Squats in a Smith Machine

[natewOw]

Ok, so I live in South Korea and gyms here are freaking expensive. I can only afford membership to a small, pretty ghetto gym. There is no squat rack, only a smith machine for me to do squats in. I know it's not ideal, but is it okay to do squats in the Smith Machine if there are no other options? Or is it dangerous, and I should just not do squats at all? Is there any other way of doing squats without a squat rack or smith machine?

 

[ExtraMile]

Without a rack you can still do zercher squats, high rep front squats if you can clean well, stepups, lunges, one legged squats, sumo deads, romanian deads... I dont know if squatting in a smith is dangerous though

 

[elmarcouk]

I've had to do squats in a smiths before. It's exactly comfortable! You end up pushing the bar back into the support of the frame, which adds an extra annoying resistance. It forces your boy to lift straight up too, rather than naturally back a bit. You could alwys steinberg lift into squats...

 

[SouthernLord]

Get really good at powercleans and do front squats.....

If you have no other options then use the smith. Smith machine squats suck.

 

[elmarcouk]

I've had to do squats in a smiths before. It's exactly comfortable! You end up pushing the bar back into the support of the frame, which adds an extra annoying resistance. It forces your boy to lift straight up too, rather than naturally back a bit. You could alwys steinberg lift into squats...

I made a mistake with that post. It should of read "its not exactly comfortbale!"

 

[ExtraMile]

Get really good at powercleans and do front squats.....

If you have no other options then use the smith. Smith machine squats suck.

Why not zerchers and all the other shit I suggested?

 

[mad_monkey59]

Does your gym have dip bars? when I was in a gym with just a smith machine I used to use the dip bars to load the bar... to be honest neither option is exactly ideal as such, but squats are fundamental, so use the smith if you don't have any other choice and supplement it with the stuff like ExtraMile suggested.

 

[highlander555]

Better to do them in a smith machine than not at all. I'd try to do some of the variations people have mentioned as well.

 

[oso0960]

you need a spotter for you on this one. Lie down on your back and put your feet up in the air. Get your partner to deadlift the bar onto your feet and have him place it in the middle of your shoe (where the indent is) so it is firmly in place. now act as if it were a leg press. Hah jk Mark Rippetoe said that that's how the leg press came into use in his book Strong Enough? But I believe he was being sarcastic..I'm sure there's people that would try it though.

I like everybody's ideas except having to use the smith machine as a last resort. I would rather get a sandbag and play with that before I even thought about a smith machine

 

[dabuffguy]

If it's your only option, it's totally fine.