Smith Machine Squats

    Posted In: Strength & Conditioning

        • Participant
          texas-boy on June 26, 2005 at 12:09 pm #11031

          Would doing Smith Machine Squats hurt me in any way. Performence wise. My event is the 400m

        • Participant
          QUIKAZHELL on June 26, 2005 at 5:42 pm #46777

          They will not help you and may in fact hurt you.
          Why not do regular BB squats?

        • Participant
          Jay Turner on June 26, 2005 at 9:50 pm #46778

          Some schools do not have regular squat racks. The school I coach for ONLY has smith machine squat racks. Is there anything I can do about this?

        • Participant
          Daniel Andrews on June 27, 2005 at 5:11 am #46779

          You can use dumbbells, if you have some heavy dumbbells.  One thing you must be careful of is that you don't do deadlifts as opposed to squats when using them.  Another thing is that is hard to maintain balance with dumbbells when squatting.

          The other thing you can do is take the barbell off using the bench press rack and the use of 2-3 spotters.

        • Participant
          QUIKAZHELL on June 27, 2005 at 5:18 am #46780

          DB 1 legged squats with the opposite foot elevated on a Bench are good, DB Jump Squats are good, DB lunge variations, and step up variations are all very good choices.
          In addition you do not need a squat rack to front squat, so you can use from squats and since they will not hit your posterior chain to the same extent as regualr back squats you can do extra posterior chain work.

        • Participant
          texas-boy on June 27, 2005 at 8:23 am #46781

          ya I got the option of using a squat rack but I was just wondering about the smith machine.

        • Keymaster
          Mike Young on June 29, 2005 at 9:07 am #46782

          I'd actually stay away from the smith machine whenever possible. The machine forces the body into some unnatural movement patterns. Even if you have to replace squats with single leg db alternatives I think you'd still be better off. Things like piston squats, lunge variants and step ups can all be done with db to avoid having to use the smith machine.

          ELITETRACK Founder

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