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Smith machines
- Thread starter bignascarfans
- Start date
NorgePrecision
New member
BiggT said:
Ha, I do that too. I only use it otherwise every other shoulder workout and I never just use that.
bignascarfans
New member
Thanks for all the feedback. I appreciate it.
Free weights it is from now on!
Free weights it is from now on!
blut wump
New member
I do one single shoulder press on the Smith machine two or three times a week, pretty much regardless of what weight was left sitting on it. The Smith machine is right next to the squat rack so, rather than ducking under and around the bar, I lift the Smith bar up out of irritation's way.
It doesn't seem to have done any harm at all to my delts. Great machine.
Interesting experiment, madcow. I'm occasionally tempted to return to the gym I used to work out at and see what difference to my Smith bench free weights have made. When I left that gym in March, my Smith bench was at 135Kg for a triple. I never quite managed to press three plates but I quit the gym the week I got the triple. I've since pressed 3 plates on free weights after about 6 months work. There's a chance I'll be doing some work near there again in which case, since they have a great cardio selection, I'll probably join that gym for a convenient lunch-time workout. If I do, I'll report back.
It doesn't seem to have done any harm at all to my delts. Great machine.
Interesting experiment, madcow. I'm occasionally tempted to return to the gym I used to work out at and see what difference to my Smith bench free weights have made. When I left that gym in March, my Smith bench was at 135Kg for a triple. I never quite managed to press three plates but I quit the gym the week I got the triple. I've since pressed 3 plates on free weights after about 6 months work. There's a chance I'll be doing some work near there again in which case, since they have a great cardio selection, I'll probably join that gym for a convenient lunch-time workout. If I do, I'll report back.
The gym I'm using at the moment has a king of '3D' Smith machine - instead of a strict up-down motion, the bar is free to travel up/down and forwards/backwards (i.e. the side bars are mounted on rollers at the top and bottom). Anyone ever seen/used these? The bar is still constrained so that it can't move side-to-side, or tilt in any direction.
The crap thing is that it's the only way I can safely do heavy squats - there's no squat rack, not even anywhere to mount the bar at the right level. When I train legs there I notice the fact that the bar can't move sideways or tilt, and also the friction issues (going down with the squat motion is deceptively easy, and then it's a struggle to get it moving again from the hole!).
I got pissed off with this after a few weeks so now I pay through the nose to get to a gym with a proper squat rack once a week. I can then call my shitty machine-squat day a 'power' or 'active recovery' training session safe in the knowledge that there will be REAL squats in 3-4 days time!
Mark
The crap thing is that it's the only way I can safely do heavy squats - there's no squat rack, not even anywhere to mount the bar at the right level. When I train legs there I notice the fact that the bar can't move sideways or tilt, and also the friction issues (going down with the squat motion is deceptively easy, and then it's a struggle to get it moving again from the hole!).
I got pissed off with this after a few weeks so now I pay through the nose to get to a gym with a proper squat rack once a week. I can then call my shitty machine-squat day a 'power' or 'active recovery' training session safe in the knowledge that there will be REAL squats in 3-4 days time!
Mark
