Smith Squat Form

[quote]Wilderman wrote:
Many smith machines have slight angle to the track with the low end more to the front of the rack the top end more to the rear. When squatting in one of these types it would be better to place your feet slightly in front of the track. With your feet directly under the bar the travel of the bar will force your torso forward which will result in a poor alignment and more lower back activation (poor form). By placing your feet more forward you can stay more errect and squat more safely.

Several made the point that a free weight squat is superior and this is true. You can still get plenty of good work from a smith machine squat though.

It was mentioned that the OP was a powerlifter. If this is the case I have to question why use the smith machine at all for squatting? It would be more benefitial for you to train squats with free weight. The squat should account for 30% or more of your total score in PL. It would be a shame for you to lose your familiarity with the lift by training in a smith machine.[/quote]

HE WON’T STOP SQUATTING, HE JUST WANTS TO USE SMITH SQUATS AS A HYPERTROPHY ASSISTANCE EXERCISE GODDAMNIT!
Have fun going for 20 rep free-weight squats after your max-effort work ?

Seriously, why are you guys commenting on this if you aren’t even remotely familiar with his situation?

The free-weight squat is not a superior quad exercise than the smith squat. More stabilization means less weight and that stabilisation isn’t even done by the quads.
You can do both squat versions and won’t suffer from it unless you’re stupid and set up wrongly/use crap form on either squat variant.

All this dogma-bs.

[quote]Sentoguy wrote:
Poetikaal wrote:
FRONT SQUATS next in line after you stall out on smith squats? Terrible idea. Just atrocious.

Smith squats by nature put your body at unnatural, joint compromising angles when you “squat” if thats what you call it…

When you naturally squat, your body is able to align itself relative to the bar and your center of gravity and blahbblah. Essentially, the goal is to keep your vertebrae as perpendicular to the floor as possible. This requires movement throughout the horizontal plane.

Smith machines dont allow for movement in the horizontal plane. They are fixed. They force your vertebrae to remain diagonal to the floor. Its like asking for thoracic injury

besides, what happened to free-motion building total-body stability and synergy? by keeping the bar in a fixed plane, youre preventing a lot of stabilizer mouscles from doing work

Get up to 30000lbs on a smith squat, and your front squat, back squat, whatever will be 10% of that. Scientifically proven…

Leg presses…hack squats…smith machine diagonal squat-like presses…dude, ARE YOU AFRAID to squat?..

uh-oh…

Dude, i tried these once two years ago and they are not good news. Do front squats. BEtter for you and better results and you wont look like the dude i saw in the gym today.

in case you were curious, that was retarded…

Oh really? Please provide a link to this scientific study where someone reached a 30000lb smith squat, and it didn’t positively affect their free weight squatting.

The rest of your post just wreaks of fanboyism.

Do you also believe that Hack squat machines put your body into “unnatural, joint compromising angles”? Because depending on how you perform smith machine squats, they can be very similar biomechanically speaking.

If you don’t know how to do them properly, then don’t do them. But telling someone else that they are “retarded” for wanting to do them is…well retarded.

I’ve done them before, and I’m sure that lots of other experienced guys on this forum have as well. I did not injure myself, and I doubt that anyone else else that knew what they were doing did either.

Zep, here is a video of Ron Harris doing some squats in the Smith:

That’s pretty close to the form that I generally use, only I tend to go lower than him.

It’s really about knowing where you body is in space and finding just the right foot placement that allows for the most comfortable ROM. I couldn’t tell you exactly where that is for you, but if you play around with it a little, you’ll likely find where that is for you.
[/quote]

Good vid… I usually go lower too and lean forward some more… But then again, he has a different structure than I have.

Zep,

I do Smith squats with feet slightly out front. Same setup, same feeling as when using the hack squat machine (hammer strength). Granted, I do enjoy the front squat more. To each his own.

It should do the job.

Do you plan on doing these on an ME or RE day?

