The topic of squatting in fitness can say something is too much, you may have read a lot of articles about squatting skills, perhaps you have mastered the basic essentials of squatting, go to the gym for squatting, often faced with the choice of two kinds of mechanical, Smith mechanical squatting as well as free squat rack squatting.
The two have you ever thought about the difference between them? The two of them are used for squatting, which is stronger or weaker? Perhaps for some fitness people have been used to the Smith mechanical for deep squatting, more resistant to free squat rack squatting, in fact, this is too limited.
We will talk about the difference between the Smith mechanical squat and the free squat rack squat today.
1. Weight
Whether you are squatting or bench pressing or even hard pulling, do you always feel that the weight of the Smith mechanical pushing, pulling weight, squatting weight more? This is precisely because the Smith mechanical barbell has a fixed trajectory of movement, pulley, you can slightly borrow the force.
This is especially detrimental for newbies, if you start out adapting to the Smith mechanical squat power movement pattern, it will be difficult to execute when you get on the free squat, causing you to be more prone to injury.
2. Neurological adaptations
If you are inclined to the Smith mechanical for deep squatting at the beginning, then your body will also go to adapt to the Smith mechanical to bring the power mode, just like the first among the said, if you suddenly one day want to use the free squat rack deep squat, then your nervous system will be very unadapted.
The nervous system is an amazing thing, it also has the ability to remember, if you have been cycling to do a thing, it is natural to remember how to do this thing, suddenly let him accept a new thing, often it will have an adaptation, resulting in deep squatting on the squat rack squatting force is not.
3. The two muscle groups will be slightly different force
This is because the barbell movement trajectory decided, strictly speaking free deep squat hard pull bench press and Smith mechanical deep squat hard pull bench press are two movements different movements.
What do you think is better about these two movements? In most cases i would recommend you to free deep squat rack squat.
The biggest difference between them is that one movement trajectory is relatively fixed, the other is a free plane of movement.
You have to understand that when you perform a free squat rack squat, although the trajectory of your barbell is straight up and down, but this straight up and down, you need to control yourself by adjusting the role of multiple muscle groups together to achieve the force.
For the Smith mechanical for deep squat, you do not care how the force, it is fixed trajectory can not be changed, which leads to your ability to coordinate the force of various muscle groups is greatly reduced, almost not involved in the exercise, for your muscle groups together to improve the movement is very small very small.
This is obviously detrimental to the improvement of your athletic ability, we do squats to improve the coordination of muscle groups, but the Smith mechanical almost cut off this point.
If you use a Smith mechanical for squatting for a long time, it will be more likely to cause muscle imbalance.
This is neither for training nor for everyday life, this will not allow you to come up with a sports performance that meets expectations and will also make you more susceptible to sports injuries when training for other movements.
4. Not easy to find their own movement defects
Smith mechanical for training, will cover up your athletic defects, while the free apparatus squat is easier to find your movement defects, so you know that you are not enough there, so you can change these do not do the right place.
Why is that? When you perform free squat rack squat training, if your core is not stable enough, it will lead to your body instability, squatting up are difficult to carry out, if your ankle flexibility is not enough, then you can squat the center of gravity in front or back, and so on these are from the free squat can be found in these defects.
These conditions can only reflect what problems you have, you can improve to adjust.
If you use the Smith mechanical, these conditions may be hidden, just need to force, squat, stand up, do not think too much about things, because the mechanical has been basically fixed, you can do.
Perhaps borrowing force in lieu of these you are not aware of, these are in general to your detriment!
5. Is the Smith mechanical really suitable for beginners?
Some people think that the Smith mechanical is suitable for beginners because it is safer, in fact, such a view is wrong, for beginners you have to master the essentials of the movement of force, the basic pattern of the movement.
If you come up with a Smith mechanical to train, then its fixed trajectory limits you to play, your movement pattern can only be in accordance with the mechanical, often not do the correct movement pattern.
Instead, it restricts you to master the action, better use of the body, stabilize the body, is not conducive to you to develop a good movement of the power pattern.
Beginners should use free mechanical to squat, which can exercise to the basic body function of the ability to control the barbell force, rather than let the barbell control your force.
Also in the mindset, many trainers who use the Smith mechanical will develop a psychological dependency that leads them to resist the free squat, and the Smith mechanical squat will allow you to squat heavier and gain a great sense of accomplishment.
It is not right to have these two mindsets in the long run. You need to understand that the free squat rack will also give you some protection for your squat, not just the Smith mechanical squat.
When you step by step from the unarmed squat well, fixed movement power mode, in the slow transition to the free squat rack squat, from the empty bar squat, on the weight, step by step so, and will not let you suffer from sports injuries.
The actual fact is that the mastery of the movement is more solid! Complete a perfect deadlift squat, to be greater than the Smith mechanical squat sense of achievement.
The Smith mechanical has its advantages, better isolation of your target muscle groups, better safety, greater weight, etc. These are its advantages.
But it is still recommended that you completely master the essentials of the free squat, and then try the Smith mechanical squat, such as you go to the Smith mechanical squat isolated quadriceps training, no partner protection to challenge the big weight and so on these are okay!
To free apparatus squat hard pull bench press mainly, master these basic action essentials, after the power mode, and then go to the Smith mechanical training, as a secondary mechanical to use it.
