With the ground based squat, the weights are placed at your sides and are held by your hands which makes the squat deadlift like. I noticed that my grip was definately being tested as opposed to a regular squat which you place on your shoulders and pretty much forget about it for the duration of the set. In terms of overall comfort, the ground based squat keeps the form strict but the movement is not rigid whatsoever, like squats on a Smith machine may be. The arc motion characteristic in all Hammer Strength machines is great for accommodating natural body movements and I felt no discomfort whatsoever. And like a machine, setup is quicker and safer than a barbell squats, where you might have to set up the hooks, clips, and safety latches on the power rack.
The machine is definitely a great tool for working out your legs. Since it maintains perfect form for you, your are definitely able to target the quad muscles with great efficiency. When I am nearing failure on the barbell squat, my tendency is to utilize more hip flexion than I would like to finish the last few reps. No such short cut is possible here. The exercise is ground base which provides a very natural and functional movement with applicable strength gains outside of the gym. It also provides a few deadlift-like stresses like the additional pressure on your arms and grip to hold on to the weight. For those who like to place the weight on the ground after the negative phase, there is the additional benefit of having to lift a dead weight off the floor which requires a little more effort on every rep you do.
The positioning of the weight with relation to your body and the position of the weight when it is dead provides a few negatives in my opinion. The abdominal muscles have evolved to become stabilizers of the body when you are standing and fully erect and prevents you from falling backwards. On a barbell squat, the weight is placed slightly behind your centre of gravity which forces your abdominals to contract in the effort to prevent you from falling backwards. Because the main task of your abs is to prevent you from falling back, it is in this situation when you are fully erect and in danger of falling backwards that your abs are fully activated and worked, not when doing sit ups or leg raises. On a ground based squat machine, this is no longer possible. The weight is now closer to your centre of gravity and the weight actually falls forward on the negative phase which now puts stress on your spinal erectors to keep yourself from falling forward, again very similar to a deadlift movement. So instead of isometrically working your abs, it isometrically works your lower back. This is a shame as a barbell squat is actually a very good exercise for strengthening your abs.
Overall, the machine proved to be very useful in targeting my legs while providing maximum comfort. And while the benefit of core work in barbell squats is lost in the ground based squat, it also maintains a motion that's closer to a more naturally movement outside the gym. In actions like jumping or lifting weight of the ground using your legs, the weight is probably closer to or a little forward of your centre of gravity, not behind as in the case of barbell squats. It's no wonder that athletes are more likely to do their squat work on a machine like the ground based squat machine. Not so much because an exercise improves a movement directly, but because the exercise utilizes the muscles involved in the movement in a way that is closest to how they are used when the action is performed.
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