Thats a fairly legit exercise, a variation of split squats. Guess you could call them "split hack squats" but I have seen a very very strong dude doing them so they cant be all that bad.
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Planet Fitness has been discussed here a number of times, so if you look around you'll find some info here. You could also go to YouTube and search for 'Planet Fitness' and you'll find some videos.
In short, the horror stories you've heard are true. No groaning, grunting or getting any actual work done. You'd be wasting your $10/month.
Brian
I'd guess that the name "Planet Fitness" would be fair warning.....;)
I think Phil Stevens should go to Planet Fitness to do his next deadlift session. And NOBODY is going to stop him from finishing his session.
That exercise sounds a lot like a Kennedy lift...something that comes from back in the day where super cool strength contests went down.
If I remember correctly it was some ginormous block that was akward, and the only dude that could pick it up ( I think his name was Kennedy ) straddled it and picked it up in the fashion described.
So I heard some random asshole talk about weigh lifting in one of my classes today. He had a great bench day apparently, and doesn't squat because girls don't care about dem legs. I thought fools like this were a myth, but there he was. The only thing girls care about it the hip flexor according to him. And then he bitched about class, despite the fact that he was getting a free ride intution-wise.
Guys like this don't get it. They want the easy way out. They pretend they're Captain Badass inside the gym, but they don't squat, don't deadlift, and operate a 4 man benching team. No matter how big you are in your head, the bar can take the piss out of you right quick.