Leg Press Machine as an alternative to Squats?

[krazybartender]

I'm looking to purchase either a leg press/hack squat machine or a vertical leg press. Do either of these help target your leg muscles as much as squats? I read that they do but I don't know if that's the company trying to sell the product. Any feedback would be appreciated as I've never used a leg press machine before.

[wilwn]

squats are simply superior. it's freeweight, so it forces to use your stabilizers (mainly your core), so it's more bang for your buck and more challenging neurally, which generally speaking implies greater hypertrophic gains.

[slackdaddy]

I have a hack squat/leg press that I use along with regular squats. Like Wilwn said, regular squats are the best mass builders but I like to use the hack/press for isolation work after squats. I do squats with my feet a little wider that shoulder width and toes pointed out a little. It hits the whole lower body/lower back and abs pretty hard. After my squats are done I go to the leg press and do presses with my feet together and toes pointed straight up. This tends to hit mostly quads. I also use my leg press for doing calves by pulling the footplate up to where my heels will travel under it and do calf raises from the leg press position.

[dmasheen]

http://www.frankzane.com/EQUIPMENT.htm

The frank zane leg blaster... my friend's got it in his home gym, great tool. before that I was just tossing the plates on a bar and cleaning it to get it behind my neck to do squats, or setting it on a pwer rack and going up from beneath it. either way, the leg blaster gives you a good way to blanace/control and forces you to keep your back straight. i dont know how the price compares with the other stuff youre looking at though

[dbx]

squats are simply superior. it's freeweight, so it forces to use your stabilizers (mainly your core), so it's more bang for your buck and more challenging neurally, which generally speaking implies greater hypertrophic gains.

^^^^^^^^^^

[Mature Lifter]

Iron Workers, have a look at this squat device Pendulumsts.com This is the only machine I have ever used that duplicates the free bar back squat. ML.