[anyone else - Zep does A LOT of squatting, don’t question his motives]

[quote]Poetikaal wrote:
FRONT SQUATS next in line after you stall out on smith squats? Terrible idea. Just atrocious.

Smith squats by nature put your body at unnatural, joint compromising angles when you “squat” if thats what you call it…

When you naturally squat, your body is able to align itself relative to the bar and your center of gravity and blahbblah. Essentially, the goal is to keep your vertebrae as perpendicular to the floor as possible. This requires movement throughout the horizontal plane.

Smith machines dont allow for movement in the horizontal plane. They are fixed. They force your vertebrae to remain diagonal to the floor. Its like asking for thoracic injury

besides, what happened to free-motion building total-body stability and synergy? by keeping the bar in a fixed plane, youre preventing a lot of stabilizer mouscles from doing work

Get up to 30000lbs on a smith squat, and your front squat, back squat, whatever will be 10% of that. Scientifically proven…

Leg presses…hack squats…smith machine diagonal squat-like presses…dude, ARE YOU AFRAID to squat?..

uh-oh…

Dude, i tried these once two years ago and they are not good news. Do front squats. BEtter for you and better results and you wont look like the dude i saw in the gym today.

in case you were curious, that was retarded…[/quote]

dude u give me a headache lol ur picking things out of your ass

[quote]Cephalic_Carnage wrote:
Wilderman wrote:
Many smith machines have slight angle to the track with the low end more to the front of the rack the top end more to the rear. When squatting in one of these types it would be better to place your feet slightly in front of the track. With your feet directly under the bar the travel of the bar will force your torso forward which will result in a poor alignment and more lower back activation (poor form). By placing your feet more forward you can stay more errect and squat more safely.

Several made the point that a free weight squat is superior and this is true. You can still get plenty of good work from a smith machine squat though.

It was mentioned that the OP was a powerlifter. If this is the case I have to question why use the smith machine at all for squatting? It would be more benefitial for you to train squats with free weight. The squat should account for 30% or more of your total score in PL. It would be a shame for you to lose your familiarity with the lift by training in a smith machine.

HE WON’T STOP SQUATTING, HE JUST WANTS TO USE SMITH SQUATS AS A HYPERTROPHY ASSISTANCE EXERCISE GODDAMNIT!
Have fun going for 20 rep free-weight squats after your max-effort work ?

Seriously, why are you guys commenting on this if you aren’t even remotely familiar with his situation?

The free-weight squat is not a superior quad exercise than the smith squat. More stabilization means less weight and that stabilisation isn’t even done by the quads.
You can do both squat versions and won’t suffer from it unless you’re stupid and set up wrongly/use crap form on either squat variant.

All this dogma-bs.
[/quote]

Hmmm. Sounds like somebody needs less caffeine in their diet. Dont get your boxers in a bind fella. I answered his question. No need to yell and cuss.

20 rep squats are not fun but effective. But no I wouldnt use them for a finisher.

We are commenting on this because this is an open forum where people share their opinons and experience. A concept that seems to agitate some. I suppose you will just have to learn to deal with it.

More muscles being worked is the biggest advantage free-weight squats have over leg press or smith squat for that matter. For that reason it is a superior exercise. That isnt dogma-bs. You assume that I believe that the squat is the best quad exercise but I never said anything of the sort. Honestly I believe the sissy squat, front squat, leg extension to be much more effective for direct quad work. The big compound lifts have other advantages and those advantages come from the large number of muscles used in the lift and the anabolic response they generate.

Not sure how we magically can know the intention of the OP based solely on what little he has posted here or his BIO. Your apparent ESP of his situation is remarkable though.

Yes, I did assume he would be using a smith squat instead of a free-weight squat and yes, I do think that would be a mistake. It would negatively impact his fee-weight work when he went back to it. A large part of heavy lifting in the compound lifts is neurological. Simplifying a compound movement like the squat by performing them in the smith machine will detract from the training of the accessory muscles used and negatively impact his technique when he went back to free-weight.

