Brandon Curry is always looking for new angles to improve his physique, so while aiming to exhaust his quads with a dropset, the man they call “The Prodigy” made his own “hacks” on the hack squat machine. Here’s how to try this tortuous routine for yourself, if you dare.
Brandon Curry reached the top of the bodybuilding mountain by earning the Mr. Olympia title in 2019 and is still going strong today. Curry’s quads are seemingly forged from granite, because this bodybuilder is willing to take himself to the limits when leaning into his legs. To that end, the big man shared a recent leg day “dropset” that he’s using to stimulate quad growth ahead of the 2026 Mr. Olympia final in Las Vegas.
While traditional dropsets involve taking the heaviest weight and then reducing it set by set, Curry takes a different approach, instead reaching for the toughest movements, and then making them easier. “In the goal of making things harder I have used, basically, a mechanical dropset,” explained Curry. “Going from the hardest exercise to the easiest exercise.” In this case, the bodybuilder tackles a full stretch sissy squat, and then completes partial sissy squats, before rounding out with hack squats.
In the workout, shared on Instagram for more than 1.1-million followers, Curry adapts the angles while working on the hack squat machine. He places a wedge on the floor and lines it up against the footrest so that he begins from a vertical base but still has his toes up. Curry also had a foam roller behind his shoulders for a slight forward lean. Having set himself up, the man mountain performs one set of the following exercises:
Brandon Curry’s ‘Mechanical Dropset’ Workout
- Sissy Squats (Full Stretch)
- Sirry Squats (Partial Stretch)
- Hack Squat
What Is Brandon Curry’s Mechanical Dropset Workout?
The Prodigy tightens his torso and begins with a set of sissy squats. He advised a “slight pause at the bottom” of the squat, for added time under tension, “Ho, ho, ho,” exclaimed Curry as the toll on his quads took immediate effect. “That pause hits you,” he confirmed. “Let those knees shift down to a deeper stretch at the bottom.”
For his second set, Curry made partial sissy squats, stopping his descent when his thighs became parallel with the floor, but still pausing at the end. The bodybuilder explained that because the hips play less of a role here, the partial stretch is more punishing on the calf muscles.
Finishing with a traditional hack squat, but with the foam roller still in place, Curry raises his feet onto the plate and gets to work. “Hips are back, because I’m leaning forward slightly,” he explained. “Stance is tight, we’ll go all the way down.”
Once again, Cury pauses at the bottom of the squat and then extends his legs to get a good stretch, ending with a body that is as vertical as possible. By now, the big man was controlling his breath to make the most of his oxygen but completed around three minutes of squatting while cycling through the three movements.
“The mechanical dropset…. Hoof,” summed up the stimulated athlete, noting that despite the intensity of this session, ego lifting is not a concept that he likes to employ. “Does it have to be heavier? No,” said Curry who explained that his method made things harder without going heavier. “Give it a try.”
To try Brandon Curry’s squat session for yourself, aim for one set of each moment, and reach for 8 to 12 reps. But if you want to really bring the heat, make like “The Prodigy” and try as many reps as you can in each set.
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