Pendulum Squat or Hack Squat: which one does your floor need?

Both are quad machines, both are plate loaded, and both come out of the same workshop. They are not the same movement. One swings on an arc built to load the quads at the very bottom of the squat. The other rides a fixed 35 degree track. Which one a floor needs first depends on who trains on it.

Gyms planning a leg floor often ask this as if one machine replaces the other. It does not. A pendulum and a hack squat both train the quads hard, but they get there by different paths, and the difference shows most at the bottom of the rep.

What the Pendulum Squat does

The carriage swings on an arc rather than sliding on a track. Together with the back pad angle and an adjustable foot plate, that arc lets the lifter reach full hip and knee flexion, so the quads are overloaded in their fully stretched position. It was designed to be the most quad-dominant squat we could build.

It is also the most adjustable machine in the range. The foot plate alone has 30 positions, set to the lifter's height and ankle range, and the machine fits people from 137cm to 203cm. A counter balance arm, which can itself be loaded, takes the dead weight of the carriage out of the first rep.

The long back pad supports the lower back, so lifters carrying an injury can still squat through a full range of motion. Handles on each side let the lifter lock in their upper back, and the auto unlocking mechanism releases on the first press. Reverse and conventional band pegs let you shape the resistance so every inch of the rep is hard.

What a Citadel hack squat does

Both of our hack squats run at 35 degrees, the angle of the original Nebula hack. It loads the quads hard while avoiding the knee shearing a 45 degree angle can produce. The carriage rolls on wheels rather than linear bearings, so it stays smooth under off-axis load and as the machine ages.

The 3n1 Hack Squat puts three movements on that frame: a hack squat, a linear hack and a calf press, switched with a centre mechanism and a fold-down calf plate. The Linear Hack Squat does the linear hack only and is always set up for it. Both fit lifters from 142cm to 203cm.

Side by side

Which one to buy first

If the floor has room for one quad machine and serves a broad membership, start with the 3n1. Three movements in one footprint covers more people, and the calf press comes with it.

Start with the pendulum when the floor is built around quad development, or when many of your members need to squat deep with their lower back supported. Nothing else in the range takes the quads as deep, and nothing else adjusts as far.

Plenty of floors run both, and neither makes the other redundant, because they load the bottom of the squat in different ways.

What they have in common

Both are built from Australian RHS box section, with bearings and indexing pins rated beyond 2 tonnes. Both are plate loaded, with no motor, no electronics and no power supply. Both carry twenty years structural on the welded frame and seven years on moving parts, and both are finished in any powder coat and any upholstery you specify.