If he is still squatting free-weight, great. If he is looking to replace free-weight squats with smith squats and still expect to be a powerlifter, then that is a mistake. The work will not translate well. To squat big free-weight in competition you had better be squatting big free-weight in your training. That is all that I meant to say.

[quote]Wilderman wrote:
Cephalic_Carnage wrote:
Wilderman wrote:
Many smith machines have slight angle to the track with the low end more to the front of the rack the top end more to the rear. When squatting in one of these types it would be better to place your feet slightly in front of the track. With your feet directly under the bar the travel of the bar will force your torso forward which will result in a poor alignment and more lower back activation (poor form). By placing your feet more forward you can stay more errect and squat more safely.

Several made the point that a free weight squat is superior and this is true. You can still get plenty of good work from a smith machine squat though.

It was mentioned that the OP was a powerlifter. If this is the case I have to question why use the smith machine at all for squatting? It would be more benefitial for you to train squats with free weight. The squat should account for 30% or more of your total score in PL. It would be a shame for you to lose your familiarity with the lift by training in a smith machine.

HE WON’T STOP SQUATTING, HE JUST WANTS TO USE SMITH SQUATS AS A HYPERTROPHY ASSISTANCE EXERCISE GODDAMNIT!
Have fun going for 20 rep free-weight squats after your max-effort work ?

Seriously, why are you guys commenting on this if you aren’t even remotely familiar with his situation?

The free-weight squat is not a superior quad exercise than the smith squat. More stabilization means less weight and that stabilisation isn’t even done by the quads.
You can do both squat versions and won’t suffer from it unless you’re stupid and set up wrongly/use crap form on either squat variant.

All this dogma-bs.

Hmmm. Sounds like somebody needs less caffeine in their diet. Dont get your boxers in a bind fella. I answered his question. No need to yell and cuss.

20 rep squats are not fun but effective. But no I wouldnt use them for a finisher.

We are commenting on this because this is an open forum where people share their opinons and experience. A concept that seems to agitate some. I suppose you will just have to learn to deal with it.

More muscles being worked is the biggest advantage free-weight squats have over leg press or smith squat for that matter. For that reason it is a superior exercise. That isnt dogma-bs. You assume that I believe that the squat is the best quad exercise but I never said anything of the sort. Honestly I believe the sissy squat, front squat, leg extension to be much more effective for direct quad work. The big compound lifts have other advantages and those advantages come from the large number of muscles used in the lift and the anabolic response they generate.

Not sure how we magically can know the intention of the OP based solely on what little he has posted here or his BIO. Your apparent ESP of his situation is remarkable though.

Yes, I did assume he would be using a smith squat instead of a free-weight squat and yes, I do think that would be a mistake. It would negatively impact his fee-weight work when he went back to it. A large part of heavy lifting in the compound lifts is neurological. Simplifying a compound movement like the squat by performing them in the smith machine will detract from the training of the accessory muscles used and negatively impact his technique when he went back to free-weight.

If he is still squatting free-weight, great. If he is looking to replace free-weight squats with smith squats and still expect to be a powerlifter, then that is a mistake. The work will not translate well. To squat big free-weight in competition you had better be squatting big free-weight in your training. That is all that I meant to say. [/quote]

I’m not going to comment on all this, it’s a waste of time.
I will say though: The op has a log here, I have had plenty of conversations with him and thus know his situation well enough.
Hence my comments.
You assumed he would stop freeweight squatting, well that’s just what I mean, you can’t just give out blanket recommendations based on a little data.

[quote]Wilderman wrote:
Cephalic_Carnage wrote:
Wilderman wrote:
Many smith machines have slight angle to the track with the low end more to the front of the rack the top end more to the rear. When squatting in one of these types it would be better to place your feet slightly in front of the track. With your feet directly under the bar the travel of the bar will force your torso forward which will result in a poor alignment and more lower back activation (poor form). By placing your feet more forward you can stay more errect and squat more safely.

Several made the point that a free weight squat is superior and this is true. You can still get plenty of good work from a smith machine squat though.

