Drag Curls on a Smith Machine?

Training
1

I dont really use a lot of direct arm work in my workouts anymore, but something I saw at the gym today got me thinking. I was resting between sets on the squat rack and observed another gentleman doing curls using the smith machine and I got to thinking about the mechanics of this lift. I feel like the smith machine would almost force you to keep the bar very close to your body (or lean your body away I guess) essentially like a drag curl.

Also you could also add an element of almost an isometric rowing type of movement to this. What are your thoughts on this type of an exercise?

2

I am personally not a fan of the Smith Machine. That said, it seems like a drag curl would work well in it because of the straight up-down plane of motion. My question however, is why not just pick up a barbell? If curling in the squat rack is bad, what’s curling in the fake squat rack considered? (lame joke attempt)

3

I wasn’t necessarily planning to try any curls in the smith machine. At first I was even being a dick and privately judging the guy who was doing them. Then I just got to thinking about the differences you would find in a smith machine and it triggered me to post about it for fun.

4

[quote]SKman wrote:
I wasn’t necessarily planning to try any curls in the smith machine. At first I was even being a dick and privately judging the guy who was doing them. Then I just got to thinking about the differences you would find in a smith machine and it triggered me to post about it for fun.[/quote]

i personally think a smith machine serves no purpose in a gym. it forces you into an unnatural plane of motion that can be SO bad for joints.

if you can, stick to BB’s or DB’s… some machines are very useful, depending on the mechanics. we studied this at uni, and found, for example, the normal chest press machines deviated so much from bench press form, and hardly activated the triceps or shoulders in comparison, however plate loaded pressing machines are much more comparable to the natural ‘J’ seen in free weight pressing. they also bring the shoulders into play a lot more, and EMG tests showed more pectoral activation than Barbell versions.

-i’m not an expert AT ALL with fitness/training, not even close, but studying Sports Technology we looked a lot at the differences between different training equipment. -smith machines always came last in the race haha

5

@iboro, Exactly.

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