Why is squat so much harder than leg press?

Why is squat so much harder than leg press?
It's essentially the same excercise with the same muscles being used.

Because balance is a major factor, this is the same reason why dumbbell shoulder presses are harder than using a shoulder press machine

Your lower back is engaged to a lesser degree, leg presses stress your quads way more. If your quads are weak, leg presses are good isolation work to target your weak muscles for squatting.

also, remember that weights sits on a 35 degree incline on that machine and that reduces the total weight to be lifted

The leg press machine does all the balancing for you and it's impossible to move the weight in any direction except straight up and down. While you're squatting that bar wants to move every which way but you're holding it in place.

T b h I kind of think the leg press is better for this reason, the kinetic chain is a lot more direct and there's almost no chance of injury unless you're a hyper retard. People say the stabilizers aren't trained this way (which is true) but if you do deads they get worked anyway.

im pretty sure gravity operates in a straight vertical line lad

Gravity, moments, blah blah. Physics

Just remember if you can move more weight with it, it's a better lift.

>It's essentially the same excercise with the same muscles being used

Except it is not. I did both today and fuck man those squats always fucking kill me and I suck so bad at them. I need to do them more often through out the week. At least twice a week.

Why is any free weight exercise harder (and better) than its machine equivalent?

Didn't we just do this yesterday?

Standing upright is like balancing a reverse pendulum tho.

If you add weight to that it's a whole lot more work for your muscles

>leg presses stress your quads way more

You sure senpai? Because as far as squats vs leg press goes I can leg press far far more than I squat. Not sure what my max is on squat now but it ain't pretty. At least I guess you can say I can do over 200 lbs for squat. Which is weak. For leg press I can at least do 6 plates each side that. Possibly even 7-8 plates each side for a rep or few.

To be fair for myself though, I am a lazy shit that has been slacking for a long time now when I should be huge at this point. I lack motivation.

>It's essentially the same excercise with the same muscles being used.

The stabilizing muscles of the core aren't doing anything in the leg press because the weight is balanced by the machine and your upper body rests against the pad. Adductors don't do much either.

You can't change the angle of your torso so your hips don't do shit, which means less hip flexor, hamstring and glute activation.

To get anything out of your hamstrings and glutes you need very good mobility. Your legs need to almost touch your chest like in the OP pic. Most people can't get even close without rounding their lower back. You need to be able to freely move your torso to do it properly. I don't think I've ever seen anyone leg press like the picture in the gym. Most leg press ROMs are like this l____l big.

Leg press is mostly good for ~isolating your quads, that's what I use it for.

Well no shit, but we're not just hovering a weight and moving it up and down in midair with telekinesis are we? Your body adjusts to the weight of the barbell on your shoulders by moving in a lot of directions that aren't just up and down.

because moving weight at a 45° angle only requires 1/2 the force then moving it from a 90° angle to the floor.

this is what fucks with me. how do you even know how much you're lifting with a leg press? you need to do some fucking physics to figure it out, measure the coefficient of friction the press machine is applying to the platform and then plug it into the correct equation with the weight you're using. I know we all normally measure our lifts just in the number of plates we use but with the leg press that's literally all you know.

This sounds legit.
I have to use the leg press mostly because free squats make my hips hurt for days afterwords. So I don't squat

Yeah quarter repping 10 plates on the leg press is shit but it's a perfectly fine exercise if you do it with full ROM.

... right?

Sometimes the heaviest things that we lift and carry are not our wieghts, but our feels

Leg press is silly but I liked doing pyramids with them as fast as possible. Amazing leg workout.
1pl8x10
2pl8x10
3pl8x10
4pl8x10
5pl8x10
6pl8x10
7pl8x10
All the way back down to 1pl8. That on top of jumping up and adding the weight on, it's good conditioning.

Does anyone here squat barefoot? I feel I have much more stability like that.

Everyone just agree that machines are for women and free weights are the only equipment needed.

It's basic knowledge that free weights are going to challenge your body more than the machine 9 times out of 10

Not barefoot, but just in socks, yeah.

Yeah that is what I meant btw. I should have just said no shoes then. Does your gym allow that?

me too.

I actually do all my lifts bare foot.

Well, excluding ones where I'm not standing, but then it doent matter

Deadlifting barefoot is fucking awesome.
I have squat shoes though which are just as amazing. Plan to oly lift eventually so they'll be for more than squats soon enough.

Currently in a limbo between gyms until after the holidays, no sense signing up just before I'm visiting family for a week or so.

My old one didn't care, though. I was pretty tight with most of the PTs so nobody gave a shit what I did, and they were laid back anyway.

>Does your gym allow that?
The owner of my gym encourages people to lift barefoot(socks) if they don't have lifting shoes. Because the owner isn't a fucking retard, nor are most the people who go to my gym.

This

It's a perfectly fine exercise. It's just more different from squat than people usually think from a quick glance.

You all talk about how this hits quads hard.
Doesnt that depend on foot placement?
Cause i do narrow, wide down low and wide up high and it feels alot different on my muscles