By RealJock Staff

This exercise provided courtesy of Billy Polson, founder and co-owner of DIAKADI Body training gym, voted best personal training gym in San Francisco by CitySearch in 2006.

Benefits
Your back and legs are interdependent muscle structures, so why now work them simultaneously? Use a cable machine to add resistance to a squat; follow with a row for your back muscles. You'll combine speed and power to increase the difficulty of this exercise.

Muscles Worked
Legs
Back

Starting Position
Attach single handles to two cables on the low setting of a double-arm cable machine. Stand facing the machine with one cable in each hand, palms facing inward, and your feet hip-width apart (see Photo 1).

Exercise

1. From the starting position, sit your hips back in a squat, going as deep as you can while keeping your back flat and your weight in your heels. Do not let your shoulders come further forward than your knees (see Photos 2 and 3).
2. From the depth of the squat, push up quickly and with power out of the squat back to standing (see Photo 4).
3. As you reach the standing position, begin pull both arms back quickly in a row, keeping your elbows low and your arms close to your body and pulling with as much force as you can while maintaining form. Your elbows will come behind you as your hands come toward your ribcage. Keep your palms facing inward as you pull (see Photos 5 and 6).
4. Return your arms to the starting position as you begin to drop into your next squat. Repeat the squat/row sequence for a total of 12 repetitions of each (see Photo 7).

About Billy Polson: Billy Polson is the founder and co-owner of DIAKADI Body training gym, which was voted the best personal training gym in San Francisco by CitySearch in 2006. A competitive swimmer and triathlete in his own right, Polson has over 15 years of experience working as a coach and trainer, and was recently named by Men's Journal Magazine (December 2005) as one of the Top 100 Trainers in America.