ClickerTrainer’s comment in How to Avoid Leaning Forward on Front Squats:
I have very bad form on squats which I like to blame on being short and short waisted. Is it better to Front Squat using the Smith Machine or with free weights?
I Admit. I squatted in the smith machine during my first 3 years of strength training. Me & my training partner didn’t know better at that time.
One day someone was using the smith machine. We turned towards the power rack & did our Squats there. Using free weights.
My training partner started. He put the same weight on the barbell he normally used. He almost lost balance. It was harder. We had to decrease the weight. Lesson learned. We never did squats in the smith machine again.
Pro’s of Free Weights. Free weights are better than machines. Always.
- More Strength & Muscles. Squatting with free weights is harder than inside the smith machine. You must control & balance the bar. Exercises that stress your body more give better results.
- Functional. Pick a heavy object from the floor, put it on your back & get up. No machine balances the object for you. You must do it yourself. This is functional strength. Smith machines don’t build it.
- Safer. You decide where the barbell goes when using free weights. The smith machine forces you into fixed & unnatural movement patterns. This can cause injury.
How to Learn to Squat. Practice. That’s the only solution if you have bad form on the Squat. The more you practice, the better you become.
Don’t lose your time practicing on the smith machine. It doesn’t teach you to balance the weight. Especially on the Front Squat were balance is much harder than on Squats because of the different grip.
Better is to build good habits from the start. Do endless sets with low weight. Technique will come if you keep practicing.
What If All Barbells Are Attached? Some gyms don’t invest in anything else than a smith machine. If your gym doesn’t have a power rack to perform Squats using free weights, several options:
- Steinborn lift. Put the bar on its end, get under it & Squat.
- Power Clean. Bar ends on your shoulders, ready for Front Squats.
- Home Gym. If you have the place & money, go for it.
I loathe that forsaken Smith machine!! And so many people swear by it because they think it promotes safety. Hogwash!! I get such a big kick out of watching timid ladies as well as muscle heads using the Smith machine to squat. The timid ladies (and men too) put a 10lb plate on each end of the bar, set-up their feet in front of themselves, effectively leaning backwards into the bar (!!!!) and proceed to only squat down till the undersides of their knees barely make a 45 degree angle. I also have to chuckle at the big guys who load up the Smith machine (and leg press sled) with multiple 45lb plates and proceed to squat or press only the slightest rabge of motion. I feel like screaming, “COME ON PEOPLE!! SQUAT!! ASS TO GRASS!!”
Been there and done that. When I first started getting serious at the gym almost a year ago, the place I first started working out didn’t have a squat rack and all they had was a smith machine.
And yeah, when I went to my current gym that is set up for lifting properly, I subtracted about 30-40 lbs off my squats - at least!
Squatting with free weights is making me stronger and I believe helping my core and lower back more than the smith was….
plus, you can end up like this poor guy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1m6vcyQqx_Q
It gets on my nerves whenever read Oxygen and I see a fitness pro demonstrating a Smith squat. I feel myself cringe even. If you know better than that you can still read fitness mags and be entertained and learn something. However, if someone is just starting training, seeing that is pure misinformation.
Testosterone Nation just put up an article on powerlifting vs. olympic squats that covers how to train yourself up from not squatting (or only leg pressing, or using a smith machine) to a full, ass-to-grass olympic squat.
http://www.t-nation.com/readArticle.do?id=1736931
(I think you might have to go to the 2nd page of the article to get to the “how to” section)
If my gym didn’t have a power rack I would find a new gym.
I used to use the Smith machine too! Thank God I stopped. Your article is spot on. The lack of power racks at many mainstream gyms is both a gift and a curse. The good thing is even though they are low in numbers, I can usually count on them being empty because nobody ever really uses them. People love machines, bench presses, and curls. The bad thing is because people love to curl, they love to occupy the power rack doing curls on them. I hate that.
There is just one name for all the things that tries to look like a squat or work the same things than a squat (leg press, smith, extensions…)
Bullshit.
Squats are REAL job, real hard, real muscle builders, really functional and are the exercise of the real hardcore lifters, along with deadlift, chins, bench press, cleans, power cleans, overhead presses, rows with free weights…also there are really good exercises like tire flip, stone lifting and other strongman lifts.
Sure you can build muscle using leg press and leg extensions. Also: Why You Should Always Squat With Free Weights…. allways… well that’s maybe a wee bit too drastic. I’m sure there are instances where working out with a smith cage can be an option.
Squats rule, don’t get me wrong, but they’re not the one true path.
Feel free to give examples were smith could be an option, because I don’t see any.
Squats are the most challenging exercise, both physically & mentally. That’s why they give results.
I’d only tell someone not to squat if he has lower back problems or other injury that needs to be taken care of in the first place.
Well… I don’t like the smith machine either very much, so give me some time to come up with a good example. … lower back problems indeed, but maybe it’s also a better alternative when doing leg movements to exhaustion. Getting an injury because you’re too exhausted is worse then using a smith with adjustable safeties.
also, personally I just leg press at the moment due to a buggy knee… squats hurt, leg presses and extensions don’t. (haven’t tried the smith though, only use it for shrugs, shoulder presses and to hang my towel)
If your squat technique is right, but your knees hurt: check the joint below or above. Ankles or hips. One of them (or both) is not functioning correctly. Lack of ankle/hip mobility is very common. And when you have it, the knee has to overcompensate. Unfortunately the knee is designed for stability, not mobility, so you get trouble. Pain.
Amen! I started on the smith machine for a couple of months because it was less scary. I made no gains.
Once I switched to the power rack I was able to increase my lifts tremendously. It seems so obvious now, but as a newbie I had no idea.
I agree with you mehdi. squats are definately better from a power rack. I used to use the smith but couldnt make any significant gains and didnt know why. One day i walked into the gym for a leg workout and saw a guy doing sqauts from the power rack with 405 lbs for 6 reps for a warm up and and asked him how the hell he squated so much. He replied simply ” Use the power rack and you will get results “. So I did and my squat went from 300 lbs to 405 lbs in about a month and a half. ” THE SMITH IS FOR PUSSY’S “