What follows is a comprehensive, inclusive list of valid reasons to use the Smith Machine:
1. Calf raises. If your gym lacks a calf-raise machine, this is probably your best option for isolating your calves.
2. Hanging your towel. Always carry a towel.
3. Mobility drills. The Smith machine provides a horizontal bar with adjustable height. Step over, pass under… you have options, provided your gym hasn’t shoved the machine right up against the wall (like many seem to do).
4. Bodyweight reverse rows. It’s a reinforced metal bar that you can lock low to the ground, and you know for a fact it can support your weight. Go to town.
5. Bodyweight triceps exensions. Like a regular triceps extension, performed by pushing off the floor. However, you don’t have the floor to stabilize you. It’s good for your triceps AND your core!
6. Push-up progressions. You can keep altering the height, and therefore the angle. Neat!
7. Various things involving bands.I don’t really play with bands much, but they have many uses, and the adjustable height on the Smith machine makes it useful for many of these purposes.
You will note that all of the following have been excluded from the list:
Squat
Military press
Bench press
Incline bench press
Decline bench press
Yet those are the five most common uses I have seen for the machine. In all five cases, it is a bad idea.
Why do people use the Smith machine in lieu of free weights?[fn1] Because it is easier. By restricting the movement to a fixed plane of motion, it takes your stabilizers our of the equation. This limits the muscle groups that are used, thus limiting your results. For that reason, it produces unnatural movement; you are not developing functional strength.
Worse still: it forces you to move in a straight line. If you watch someone doing a proper squat, the bar doesn’t move straight up and down; there is also some horizontal movement. It forces you into a disadvantageous biomechanical position, which can aggravate knee and back problems. Sound like fun?
Using a Smith machine for compound movements won’t make you stronger, and it won’t make you bigger. It will make you a tool.
FN1: This assumes that you are presented with a choice. At many Planet FAIL locations, for example, you lack any option other than Smith machines. (Smith machines, unlike squat racks, must be judgment-free.) Consider that chain’s level of commitment to results as you ponder the wisdom of that decision.
