Yeah, the smith machines is basically a squat rack with the bar staying in a straight line throughout the entire movement. You simply turn the bar to lock it into and out of place. A great machine that can be used for a number of exercises including squats, calf raises, bench press, military press, lunges, just about anything that requires a press.
I agree Iron Fist. In fact i’m on the way out of the door with a protein shake. Hitting the gym before work. Hah!
There is such a thing as overtraining.
Elite powerlifters call Smith machines “knee shredders.” Ford can give you more info on that.
I would rather use a leg press machine than a Smith machine for squats. I wouldn’t actually consider Smith machine squats to be very close to real squats. Leg presses aren’t very close to real squats, either, but at least they safely and effectively work the quads.
I use both. I only train my heavy lifting on the leg press though, because I get a better pump that way.
My smith machine exercise is usually a burner. Just something I use to weaken my legs as much as possible before I hit the lunges.
I haven’t had any trouble with my knees yet though. Then again, I might just not be feeling it.:rolleyes:
Avoid the smith machine. I used to use it for squats, bench (incline and decline, not flat), military press. It forces the lift into an unusual path. Sure you can lift heavier on the smith machine, but it’s worth learning the lifts with a free bar IMHO.
You actually are cheating yourself by using a Smith Machine. With a mith machine you don’t have to stabilize the weight. So all of those stabilizer muscles are not being worked. You’re training your body to not use those muscles when lifting weight. This is bad. Also a perfectly linear path is not natural so a smith machine actually works against your bodies natural movements.
I have no idea why a person would use a smith machine. I can’t see one benefit to it. The only thing a smith machine does is pad your ego.
^ Don’t forget the sheer force on your knees. That’s worse than using the wrong path or being able to use more weight.
I would use free weights, but I don’t have a training partner. I’m lifting heavy and without someone there to spot me, it can be dangerous. I’ll take the Smith Machine.
To each his own but I would rather use less weight sans smith machine. Just try it for one workout.
Fair enough. I’ll give it a try tomorrow.
Do deadlifts.
Or use the spotter bars in the squat cage.
Remember to keep your abs tight and your back tightly arched and your ass sticking out. You can get away without doing that sometimes with a Smith machine, but failing to do so with free weight squats can cause you to get injured.
And start a lot lighter than what you think you’ll be able to do. The groove is different with free weights and you need to adapt to it before you can start piling on the weight.
I actually left the upscale gym across the street from my flat for one about a 20 minute walk away just because all they had was that **** machine and no squat rack.
I have no idea why a person would use a smith machine. I can’t see one benefit to it. The only thing a smith machine does is pad your ego.
It didn’t even pad my ego. The reason has to do with this post:
Fortunately for me, the trainers at the gym were there to adjust my form from what I was used to doing squats to what I should do with that **** rack. Basically they made me put my feet out ****her in front of me than I was comfortable with. That made the whole movement more like a leg press. It prevented my back from getting in on the action (for better or for worse) but it protected my knees. The thing was though…it was a suffuciently different movement from a true squat and more isolated on my legs as opposed to leg/buttocks/back/etc. that I actually had to work with 40 lbs LESS than I had been doing with a proper squat rack.
Now it turns out that this was a good thing to learn but it seemed like it kind of defeated the whole purpose of squats and ruined the basic appeal for me.
I’m a relative noob to this whole lifting thing but I did get my squat up to 270 last week after only about a half year of training. I weigh 170 so that’s past the 1.5 x bodyweight mark and closing in on the magic 300. Not that 300 is any kind of impressive record but the sight of those 45’s…3 on each side…it has a certain appel…waitasec…that’s more like 310 isn’t it? Bummer. 300 is such a nice round number. Now I have to shoot for 310. grrrr 
I guess the real next goal should be 2x bodyweight though. sigh that’s still to far off to shoot for. 300 I can see just over the horizon!
Word on that. Deads are the great unsung, or at least they used to be until Pavel’s “Power to the People.” Now I hear a lot of people talking about deadlifts. I still have yet to see anyone doing 'em, but everyone in my gym used to tell me how great they were when I was doing them. It’s one of the main reasons I started training at home. I hate adolescent armchair weightlifters and thier barbell-curls in my squat rack! Get the f@$# outta here!!! I’m supersetting b!#@$!!!
Sorry, I get emotional about my old gym.
Deadlifts rule.
Seriously? That’s really good. I weigh 165 ish and it took me forever to get to 300. Are you doing a full range squat where the ASIS of the hip gets below the knee?
Not that 300 is any kind of impressive record but the sight of those 45’s…3 on each side…it has a certain appel…waitasec…that’s more like 310 isn’t it? Bummer. 300 is such a nice round number. Now I have to shoot for 310. grrrr
Three 45s on each side is 315.
