"Q: I use the Smith machine extensively in my training, but I've been hearing that it's not the greatest piece of equipment ever invented. What's your take?

A: To be frank, I don't think much of the Smith machine. In fact, when I design a weight room for a client, I never ever buy a Smith machine. In fact, if a dork asks me a question about chest training during one of my workouts, I quickly prescribe him ten sets of 20 on the Smith machine as my way of getting revenge. One of the reasons that the Smith machine has so much publicity in the magazines is because it makes a great visual picture but, as far as functional transfer, it scores a big zero. It was probably invented by a physical therapist who wanted more business for himself.

What you might perceive as positives with the device are in fact strong negatives. The perceived positives are only short-lived because, in a Smith machine, the weight is stabilized for you. However, the shoulder really operates in three planes. But if you do exercises in a Smith machine, none of the shoulder stabilizers need to be recruited maximally. For example, the rotator cuff muscles don't have to fire as much because the bar's pathway is fixed. That creates a problem when the trainee returns to free-weight training. When that happens, the trainee is exposed to the three-dimensional environment called real life. Since the Smith machine has allowed him to develop strength only in one dimension, it predisposes him or her to injury in the undeveloped planes of movement.

Exercise prescription specialist Paul Chek of San Diego has identified what he calls pattern overload syndrome. In his seminar and videos, he stresses that the Smith machine bench press is one of the most common sources of shoulder injuries:

"People get a pattern overload from using the Smith machine. The more fixed the object, the more likely you are to develop a pattern overload. This is due to the fact that training in a fixed pathway repetitively loads the same muscles, tendons, ligaments and joints in the same pattern, encouraging micro-trauma that eventually leads to injury. If Johnny Lunchpail always uses a Smith machine for his bench presses, he ends up working the same fibers of the prime movers in the bench press all of the time: triceps brachii, pectoralis major, long-head of the biceps, anterior deltoids, and serratus anterior. But he can't change the pathway?the bar will always be in the same position."

Because of the mechanics of the human shoulder Joint, the body will alter the natural bar pathway during a free-weight bench press to accommodate efficient movement at the shoulder. A fixed bar pathway doesn't allow alteration of this pathway for efficient movement of the Joint, thereby predisposing the shoulder to harmful overload via lack of accommodation.

All in all, the Smith machine is a training piece for dorks. If you're interested in training longevity, you're far better off sticking to the standard barbell and dumbbell exercises or try the newer chest machines from Magnum and Flex.
Gallery of Guinness5.0"

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"Just walk away from the Smith machine.

I started this year thinking I was mighty with a squat over 400 and a bench over 300. I ran the madcow 5x5 and everything went up. I was even mightier.

I then got away from the leisure center I was working out in with its one and only Smith machine and went to a hard core gym. At first I had trouble benching 135 due to atrophy of the stabiliser muscles. The bar was all over the place. After a couple of weeks I had a very wobbly 250. It's taken four months to get almost back to where I was.

The squat was the same. My knees didn't have the support muscles and neither did my thighs and hips. The Smith does too much of the overall work for you and I went from thinking I was almost a 450 squatter to realising that I was barely a 300 squatter. I'm nowhere near back where I thought I was with squat but I can feel the improvement almost any time I have to push aganst the floor.

The good side? My chest and legs are fuller from the free movements. My stabilizing muscles now are able to do their job in helping with the lift and if I have to do the movement in the real world I know that I'll be able to do it without having a whole bundle of untrained support muscle pop under the load.

The bottom line is that the Smith is a very restrictive machine and to train on the Smith without, at least, also working with free weights will leave you with a lot of muscle imbalances that you won't even suspect you have. Your real-world strength will be just a fraction of your gym strength and correspondingly you're an injury waiting to happen. The tragic thing is that I didn't have a clue about my weaknesses until I went to free weights.

Free weights work you much more and force your body to provide its own support and stability. You can get stronger on the Smith machine but you'll do it faster and in a safer and more complete fashion off and away from it.

I've never tried the angled Smith."

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