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From: Hugh Beyer on 8 Nov 2005 13:21
So I'm in the gym on the road (Wichita, Kansas) and it has this oddball
smith machine variant I've never seen before.

The bar is fixed to vertical pipes and can slide up and down them, as usual.
But then the pipes themselves are fixed top and bottom to horizontal pipes
so they can slide forward and back. Result is the bar can move up, down,
forward, back--just not side to side. The cage had farily standard spotter
bars.

So this is maybe an improvement, but how much? Don't you now have whatever
freedom to screw yourself up the smith was supposedly countering? Has anyone
ever lost a bar *sideways* so much so that a normal power rack wouldn't
catch it? Looks like a cool solution in search of a problem to me.

Hugh


--
Exercise is a dirty word. Whenever I hear it, I wash my mouth out with
chocolate. ("Ladi")
From: Blade on 11 Nov 2005 15:38
Sounds like an attempt to use more stabilizer muscles that are
typically not used in a Smith machine. Not sure how much of an
improvement it really is though.


On Tue, 08 Nov 2005 18:21:45 GMT, Hugh Beyer <beyerxyzzy(a)acm.org>
wrote:

>So I'm in the gym on the road (Wichita, Kansas) and it has this oddball
>smith machine variant I've never seen before.
>
>The bar is fixed to vertical pipes and can slide up and down them, as usual.
>But then the pipes themselves are fixed top and bottom to horizontal pipes
>so they can slide forward and back. Result is the bar can move up, down,
>forward, back--just not side to side. The cage had farily standard spotter
>bars.
>
>So this is maybe an improvement, but how much? Don't you now have whatever
>freedom to screw yourself up the smith was supposedly countering? Has anyone
>ever lost a bar *sideways* so much so that a normal power rack wouldn't
>catch it? Looks like a cool solution in search of a problem to me.
>
> Hugh

From: Jason Earl on 12 Nov 2005 18:48
Hugh Beyer <beyerxyzzy(a)acm.org> writes:

> So I'm in the gym on the road (Wichita, Kansas) and it has this
> oddball smith machine variant I've never seen before.
>
> The bar is fixed to vertical pipes and can slide up and down them,
> as usual. But then the pipes themselves are fixed top and bottom to
> horizontal pipes so they can slide forward and back. Result is the
> bar can move up, down, forward, back--just not side to side. The
> cage had farily standard spotter bars.
>
> So this is maybe an improvement, but how much? Don't you now have
> whatever freedom to screw yourself up the smith was supposedly
> countering? Has anyone ever lost a bar *sideways* so much so that a
> normal power rack wouldn't catch it? Looks like a cool solution in
> search of a problem to me.

Machines make people less nervous than free weights. Gyms make their
living by catering to folks that *pay* for memberships but don't
actually show up and train. So they pack the gym with all sorts of
machines that look safe.

The problem is that in this day of easy to access information even the
rankest newbie is likely to read *something* before they plunk their
money down on a membership, and "smith machines are evil" is a theme
that comes up a lot in the strength training world. Now for the right
amount of cash your gym can be the first on the block to have a "new
and improved" Smith machine. When the neophytes start talking about
how they heard Smith machines are evil the gym owner can simply agree
that the "traditional" Smith machine (like the ones at my competitor's
gym) are problematic, but that the "new" Smith machines solve the
problems.

The exercise equipment manufacturers are always looking for yet
another "must have" machine. A /less/ evil Smith Machine is precisely
the type of gizmo that these guys get excited about. An improved
smith machine still looks much safer to the newbie than a pile of free
weights, it costs much more than a power rack, and it renders the knee
crunching Smith Machines obsolete. Throw in a patent or two to keep
rival equipment makers from copying the machine and you've got a gold
mine.

Never mind that free weights are still better (and cheaper).

Jason
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