The gym I train at recently purchased a bunch of new equipment, all Startrac brand. Most of the stuff is functional cable equipment, but we also go this new smith machine called a Max Rack. I have heard of 3-dimensional smith machines but never had used them.
This one moves up and down and back and forth, the only motion it cant perform is any tilting. But let me tell you, as far as smith machines go, this thing is the shit.
You can power clean, deadlift, front squat or back squat perfectly with this thing. Its kind of funny because if you cant do a good free bar squat or deadlift, you wont be able to do one on this.
One of the morons in our gym went to try to squat and he almost fell over backwards because he was used to leaning back against the smith machine! Haha! The dumb fuck!
Not half as good as a free bar, but ten times better than a traditional smith.
Check out the cheesy commercial, but note the snatch people.
my gym has that. it is the closest thing theyve got to a power rack. it is very popular in my gym. i have used it when the squat rack was in use. i think the smith machine has a place actualy. it is easier to be more intense and explosive if i am stable. plus the texture of moving the bar on the machine is very pleasing. i love cleaning the weight into squat position. but i know i am alone in thinking that. one thing to note, this does not seem to be the case with squating, but it cuts some of the weight and can make a person think they are stronger than they really are
I played around with this one at a shop by me and didn’t see any pressing need. With it you can rack the bar at any point forward and back so it does the have that benefit over free weight versions of the same exercise. However the one in this thread requires you to walk forward or back to hang the bar if you get into trouble so I can’t see how this would be any better than just using a barbell.
[quote]Makavali wrote:
Why not just use a power cage?[/quote]
Yeah, personally I don’t see it once the restricted path of a regular Smith machine is not there. Why not just set up a cage. I actually use my Smith machine so this is not an anti Smith sentiment.
I’ve also used a Smith Machine before and am not against them either, but this seems to take away what I thought the advantage was of using a Smith Machine.
I don’t get it either. How does this new Smith provide for any real safety? SO the bar is attached to a couple of poles that can move on two different planes. If you get in a bind, it looks as if you would be just as screwed as if you were using free weights.
[quote]IronWarrior24 wrote:
I’ve also used a Smith Machine before and am not against them either, but this seems to take away what I thought the advantage was of using a Smith Machine.[/quote]
I agree…and i have a smith at home; if i had to do over again i would of just simply bought a cage; but even if i had the extra money, i would not buy this machine. Seems like a waste to me as it seems to take away the advantage of the smith while detracting from the advantage of the free squat.
[quote]Tiribulus wrote:
Makavali wrote:
Why not just use a power cage?
Yeah, personally I don’t see it once the restricted path of a regular Smith machine is not there. Why not just set up a cage. I actually use my Smith machine so this is not an anti Smith sentiment.[/quote]
At the community college I started lifting at, they had this awesome machine that was basically a free bar suspended by wires, that had sensors that would register if you had your hands on it or not.
So you could squat, deadlift, bench, do cleans (probably snatches given the height), etc, and it was just like a free bar, except that when you let it go it would lock in place (there were also locks on the side you could set).
Thing was awesome but it broke every other day and they always took longer and longer to fix it.
[quote]rainjack wrote:
I don’t get it either. How does this new Smith provide for any real safety? SO the bar is attached to a couple of poles that can move on two different planes. If you get in a bind, it looks as if you would be just as screwed as if you were using free weights.
I like my Smith the way it is. I like it a lot. [/quote]
Have you tried squatting with it with the angle yet?