It was mentioned that the OP was a powerlifter. If this is the case I have to question why use the smith machine at all for squatting? It would be more benefitial for you to train squats with free weight. The squat should account for 30% or more of your total score in PL. It would be a shame for you to lose your familiarity with the lift by training in a smith machine.

HE WON’T STOP SQUATTING, HE JUST WANTS TO USE SMITH SQUATS AS A HYPERTROPHY ASSISTANCE EXERCISE GODDAMNIT!
Have fun going for 20 rep free-weight squats after your max-effort work ?

Seriously, why are you guys commenting on this if you aren’t even remotely familiar with his situation?

The free-weight squat is not a superior quad exercise than the smith squat. More stabilization means less weight and that stabilisation isn’t even done by the quads.
You can do both squat versions and won’t suffer from it unless you’re stupid and set up wrongly/use crap form on either squat variant.

All this dogma-bs.

Hmmm. Sounds like somebody needs less caffeine in their diet. Dont get your boxers in a bind fella. I answered his question. No need to yell and cuss.

20 rep squats are not fun but effective. But no I wouldnt use them for a finisher.

We are commenting on this because this is an open forum where people share their opinons and experience. A concept that seems to agitate some. I suppose you will just have to learn to deal with it.

More muscles being worked is the biggest advantage free-weight squats have over leg press or smith squat for that matter. For that reason it is a superior exercise.
[/quote]

What about load? I’ve never seen anyone even come close to free-weight squatting 1,700+ lbs, but I’ve seen people leg press it.

Your assertion that more muscles=better just isn’t true in all cases. You are using more muscles doing squats on a the flat side of a bosu ball, while juggling bowling pins, but it doesn’t mean that it’s going to build more muscle than doing a machine hack squat.

Stabilizer muscles can actually limit/hinder the amount of weight that you can use in an exercise. Hence one of the reasons why machine exercises (like leg press, hack squat, smith machine, etc…) can be very beneficial if one wants to be able to really overload the target prime mover (in this case quads).

But why is having a large number of muscles being used and advantage? Because they allow you to increase the load being used. That’s the primary advantage of compounds over isolation exercises. The additional helping muscles (not talking about stabilizing muscles here) allow you to use more weight and place the target prime mover under more load than it could move if worked in isolation.

Well, he did post it in the “BB’ing” forum. So, it’s probably as fairly safe bet that it’s BB’ing related.

Says who?

But it would also have resulted in a significant strength increase in his quadriceps, which would most likely lead to an increase in his free weight squatting numbers when he went back to them.

Sure, he might be a little rusty when he went back to free weight squats, and it might take him a workout or two to really get back in the groove. But ultimately it would most likely do more good than harm.

[quote]
If he is still squatting free-weight, great. If he is looking to replace free-weight squats with smith squats and still expect to be a powerlifter, then that is a mistake. The work will not translate well. To squat big free-weight in competition you had better be squatting big free-weight in your training. That is all that I meant to say. [/quote]

You’re right, specificity is important. But last I checked the Westside guys still do isolation work, and different variations of exercises and it hasn’t hurt their performance. You don’t need to only do your exact competition exercises to get a benefit, or carry over to your sport. A stronger prime mover, is a stronger prime mover, regardless of what exercise you used to get it there.

Once you start practicing your sport specific movements regularly again, you’ll likely have improved beyond your previous level, and will likely surpass your previous bests.

Fair comments Sentoguy.

My appologies to Carnage. He always gives good advise on this board. I didnt like the cussing so I was harsh to him. Childish of me.

Absolutely load is important. And sure you can move more load in a leg press than a squat. The increased load is going to spark more hypertrophy in the trained area. I would not dispute that.

Your bosu ball example is funny. That is not quite what I had in mind though. Yes, specificity is what I am talking about here.

