Bodybuilding veteran Lee Priest is breaking down how to execute one of the most popular squatting variations on leg day. On May 19, 2025, he detailed his guide to hack squats and shared tips he learned from Golden Era icon Tom Platz.
Throughout his bodybuilding tenure, Lee Priest defied the odds. He gave dominant Mr. Olympias like Ronnie Coleman fits onstage, and revealed that he managed to defeat ‘The King’ seven times in competition. Priest is widely regarded as one of the greatest bodybuilders the sport has seen.
Priest still follows the sport closely. He renewed his IFBB Pro card, leading to speculation about a potential return. However, Priest later shared that his chest and triceps atrophy have gotten in the way of a serious comeback. Despite that, he’s committed to sharing insightful workout advice with his followers.
Lee Priest’s Hack Squat Tutorial and Tips Learned from Tom Platz
In the YouTube video, Priest discussed the range of motion he prefers when hack squatting that protects his knees and keeps constant tension on the quads.
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“I’m going to show you how to do hack squats, how I do them. Everyone is different. The depth and stuff, some people like to go all the way down deep. I like to go parallel or just beneath it that way I find it protects my knees a bit better and also keeps the tension on my quads.
“If I go too deep, it goes more to the hammies and glutes where if you want to work glutes like a lot of people do these days, do that, but everyone is different.”
He adds that foot positioning is dependent on the individual, though he shared that Platz preferred to point them outward and went to the bottom of the platform to build his lower body.
“Foot positioning too. It’s one of those things you’ll have to work out for yourself. Some go higher, some go lower. When I was with Tom Platz, Tom used to go down here on the bottom.
So when Tom would do a sissy squat, Tom would have his feet like this [pointed outward] and as he went down, he’d go like that, he’d push his hips forward, which is really good. You get a good feel on it but just make sure you’re warmed up properly.”
In contrast to Platz’s approach, Priest likes to keep his feet nearly shoulder-width apart.
“Tom would do them like that so he’d go forward. He’d have his feet right down the bottom. Me I like to have them about here, I wouldn’t say shoulder width but just where it’s comfortable.”
“I don’t lock them out straight,” he adds. “Down to about here, a drop beneath parallel and come up and squeeze. I’m keeping the tension on the whole time.”
Building a symmetrical and balanced physique was one of Priest’s top priorities throughout his career. Although he said muscle imbalances were impossible to avoid, he believes proper recovery, rest, and nutrition can help solve these discrepancies.
Even in retirement, Priest has plenty of bodybuilding takeaways he learned from Tom Platz. He accepts that the hack squat can be tricky to master, but credits it as a tremendous movement for building the quads.
RELATED: Lee Priest Explains How to Build Bigger Biceps in Your 50s
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