Just Say No to the Smith Machine

The squat, lunge, bench press and overhead press are all great exercises--they are compound movements that will help improve strength, power, and stability. Unfortunately, I see many people performing this movement on a machine that limits the benefits of these movements: the Smith machine.

Don't try this at home...or anywhere else, for that matter.

You've probably seen this machine at your gym before. The Smith machine is where great exercises go to die.

The reason why I am so adamantly against the usage of the Smith machine is simple: the machine creates stability for you by forcing you to move through a fixed range of motion. Part of the glory of a squat or bench press is that our bodies must find stability on their own. When you take a barbell out of the rack, you may feel a little bit shaky at first. Your shoulder stabilizers are working hard to prevent the barbell from yanking your arms behind you during the bench press. The same phenomenon occurs on the squat. If you can't properly stabilize your hips, you will either fall backwards or forwards, or your knees will cave inwards as you stand.

Squatting on the Smith machine is basically like telling your core to go take a nap while you do your set. You will notice that you will be able to squat significantly more weight on a Smith machine, because you don't need to stabilize your midline! As a result, your legs can concentrate solely on moving the load on your back. While this may sound like a positive, I can assure you it is not. If you want to improve your body's reflexive strength and prevent unnecessary injuries like rolled ankles, then stick to free weights.

When you're walking down the street, you are not moving on a fixed plane. Your hip adductors work to prevent excessive hip abduction, and vice versa. Your torso must rotate slightly to navigate your center of mass. These actions are innate and help create efficient movement. Similar reactions happen in the squat: your abductors prevent the ugly valgus knee position, your erector spinae instinctively push against the barbell to prevent your torso upright, and your glutes are suppose to help you extend the hips as you stand. Many of these muscles will go to sleep when you squat on the Smith machine, because they aren't necessary.

Don't cheat yourself. Wake up your stabilizer muscles and train with purpose.

Don't Use Machines, Become One

"The human body is a machine which winds its own springs."

-Julien Offray

You've taken the first step and bought yourself a gym membership. Now you think to yourself, "okay, what the heck do I do with all of this equipment??" Some of the machines in there look like Medieval torture devices. It's easy to lose yourself in the rows of fancy gadgets in there, but in reality, all you need to achieve your fitness goals is your own bodyweight and some free weights.

Regardless on your fitness goals (increase in strength, increase in size, fat loss, etc.), I recommend you avoid the weight machines at all costs. (Okay, if you REALLY want to use the cardio machines, fine. That's a little bit different.)

Here's why:

1. Stability- Try something for me: stand on one leg and try to balance yourself for as long as you can. Now try to balance yourself while you're laying on a leg press machine. It is quite obvious that you do not need to create any stability for yourself when you're in a fixed or seated position predetermined by a machine. Your smaller stabilizing muscles, which I continually talk about, turn off when you use a machine, simply because they don't need to fire. There's a reason why you can leg press 2-3 times what you can back squat. Our bodies only like to use muscles that are absolutely necessary in an effort to conserve energy, so it will stop firing any muscles that don't need to fire. Those ever-important glutes that I wrote about will most likely not fire on a leg press they way they will on a squat or a lunge, just as those shoulder stabilizers won't fire on a chest press or a lateral shoulder raise machine.
2. Range of motion- No matter what the exercise, it is important to use a full range of motion for each repetition. When we are strapped into a machine, the machine chooses our range of motion for us, and rarely does it take you through the full range of those muscles in any given movement.
3. Joint stress- Certain machines can place tremendous stress on your joints and connective tissues. For example, the leg extension machine stresses the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) and the other ligaments and tendons that hold your kneecap in place. Open chain exercises (isolations) can irritate those tissues more than closed chain (compound) exercises.
4. Functionality- The word "functional" is thrown around a lot. Here, I use "functional" to relate to the transfer to our day-to-day movement patterns. How will machines or open chain exercises carry over to your ability to play sports, pick up your kids, or go run a 5k? It won't. However, a deadlift has a direct transfer to picking up heavy furniture, and a squat has a direct transfer to standing up from your desk chair correctly. Using machines will train your body to adapt to isolating one muscle at a time, and of course we never want that! We want to train movement, not muscles!

This machine makes me cringe every time I see someone use it!

Although fancy new machines can be enticing, I urge you to step away from the Smith machine and try a back squat (or better yet, a front squat or an overhead squat). Back off of that silly crunch machine and try some hollow rocks or weighted planks. You will save yourself from injury and ultimately build a stronger, more stable body, ready for any task you ask of it! Channel your own inner Terminator and turn your body into a machine.