Smith machine and upper body workouts

Many purists often deride the use of a Smith machine for squats and upper body workouts. The claims are usually of the nature that the Smith machine takes away working the stabilizer muscles and thus makes the workout "too easy".

While this is a correct assessment there is much more to the analysis before determining that the Smith machines does not add value and in many cases, overall, is better than free squats and a normal bench press bench used alone.

Safety .. A Smith machine is much safer for all exercises that use it. Yes, for example a regular squat machine can have safety bars for a dropped or out of control lift. However the act of "losing" a lift and then be caught by the safety bars can also cause injury.

The main point that I wanted to discuss though has to do with the ability to control minor changes to your lift with a Smith machine, when doing shoulder presses and flat, incline or decline bench presses.

The key here is that there are two degrees of variation that you can control easily with a Smith machine when it comes to upper body work; hand position and orientation of the bench. I will address the latter first.

Remember, we are always striving to incorporate muscle confusion into our workouts. In other words, change it up. Moving the bench forward or backwards, as little as a centimeter at a time WILL cause different muscle sets to get hit when doing chest work and especially shoulder presses. The Smith machine will lock you into that orientation. I guarantee you that you will immediately feel the difference in what is being worked and you will see the difference. Without the Smith machine you are going to be unable to keep that new orientation under stress. Your normal or easiest orientation is what you will immediately gravitate back to. I do caution that when trying slightly different orientations that you make the changes in very small increments on the position of the bench. Only move it a very small amount when you make those changes. Your muscles are NOT used to this new orientation and without proper graduated changes, you are risking injury.

I also want to talk about hand position. For as much as many people work out, most do not understand the implications of differing hand positions for chest and shoulder press work with the barbells. The closer you bring the hands in, the more you are going to begin to engage the triceps. This does not mean you have to have as wide of a grip as possible to work your chest. But it does mean that a wide grip and a narrower grip will work different parts of the chest .. and again do not forget the muscle confusion. A future post will address different orientations and the different parts of the chest that are worked.

If you have experimented with different hand positions, then you know that you can lift more the more perpendicular your arms are to the floor, relatively speaking. However, for full chest development you must do wide grips.

If you have not done wide grip chest work, take it slow and easy at first. You will notice, as always with new workouts, that you will be sore. But it will be a good sore, hopefully. And make sure you work in flat, incline and decline bench press work.

Keep in mind that I am NOT saying to not use non-guided equipment at all. Just realize that you might not be able to specifically work a given orientation as well. It is good to work that kind of workout in periodically to give the stabilizer muscles some work.

Using the Smith machine has been most helpful for shoulder presses for me. I am able to do much more work than I can in any other orientation. This is especially true for wide grip shoulder press work. Without the control of the Smith machine, I simply don't have that control to push myself to failure without risking losing the lift entirely.

One other point, along the lines of stabilizer muscles. I will normally use an upright bench for back support for shoulder presses. But again, there is value in changing that up once in a while and giving your back stabilizers some work when doing shoulder presses. However if you are just starting this kind of workout and especially if you are going heavy, beware that your back is especially vulnerable to injury. Just work up to it.

Remember be safe out there.

Don't go this low on the press. Keep it to the bottom of the chin thus keeping the muscles under stress for the full range of the motion.

Always try to engage your core.

Behind the neck shoulder presses are very good to work into the workout. The Smith machine, again, allows you to achieve DEPTH in the move while maintaining safety.