“We don’t know who this Smith guy is, and we don’t want to deprive him of his livelihood. That said, we sure don’t care much for his machine.” — Men’s Health Home Workout Bible (p. 44)
Actually, the Smith Machine was first invented by Jack LaLanne, American fitness guru and was later refined by Rudy Smith, a bodybuilder and gym owner.
While Mr. LaLanne may have had good intentions when he invented the Smith Machine, what he created was a monster.
What Is A Smith Machine
The Smith Machine looks very much like a typical power cage with barbell but with two significant differences:
- The barbell of a Smith machine runs vertically on two guide rods.
- There are multiple points along the frame where you can rack the barbell with a simple twist of your wrists.
The main attraction of the Smith machine – especially to new lifters – is its safety factor. With no need for a spotter, lifters feel more secure using heavier weights than they would if they were lifting free weights. Aside from safety, the locked-in vertical movement of the weight up and down the guide rods seems to provide the new lifter with the feeling that his/her lifting form will be better than lifting free weights.
On the surface this sounds perfect. But as you’ll soon see, the Smith machine promotes poor lifting form and puts the lifter in more danger than a traditional power cage.
The Smith Machine and Poor Lifting Form
Look closely at someone performing squats, bench press or shoulder press with a traditional barbell and you’ll notice that the bar rarely, if ever, moves in a perfectly straight line up and down. In every exercise, the bar moves slightly back or foward of the vertical starting position. Factors affecting the path of the bar include…
- Body’s dimensions
- Flexibility
- Muscle imbalances
Like fingerprints, no two bodys are the same. For example, my Dad and I have the same inseem measurement, yet he’s four inches taller than me, meaning he’s considerably longer through the upper torso. If you were to put us side by side while doing deadlifts, you would see considerable difference in our technique and in the path the bar takes.
Your flexibility will greatly influence how the bar moves during an exercise. If you’re doing squats and have poor hip, calf or low back flexibility, you’re body will automatically adapt the path you take during the lift – affecting the path of the bar.
Few exercises involve just one muscle group. The bench press for example, involves the chest, triceps and shoulders. If a lifter is weak in any one of these areas, the others will attempt to compensate in order to lift the weight. This attempt to compensate often causes the bar to travel forward or backward.
So What’s The Big Deal With Bar Movement?
You may be thinking that I’m making a big deal over nothing but bear with me. I’m about to show you the harm that can come from limiting bar movement.
If the bar needs to move horizontally, for whatever reason, and you force the bar to move only vertically and do not allow it to move horizontally, something must give, namely…
Your joints, tendons and ligaments, that’s what.
Let’s say for example that when you bench press with a traditional barbell the bar moves slightly back then forward as it travels up. When you perform the same bench press in the Smith machine, the weight moves straight up the guide rods, so the joints must stretch to accommodate the forces placed on the bar.
Over time, great stress is placed on the wrist, elbow and shoulder joints. At the very least, you’ll end up with nagging pain. Your worst case scenario involves serious injury.
The same applies to the squat, another popular exercise performed in the Smith machine. Rather than allowing natural movement of the bar, the Smith machine forces the hips, knees, shoulders and lower back to absorb the forces needed to move the weight. The reults…low back pain, chronically sore knees and hips or in some cases, severe injury to these areas.
A Question of Safety
Many supporters of the Smith machine claim it to be safer than a traditional power cage. When used properly, however, the power cage provides even more safety than the Smith.
With the Smith machine, the lifter can hook the bar on hooks found all along the frame. And while the system works well when the lifter is in control of the weight, what would happen if something happened to cause the lifter to lose control of the weight, such as blowing out a knee or low back during a heavy squat?
Although it’s never happenedd to me, I would think that the sudden collapse of my knee or back would cause me to drop towards the floor like a sack of wet cement. The likelihood that I’d have the presence of mind to twist the bar and properly rack the weight before crumpling to the floor would be slim to none.
With a proper power cage, the supports can be set at the bottom of the movement so if you lose control of the weight, it falls on the supports, not you.
Getting Maximum Results From Your Efforts
Lifting free weights not only develops strength in the primary muscle groups but also develops strength in many secondary muscles. For example, squats rely heavily on the thigh and butt muscles to move the weight. However, many other muscles, such as the calves, abs, shoulders, traps, your neck muscles and forearms, are needed to stabilize the weight and keep your body in proper alignment.
The Smith machine, on the other hand, does most of the stabilization work for you and requires you only to push the weight – making the exercise easier and delivering inferior results.
Jack LaLanne has contributed a great deal to the fitness industry and serves as a wonderful example of what the human body is capable of. There’s no doubt in my mind that, when he first developed the machine that would later become known as the Smith machine, he sincerely wanted to help others in their lifting efforts.
But it’s obvious to me and many other lifters that the Smith machine does more harm than good. Instead of keeping the lifter safe and promoting good lifting technique, it actually places the lifter in harm’s way while enforcing poor lifting form.
If you are a new lifter looking for a safe way to work with free weights, I recommend investing in a power cage and even hiring a professional personal trainer to help you learn proper lifting form.