Word.
10 character limit.
I had been ****ing around in the weight room for about a year or so before I started truly squatting but I was really just hanging out there because they had a heavy bag to work with. Fact was…I was just scared of the **** squat rack.
Full range? Not sure. I am very carefull to go to parallel but I am still really aprehensive about letting the hips get below the knee. Everything I ever learned about stance training was that this was bad for the knee as it shifted the load off the muscles and on to the tendons.
Once I got up to about 220 I started needing a spotter. Not so much for safety (nice rack with “spotter bars”) but because in order to protect my form I have found I need to really look up at the ceiling and not the mirror. As soon as I look forward I tend to tip forward. There’s also something psychological about looking up as you squat. I think it helps but now I have someone stand behind me and tell me when I’ve gone down far enough rather than relying on my proprioceptic (forgot how to spell it) senses.
Pushing past 250 was really tough. I got stuck for a while at 240. One day one of the trainers just threw 270 on the bar and told me to try. I only could make it about 2/3 of the way down without starting to tip forward so what I did for the next week was I started setting the bar on the bottom part of the rack at the height I should be at at the lowest part of the squat, crawled under that bar and squatted up from there. I’d just do singles but starting from the bottom instead of the top. That meant backing up to only about 220 for a while but then the next week I put the bar up high again and managed a 270 squat going down to thighs parallel. Yippee.
So far it’s all been mostly just little groups or 3-6 reps or even just doing singles. it seems to be working. I do sets of 8 for deadlifts but for squats they tire me out too quickly so I try to keep the reps low.
That’s pretty awesome, dude. I’m jealous. At the peak of a powerlifting cycle I hit 315 x 1 on squat @ a bodyweight of like 165lbs. This was over a year ago and I haven’t attempted it again, but I did happen to get it on video. Haha.
I have naturally weak legs, tho (I’m a total ectomorph), so I was proud of myself.
I was going to give you s.hit if you said you didn’t go down all the way, because I see people all the time who are like “yeah man I can rep 300+ on squat” and then I watch them go down MAYBE half way." But instead, I give you props cuz you’re making good progress.
Before you get under the bar for a big set, close your eyes and stand on one foot for a few seconds. I read this trick in one of Pavel’s newsletters I think. I forgot why it works, but it has something to do with kind of making your body freak out and that gives you a short term boost or something. I really don’t remember why, but I know that I made that trick part of my routine on heavy squat days. Even if it’s purely psychological, it’s still something. Just don’t become dependent on it, like “oh crap, I can’t squat without doing this first.”
Cheers.
Actually, I got me a copy of “Dinosaur Trianing” recently and that’s been a huge guidline although you have to be carefull because it’s easy to get injured that way. I tweaked something in one of my ribs abou 3 weeks ago just from pushing it too hard.
The standing in front of the bar is something he (the Dinosaur author) really emphasises. One big reason I became a fan of the squat and why I was able to get over my anti-lifting prujudice in general was when I was able to really get into the mind body connection involved. Visualizations, breath control and of course the HUGE amount of cross over between squats and proper stance training.
I HATE the terms “ecto/meso/whatever-morph”. Just excuses as far as I am concerned. Even if the classifications are real they aren’t helpfull. Just bad self programming.
My problem is with the upper body stuff. I can’t seem to make any progress on the bench press but I know the reason why. I haven’t figured out how to convince my self it’s relevant to what I do as a martial artist. The whole motion of the squat, the way it unifies that legs and waist, the way you have to be carefull about the angle of your knees and the placement of your feet, general motion of contraction and expansion of the whole body…that’s what punching is. The bench press is still about vanity for me. I don’t know how to get psyched about it.
In addition to standing with my eyes closed for a moment I often like to jump up and down a couple times landing hard. I like to feel that little jolt from my feet all the way up to my head as I land. I figure that that is kind of the path I want the power of my squat to take.
Now if you could tell me any tricks to help at the bench press I’d be psyched.
I HATE when people say it’s an excuse 
. Everyone has unique genetics, and some people are on opposite ends of the bell curve.
I said I’m an ecto because even when I eat 6000 calories a day for months at a time I hardly gain weight. I do not possess the genetics to carry weight, and no amount of food or drugs will change that. So, I can’t call that an “excuse” any more than I can yell at an endomorph who can’t lose weight and say “what’s wrong with you? You can’t lose weight? Look how easily I can lose weight.”
What’s your bench press program look like?
Program?!?
hahahahahahahhhroflhehee lol .. . . . .
I think I read about one of those in a book once…