Ill give my example and why. A person using legpress as the primary lift to train legs isnt going to be squatting as much weight as a person who trains using the squat as the primary lift, all other things being equal. There is just too much technique, timing, balance involved that takes practice to achieve a maximum lift. The man leg pressing may well develop stronger quads as a result of increased load but he would not have the experience to lift as much weight in the squat nor would he be developing the accessory muscles needed to squat. It takes a bit of synergy of all the muscles involved to hit your best numbers. Strong quads alone will not let you hit your maximums.

Not as extreme an example as the bosu one but if bosu juggling was my goal I wouldnt train juggling and bosu balance seperately and expect to be able to jump on a bosu ball and do them together as well as if I had been juggling on a bosu ball all along.

I too use isolation work, always have. I am not suggesting that anyone not do so. I built my foundations on heavy compounds. I had to finally reduce frequency and incorporate isolation work once I got above intermediate level strength. Once you reach your potential strength at your current size you must then strive to increase your size through hypertrophy to continue to make gains in strength. Isolation work is a great method for doing that. All I am saying is that he needs to continue using free-weight squats if he expects to be able to compete at his best.

I dont know the OPs experience level and I do assume the worse. I didnt want him to think he could train using smith squats and expect to go to a meet and free-weight squat his best numbers. That just isnt going to happen.

Sure he could train free-weight again after this and get his groove back but not immediately. When I went to meets it was sometimes spur of the moment. Most of the time I would schedule them and cycle around the date but not always. I sure wouldnt want to go to a meet and squat free-weight if I hadnt been squatting free-weight for a while.

No, I do not think that smith squatting along with free-weight squats is going to hurt his performance at all. I never intended that to be my message.

This whole mess is my misunderstanding of how the OP was using smith squats. Carnage is right there. My points are still valid had he been intending to replace free-weight squats with smith squats.

[quote]Wilderman wrote:
Ill give my example and why. A person using legpress as the primary lift to train legs isnt going to be squatting as much weight as a person who trains using the squat as the primary lift, all other things being equal. There is just too much technique, timing, balance involved that takes practice to achieve a maximum lift. The man leg pressing may well develop stronger quads as a result of increased load but he would not have the experience to lift as much weight in the squat nor would he be developing the accessory muscles needed to squat. It takes a bit of synergy of all the muscles involved to hit your best numbers. Strong quads alone will not let you hit your maximums.
[/quote]

Not arguing that.

But let’s assume that someone uses back squats as their primary lift and continues to progress until eventually they hit a plateau. At this point they realize that they lack quadriceps strength, and decide to use the leg press to strengthen them. So, for at least a while, they use legpress as their primary lift to train their quads (they might do RDL’s, Good mornings, pull-throughs, etc… to train their hip extensors) and as a result are able to significantly increase the strength of their quads.

Now, when they go back to training their back squats, they will be able to surpass their previous bests.

That was my understanding of what Zep was trying to do. Build some strength/size in his quads by way of doing Squats in the Smith.

The bosu example was an exaggerated one to illustrate that more muscles being worked does not always mean better for size/strength gains. It was about as exaggerated an example as I could think of, and was meant to be pretty much a joke. :wink:

Personally though, I doubt that you’d be able to even learn how to juggle while standing on a bosu. You’d probably have to learn how to do it standing on the ground first, then once having mastered that, move onto the bosu. It’s just too complicated of a movement to learn on an unstable surface to begin with.

A similar example would be holding a handstand on gymnastics rings. Gymnasts don’t start out doing this. They start out doing handstands on the ground, then gradually work up to holding them on the rings. You’d never learn how to do a handstand in the first place if you started on the rings.

Fair enough.

Right. If he was going to completely abandon free weight squats and only ever do Smith squats for the rest of his lifting career, and then expect to walk onto a powerlifting platform and lift maximal weights, he’d be in some trouble. Not arguing there.

I did them today. I worked up to 225x7 after a deep backsquat of 315x1, I’ve been box squatting recently so the backsquat number will hopefully go up to around 365 in the next few weeks.

I’m just trying to build some more quad strength as I’ve spent more time box squatting than anything else. My pchain is much stronger then my quads. I’m doing this because it’s a quick fix that will get my legs bigger and see some pretty quick gains to my squat by bringing up my quads.

