My gym just got a Star Trac MaxRack 3-D. It is basically an upgraded Smith machine that allows movement in the up/down and forward/backward planes, but not left/right. Here is a picture:
We all hate on the Smith machine, but how about the MaxRack?
I’m contemplating using it for squats, rack pulls and maybe bench presses too. The attraction is the safety factor, since I often work out alone and the squat rack in my gym is in an unsafe position (gym traffic) and is too low for me.
Thanks for your input!
PS. And does anyone know how much bar weighs in this thing??
How is it safer than free weigth for squatting? I mean, If you’re stuck with free weight, you’ll just drop it on safety pins. What’s different on the star trac?
[quote]CPerfringens wrote:
How is it safer than free weigth for squatting? I mean, If you’re stuck with free weight, you’ll just drop it on safety pins. What’s different on the star trac?[/quote]
Yeah, I’d like to see one of these in action, I’m not really sure how it works.
The MaxRack stabilizes the weight in at least the transverse and coronal planes. My own experience is from about a month last summer when I went to a gym that had those for free barbell exercises, and when I got back to my usual gym and tried to squat in a normal rack, I damn near fell on my ass. That problem went away after a few workouts without needing to reduce weights, though.
They are advertising it as though the MAIN factor of the regular smith machine is that it prevents lateral movement and its major drawback, in which they have erased, is that it doesn’t allow horizontal movement.
Though the ACTUAL main factor of a smith machine is it allows you to rack the weight very quickly when your safety is in question. Which they have actually lost.
You might as well just have a power rack with lots of bar racks on it.
Though I suppose the good thing is that it will get “fitness” people into doing better exercises as this makes them look less “hardcore”.
Compared to free weights, it prevents the bar from twisting either in the sense of one end coming up faster than the other, or coming forward at one end while the other end swings back.
As well as preventing overall side-to-side movement.
So for example if used for squatting, you don’t actually have to generate equal force with each leg. You could drive a little off balance, but the machine would keep you on track and you probably would not even know that you did it.
Personally I think it’s an idiotic device but if that’s what there is instead of a power rack, it’s usable.
Perhaps depending on the model and the particular barbell you try, you may be able to fit a barbell in it and use it as a standard power rack. Where I have tried it, one barbell just barely fit while another did not.
Thanks for the comments, guys. Bill’s suggestion is what I going to go with - grabbing a barbell and using the thing as a standard power rack. How did I fail to think of that… doh…
My gym got one of these today. I would have much preferred a proper power rack (mostly for squats) but I am going to try it to see how it feels.
I like the Smith for some tri and shoulder exercises but largely BECAUSE of the dreaded fixed plane of movement. I have been dealing with some shoulder tendonitis and the fixed plane actually helps when I get in the right groove. And, for tris you can push against the bar toward your feet.
The upside of this piece is that it is not counterweighted like the smith. I hate counterweighting.
I’ve tried it before on things like pin presses, other shit because I had to… it’s a piece of shit. I don’t like it at all and my gym should replace it with a fucking power rack for god’s sake.
giterdone brings a good point, I like to do wide reverse grib bench for tri’s now and then, and you can’t do that with this machine, only the regular Smith one.
Its better than a normal smith IMO but still not as great as they make it look. The gym I work at has one, I think its one of those things that looks cool but having a regular smith as well as this is not cool with only one squat rack not a cage.
