Christian, I do high pulls at home, but my gym won’t let me set barbells on benches, and while they have several squat racks with catchers, they don’t go low enough to pull from, and they got rid of their adjustable cage. That being said, are high pulls with a Smith machine a horrible idea?
Why not just set the barbell on the floor, do a snatch grip deadlift to get to hang position, and go from there? I’ve never used a bench or other support for high pulls.
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Yeah +1 I doubt you can high pull more than you can deadlift
I can certainly do hang high pulls there but I do like to pull from different dead starting points sometime. Also I like to cycle bands on high pulls and it is really easy to put bands on the Smith machine.
I don’t like it for two main reasons.
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A snatch-grip high pull is not a linear movement. The Smith machine being linear doesn’t allow for the same external shoulder rotation at the top and could be more problematic for shoulder impingement
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The hooks are likely to hit the pins on the way up or down… heck I remember hitting them often when doing shrugs, can’t imagine during a high pull where the hands are moving (wrist not staying directly above bar)
I personally recommend against it. I would never do it myself or have a client do it. But you are free to do what you want.
If you can’t lower the bar can you bring yourself up by standing on different sized boxes or if in a real squeeze, bumpers?
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Yea, I hadn’t thought of that. I’m primarily pissed off that the owner got rid of the adjustable power cage because it had many applications. I also probably could get away with setting the barbell on some stacked bumper plates.
Set the hooks in a squat rack low, grip it, take two steps back, do your pulls, take two steps forward, rerack.
Take the safeties off.