However… I placed my feet under the bar on the straight up and down smith. Was this wrong? We have an angled one also. It was very very hard on my lower back. I’m interested in what sentoguy and CC have to say about this? Should I move my feet just a little farther in front of me? should I move over to the angled one?

[quote]zephead4747 wrote:
I’m switching out the leg press for smith squats now. I’ve stopped making progress and I only feel it in my glutes now. However I’ve seen two types of smith squatting. The first is keeping your feet right around just underneath the bar.

The other way is with your feet out in front of the bar. It kind of looks similar to a hack squat machine IMO. My main goal is big quads with this lift and nothing else. What type do you guys prefer?[/quote]

Now for my part since 6 weeks because Im on my PCT training I try the Sumo Squats and its amazing.

[quote]zephead4747 wrote:
I did them today. I worked up to 225x7 after a deep backsquat of 315x1, I’ve been box squatting recently so the backsquat number will hopefully go up to around 365 in the next few weeks.

I’m just trying to build some more quad strength as I’ve spent more time box squatting than anything else. My pchain is much stronger then my quads. I’m doing this because it’s a quick fix that will get my legs bigger and see some pretty quick gains to my squat by bringing up my quads.

However… I placed my feet under the bar on the straight up and down smith. Was this wrong? We have an angled one also. It was very very hard on my lower back. I’m interested in what sentoguy and CC have to say about this? Should I move my feet just a little farther in front of me? should I move over to the angled one?[/quote]

I’ve only ever used the straight up and down Smith, so I can’t really comment on the angled ones.

But, yes, I generally felt that having my feet (at least slightly) in front of me felt more comfortable on the Smith. Like I said, you want to find the foot placement that allows for the best ROM and least amount of discomfort for you.

I’d suggest experimenting by moving your feet forward (little bits at a time) until you find a placement that feels best. Then use that.

[quote]Sentoguy wrote:
zephead4747 wrote:
I did them today. I worked up to 225x7 after a deep backsquat of 315x1, I’ve been box squatting recently so the backsquat number will hopefully go up to around 365 in the next few weeks.

I’m just trying to build some more quad strength as I’ve spent more time box squatting than anything else. My pchain is much stronger then my quads. I’m doing this because it’s a quick fix that will get my legs bigger and see some pretty quick gains to my squat by bringing up my quads.

However… I placed my feet under the bar on the straight up and down smith. Was this wrong? We have an angled one also. It was very very hard on my lower back. I’m interested in what sentoguy and CC have to say about this? Should I move my feet just a little farther in front of me? should I move over to the angled one?

I’ve only ever used the straight up and down Smith, so I can’t really comment on the angled ones.

But, yes, I generally felt that having my feet (at least slightly) in front of me felt more comfortable on the Smith. Like I said, you want to find the foot placement that allows for the best ROM and least amount of discomfort for you.

I’d suggest experimenting by moving your feet forward (little bits at a time) until you find a placement that feels best. Then use that.[/quote]

sounds good. Thanks.

[quote]zephead4747 wrote:
Sentoguy wrote:
zephead4747 wrote:
I did them today. I worked up to 225x7 after a deep backsquat of 315x1, I’ve been box squatting recently so the backsquat number will hopefully go up to around 365 in the next few weeks.

I’m just trying to build some more quad strength as I’ve spent more time box squatting than anything else. My pchain is much stronger then my quads. I’m doing this because it’s a quick fix that will get my legs bigger and see some pretty quick gains to my squat by bringing up my quads.

However… I placed my feet under the bar on the straight up and down smith. Was this wrong? We have an angled one also. It was very very hard on my lower back. I’m interested in what sentoguy and CC have to say about this? Should I move my feet just a little farther in front of me? should I move over to the angled one?

I’ve only ever used the straight up and down Smith, so I can’t really comment on the angled ones.

But, yes, I generally felt that having my feet (at least slightly) in front of me felt more comfortable on the Smith. Like I said, you want to find the foot placement that allows for the best ROM and least amount of discomfort for you.

I’d suggest experimenting by moving your feet forward (little bits at a time) until you find a placement that feels best. Then use that.

sounds good. Thanks.[/quote]

Did you go low bar or hi bar?

[quote]Cephalic_Carnage wrote:
zephead4747 wrote:
Sentoguy wrote:
zephead4747 wrote:
I did them today. I worked up to 225x7 after a deep backsquat of 315x1, I’ve been box squatting recently so the backsquat number will hopefully go up to around 365 in the next few weeks.

I’m just trying to build some more quad strength as I’ve spent more time box squatting than anything else. My pchain is much stronger then my quads. I’m doing this because it’s a quick fix that will get my legs bigger and see some pretty quick gains to my squat by bringing up my quads.

However… I placed my feet under the bar on the straight up and down smith. Was this wrong? We have an angled one also. It was very very hard on my lower back. I’m interested in what sentoguy and CC have to say about this? Should I move my feet just a little farther in front of me? should I move over to the angled one?

I’ve only ever used the straight up and down Smith, so I can’t really comment on the angled ones.

But, yes, I generally felt that having my feet (at least slightly) in front of me felt more comfortable on the Smith. Like I said, you want to find the foot placement that allows for the best ROM and least amount of discomfort for you.

I’d suggest experimenting by moving your feet forward (little bits at a time) until you find a placement that feels best. Then use that.

sounds good. Thanks.

Did you go low bar or hi bar?[/quote]

High bar. I have using the low bar except for box squatting sometimes.

[quote]zephead4747 wrote:
Cephalic_Carnage wrote:
zephead4747 wrote:
Sentoguy wrote:
zephead4747 wrote:
I did them today. I worked up to 225x7 after a deep backsquat of 315x1, I’ve been box squatting recently so the backsquat number will hopefully go up to around 365 in the next few weeks.

I’m just trying to build some more quad strength as I’ve spent more time box squatting than anything else. My pchain is much stronger then my quads. I’m doing this because it’s a quick fix that will get my legs bigger and see some pretty quick gains to my squat by bringing up my quads.

However… I placed my feet under the bar on the straight up and down smith. Was this wrong? We have an angled one also. It was very very hard on my lower back. I’m interested in what sentoguy and CC have to say about this? Should I move my feet just a little farther in front of me? should I move over to the angled one?

I’ve only ever used the straight up and down Smith, so I can’t really comment on the angled ones.

But, yes, I generally felt that having my feet (at least slightly) in front of me felt more comfortable on the Smith. Like I said, you want to find the foot placement that allows for the best ROM and least amount of discomfort for you.

I’d suggest experimenting by moving your feet forward (little bits at a time) until you find a placement that feels best. Then use that.

sounds good. Thanks.

Did you go low bar or hi bar?

High bar. I have using the low bar except for box squatting sometimes.[/quote]

Hmm.

Have a long torso?

[quote]Cephalic_Carnage wrote:
zephead4747 wrote:
Cephalic_Carnage wrote:
zephead4747 wrote:
Sentoguy wrote:
zephead4747 wrote:
I did them today. I worked up to 225x7 after a deep backsquat of 315x1, I’ve been box squatting recently so the backsquat number will hopefully go up to around 365 in the next few weeks.

I’m just trying to build some more quad strength as I’ve spent more time box squatting than anything else. My pchain is much stronger then my quads. I’m doing this because it’s a quick fix that will get my legs bigger and see some pretty quick gains to my squat by bringing up my quads.

However… I placed my feet under the bar on the straight up and down smith. Was this wrong? We have an angled one also. It was very very hard on my lower back. I’m interested in what sentoguy and CC have to say about this? Should I move my feet just a little farther in front of me? should I move over to the angled one?

I’ve only ever used the straight up and down Smith, so I can’t really comment on the angled ones.

But, yes, I generally felt that having my feet (at least slightly) in front of me felt more comfortable on the Smith. Like I said, you want to find the foot placement that allows for the best ROM and least amount of discomfort for you.

I’d suggest experimenting by moving your feet forward (little bits at a time) until you find a placement that feels best. Then use that.

sounds good. Thanks.

Did you go low bar or hi bar?

High bar. I have using the low bar except for box squatting sometimes.

Hmm.

Have a long torso?
[/quote]

short torso, Short or middle legs, and long arms.

I can touch the bottom of my quad when standing straight up.

[quote]zephead4747 wrote:
Cephalic_Carnage wrote:
zephead4747 wrote:
Cephalic_Carnage wrote:
zephead4747 wrote:
Sentoguy wrote:
zephead4747 wrote:
I did them today. I worked up to 225x7 after a deep backsquat of 315x1, I’ve been box squatting recently so the backsquat number will hopefully go up to around 365 in the next few weeks.

I’m just trying to build some more quad strength as I’ve spent more time box squatting than anything else. My pchain is much stronger then my quads. I’m doing this because it’s a quick fix that will get my legs bigger and see some pretty quick gains to my squat by bringing up my quads.

However… I placed my feet under the bar on the straight up and down smith. Was this wrong? We have an angled one also. It was very very hard on my lower back. I’m interested in what sentoguy and CC have to say about this? Should I move my feet just a little farther in front of me? should I move over to the angled one?

I’ve only ever used the straight up and down Smith, so I can’t really comment on the angled ones.

But, yes, I generally felt that having my feet (at least slightly) in front of me felt more comfortable on the Smith. Like I said, you want to find the foot placement that allows for the best ROM and least amount of discomfort for you.

I’d suggest experimenting by moving your feet forward (little bits at a time) until you find a placement that feels best. Then use that.

sounds good. Thanks.

Did you go low bar or hi bar?

High bar. I have using the low bar except for box squatting sometimes.

Hmm.

Have a long torso?

short torso, Short or middle legs, and long arms.

I can touch the bottom of my quad when standing straight up.[/quote]

Well my advice is for humans only, no guarantee that it’ll work for monkeys.

Just kidding brother, Hmm. Do get a video up, there is too much guessing involved here.

[quote]Cephalic_Carnage wrote:
zephead4747 wrote:
Cephalic_Carnage wrote:
zephead4747 wrote:
Cephalic_Carnage wrote:
zephead4747 wrote:
Sentoguy wrote:
zephead4747 wrote:
I did them today. I worked up to 225x7 after a deep backsquat of 315x1, I’ve been box squatting recently so the backsquat number will hopefully go up to around 365 in the next few weeks.

I’m just trying to build some more quad strength as I’ve spent more time box squatting than anything else. My pchain is much stronger then my quads. I’m doing this because it’s a quick fix that will get my legs bigger and see some pretty quick gains to my squat by bringing up my quads.

However… I placed my feet under the bar on the straight up and down smith. Was this wrong? We have an angled one also. It was very very hard on my lower back. I’m interested in what sentoguy and CC have to say about this? Should I move my feet just a little farther in front of me? should I move over to the angled one?

I’ve only ever used the straight up and down Smith, so I can’t really comment on the angled ones.

But, yes, I generally felt that having my feet (at least slightly) in front of me felt more comfortable on the Smith. Like I said, you want to find the foot placement that allows for the best ROM and least amount of discomfort for you.

I’d suggest experimenting by moving your feet forward (little bits at a time) until you find a placement that feels best. Then use that.

sounds good. Thanks.

Did you go low bar or hi bar?

High bar. I have using the low bar except for box squatting sometimes.

Hmm.

Have a long torso?

short torso, Short or middle legs, and long arms.

I can touch the bottom of my quad when standing straight up.

Well my advice is for humans only, no guarantee that it’ll work for monkeys.

Just kidding brother, Hmm. Do get a video up, there is too much guessing involved here.
[/quote]

I’ll get one up when I tape my upcoming prs. My dad is over protective of his digital camera.