Heated Rivalry’s Hudson Williams Uses This Overlooked Piece of Gym Equipment to Shape His Butt

Hudson Williams might play a closeted hockey player in Heated Rivalry, but at least his glutes routine is out in the open. In a recent interview with Vogue, the actor revealed how he chiseled his statuesque derrière for gratuitous screen time. His not-so-secret weapon? The Pit Shark—a formidable-looking piece of gym equipment that, in Williams’ words, “will change your butt immediately.”

Fortunately, while this revelation might be news, the squatting apparatus in question is anything but. In fact, there’s probably one at your local gym, quietly collecting dust in the corner—although likely not for long. Here’s what trainers have to say about Pit Shark squats, and why, when it comes to developing your glutes, it might just be the best exercise that nobody is doing (yet).

What are Pit Shark squats?

First things first: This exercise is called a belt squat. Pit Shark is a brand that makes a popular belt squat machine, hence why a lot of people have come to know the exercise as a Pit Shark squat—just like how Assault Bike has become the go-to term for an air bike, even though lots of other brands make air bikes. And just like the air bike has been around for decades, belt squats have been an old-school weight room staple for years.

“The belt squat is not a new exercise by any means,” says Joey Masri, DPT, CSCS, owner of Vice City Sports Medicine in Miami, FL. Yet, for one reason or another, it never quite gained mainstream appeal. Granted, to the uninitiated, the belt squat machine—with its industrial design and ominous-looking chain—can appear to be quite an intimidating piece of equipment. But it’s actually a very simple, user-friendly exercise. Think about how you might do weighted dips with a weight belt attached to a plate. Now just apply that idea to a bodyweight squat. You can’t squat with a plate attached to a belt, as the weight would have nowhere to go. So, instead of connecting directly to a weight, the belt squat machine hooks your belt up to a lever that you can load up with as much weight as you’d like. No barbell required.

Why the belt squat is such an effective glute exercise

At the end of the day, belt squats are still just squats. And maybe you’re already doing squats. So you might be wondering how much of a difference this exercise could actually make. Well, quite a big difference, actually. Here’s why.

You can train your glutes to failure

One of the things that we know for sure about building muscle is that you have to train as close to failure as possible in order to spur meaningful growth. One of the problems with that is sometimes a supporting muscle reaches failure before the larger muscle group that you’re trying to focus on. “For example, you might be trying to grow your chest with a bench press, but your triceps get fatigued before your chest,” says Alex Corbett, physical therapist at BreakThrough Physical Therapy. “What that means, in a practical sense, is when you’re training a muscle for growth, if you’re limited by a weak link that isn’t that muscle, then you’re basically leaving gains on the table.”

While barbell back squats also target the glutes, they place a lot of strain on the lower back, which can be a limiting factor. “The back tends to be the weak link when people are doing high-volume squats,” Dr. Corbett says. “But when you take that barbell off your back and put the weight directly on the hips, you’re taking the low back out of the equation.” That means you’ll likely be able to load far more weight onto a belt squat than a back squat, allowing you to apply a greater stimulus directly onto your glutes.

A lower squat equals higher rewards

Aside from the weight being attached to your hips rather than resting across your traps, the main difference between a belt squat and a back squat is the belt squat machine has two handles that you can hold onto while performing the exercise. When your arms are extended out in front of you and effectively stabilizing your body throughout the movement, you’re able to squat considerably lower than you would while balancing a bar on your back, “and research shows that this can help with muscle hypertrophy,” Dr. Corbett says.