Brandon Curry demonstrates his ‘Reverse Hack Sissy Squat’ – Muscle and Fitness

You’d think a muscle master like Brandon Curry would have exhausted the possibilities of trying new moves in the gym, but with a spring in his step, the 2019 Mr Olympia winner recently shared a new sissy squat variation that he says is even better for crushing his granite quads. Here’s how to test it yourself.

Brandon Curry is still in the upper echelon of the competitive bodybuilding industry, but while “The Prodigy” often uses the sissy squat during his leg day routine, he says the desired contraction is missing.

What is the Sissy Squat?

The sissy squat is often performed as a bodyweight exercise and is not for the weak. In fact, it’s a staple of most alpha men and women, thanks to its ability to hit the quads. Unlike many other squat variations that are compound in nature and work multiple muscle groups, the sissy squat instead isolates the quads because your hips remain in a locked position rather than hinged. The traditional sissy squat requires the practitioner to stand with feet hip-width apart and heels off the floor. With hands on hips, bend your knees and lean back. As your knees continue to bend, lean further back so that the knees are as close to the floor as possible. Only to explode back up again.

The benefits of the squat are enormous because you hit all four muscles in the quadriceps. That is the rectus femoris of the thigh that flexes the knee. The vastus lateralis connects the kneecap to the femur. The vastus medialis helps stabilize the knee, and finally, the vastus intermedius helps extend the knee.

Brandon Curry Introduces the ‘Reverse Hack Sissy Squat’

Curry says he came up with his hack to solve a problem he was experiencing with regular sissy squats. “What I notice is that I couldn’t get a hard contraction at the top on the sissy squat,” The Prodigy explains, noting that because much of the tension in a sissy squat occurs at the bottom of the movement (when the knee is close to the ground), he doesn’t feel like he’s hammering the quads as best he can. “But I decided to test this out, (and it) worked really well,” said the big man, who introduced the new move. “We just call it the ‘Reverse Hack Sissy Squat,’” he beamed, sharing the details with his 1.2 million Instagram followers.

The Prodigy noted that by facing forward on a hack squat machine and holding his torso away from the platform with his hands, the big man is able to get into a “deep, deep stretch.” As he comes up, Curry contracts his quads for all they are worth at the top of the movement. “First of all, you’re fighting gravity and the resistance of the machine,” explains the 2019 and 2022 Arnold Classic winner, which means he can add more than just his body weight for bigger sissy squats. “This is something that just hit me, recently doing legs, because like I said, I was trying to focus on getting that nice, nice pressure at the top of the movement of a sissy squat.”

Curry went on to explain that he places his feet on the plate with the toes pointing outward. “This allows a lot of people to dig deeper,” he noted. “It’s a little easier to get into the world

positions and it is a little easier on the knee. You’re still going to push those hips in, and you’re going to go deep; hamstrings to calves as you rise onto the toe.

This simple, highly effective move will now be part of The Prodigy’s training as he looks to make an impact on the competitive bodybuilding stage again in 2026.

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