The ‘TMP’ Panel Discuss Squats as a Quad Training Staple

Dennis James was joined by his regular pals Milos Sarcev and Chris Cormier for episode 234 of The Menace Podcast, and this week they were joined by the 2025 Tampa Pro, and Texas Po winner, Jordan Hutchinson, to discuss the role of squats for developing the quads.

Hutchinson told the TMP panel that when guys get to a certain size, he advises them to “stop with the core bracing barbell squats, and front squats, and smith squats, and pull some weight off on the hack squats.” Instead, he looks for leg movements that are more favored for time under tension such as the leg press or leg extension.

The Men’s Open competitor, who has now qualified for the 2025 Mr Olympia event, said that he follows his own advice, and that’s all the proof that many aspiring bodybuilders might need, considering his recent success.

Chris Cormier concurred with Hutchinson’s approach. “Same thing I keep trying to tell Milos,” he explained. Milos Sarcev responded that Hutchinson has some of the “best quads in the business” right now, but he did want to make sure that the younger guys listening understood the importance of the squat from his point of view. “When you are young, you have to (back barbell) squat, no question,” enthused ‘The Mind.’ “At a certain point, when you get that base, and size, okay, you don’t have to continue because you may end up with a hip replacement, like I am,” he added. “But (then you should move on to) hack squats, or pendulum squats, or V-squats or whatever, that’s the core.”

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“The leg press cannot be the core of your (quad) training,” continued Sarcev, who went on to joke that a quad workout without any form of squat was, let’s just say, not manly enough for him! Hutchinson said that he agreed with Sarcev’s point “one hundred percent.”

The Olympia contender also elaborated that during his recent preps, he ran hack squats and pendulum squats as his main movements for the quads but shared that he also threw in other leg movements such as adductors, leg extensions, and leg curls so that they could play a role in pre-exhausting his legs before squatting. “So, I don’t have to throw eight plates on the pendulum squat,” he explained, in an attempt to protect his joints. “Because I gotta save my knees. I’m only 29, I got years to go.”

To watch the full episode where the boys discussed Hutchinson’s Olympia gameplan in greater detail, the Masters Olympia, and other breaking bodybuilding news, see below: