Is it worth doing leg exercises on the Smith machine?
👉🏻 You don’t need state-of-the-art equipment or a gym with a 500-real monthly membership to reach your goals. You need the basics! What are the basics? Free weights, barbells, good guidance on performing your exercises, and most importantly… NO OUTLANDISH INVENTIONS!
🎯Social media promotes a series of crazy exercises every day—I’d even call some of them circus acts… side-lying leg exercises, cable “kicks,” squats on the hip abductor and adductor machines…etc. They get a lot of attention from followers, mainly because the people doing them have… let’s say, attractive bodies. But I GUARANTEE you, they didn’t get that physique by squatting on the adductor machine… yes, my friends: it’s called marketing… these exercises are ridiculous and sometimes dangerous. Don’t follow fads.
Fad exercises
Wrong is wrong even if everyone is doing it, and right is right even if no one is doing it.
And for those of you who stick to the basics and effective exercises, here are a few tips: always check the condition of the equipment you’re going to use. Pay attention to everything: the integrity of the cables, how securely the machines are fixed, and the condition of the floor.
🎯When using the leg press or Smith machine, check and use the safety locks!
🎯Even your shoes matter… for example, avoid wearing very unstable sneakers when doing a free-weight squat…
That’s it.
Focus on the basics and forget about leg exercises on the Smith machine
Stick to the tried-and-true basics… free-weight squats, lunges, leg press, stiff-legged deadlifts… Nothing complicated!
Remember: it’s important to understand that all compound movements, such as squats, single-leg lunges, and leg presses, work both the back and front of the thigh (quadriceps), as well as the glutes!
Simply put: whenever you do a compound exercise to train your “legs,” you’re also training your butt… and vice versa.
