Smith Machine Vs Free Weight Bench Press
The machine has been made to glide the bar easily up and down so is sometimes considered easier to move.
Smith machine vs free weight bench press. On average the subjects were about 20 years old and about half had at least 6 months of bench press experience and half were completely new to strength training. Provides stabilized weight many smith machines include a self balancing barbell. However is the barbell flat bench press the king of benching and chest movements.
You can also do lunges and bent over rows too. The researchers measured muscle activation in the chest and shoulders of 26 young men when they did both barbell bench press and smith machine bench press with different weights. The bar used in a smith machine bench press is often lighter.
The smith machine can be used for several types of exercises but is mainly used for doing squats and presses. The main exercises people use the smith machine for are squats and shoulder bench press. The bench press works the pectoralis major triceps barchii and anterior deltoid with stabilization by the medial deltoid.
Benefits of smith machines. While the free weight press may help to build the stabilizer muscles desired for athletics or highly physical tasks it isn t always necessary or desirable to employ the stabilizers. Different weights can be used.
The weight of a standard bench press barbell is 45 pounds. The barbell bench press and smith machine bench press differ in the way the bar moves the weight of the bar muscle activation and the safety of the exercise. In some cases the smith machine itself has a counterweight that reduces the weight of the bar and often there is no way to know by how much.
The smith machine offers several advantages. For example on a smith machine with a spring mechanism adding 100 pounds of weight plates to the bar might mean you re lifting 100 pounds. No weight lifted on any machine is the same as using free weights.
Since the bar is in a completely straight path it means you don t have to focus on stabilizing the weight. You can use free weights or a smith machine. If you don t account for this weight difference when switching to free weights you might make the mistake of thinking you can lift the same number of weight plates with a free standing barbell.
With its strict linear motion the smith machine bench press isolates the chest and the front of the shoulders very well. A variety of equipment and a large number of options such as a free weight bench press seated chest press or smith machine bench press can be used to perform a bench press exercise.
