with minimal form breaks.

I should make some remarks about the workout. We were limiting ourselves to 60 seconds rest. These weights were hard with that level of rest, and you have to get motivated. You have to get a little mean. You have to want to make that stack go up.

Additional Links

• ExRx.net devotes a page to the straight arm pushdown and related lat exercises. The version of the exercise we show here uses straighter arms. Only a slight bend in the arms seems sufficient to keep stress off the elbow.
• We performed this workout on February 27, 2006. Nancy describes it here, and I describe it here.