BENEFITS:
Chest, Shoulders, Triceps, Core
START POSITION: Make sure the bar is set at a suitable height and then lie on a flat bench so that the top of your chest is underneath the bar. Reach up with both hands to lift and unhook the bar – then push it up and make small adjustments to the position of your hands and feet. You might need to adjust your position slightly again during the first rep. It’s essential to get the position correct which in turn promotes good Form.
NOTES: Difficulty Rating: 65%
For maximum engagement of the Chest it’s important that your hands are wider than Shoulder width. As you lower the bar down, slow it down gradually so that it just lightly touches the top of your Chest (or maybe 1 or 2 mm above it). Never bounce the bar off your Chest to assist with the lift – this really bad Form and will eventually hurt you.
I should also mention that dropping a heavy bar onto your Chest is extremely dangerous and could easily kill you by crushing your lungs and stopping your heart. Having said that, the Smith Machine is a brilliant tool for building big powerful Chest muscles and so if you have one in your gym you should learn how to use it.
The great thing about the Smith Machine is that you don’t need a ‘spotter’ to assist you which is generally the case for the normal Bench Press with barbell stands. The fixed motion of the Smith Machine encourages proper Form and Technique. This leads to efficient muscle engagement.
The Bench Press and Incline Bench Press exercises were big favourites of Arnold Schwarzenegger, but very similar exercises can also be done with a standard incline bench and some dumbbells. So you shouldn’t be too upset if your gym doesn’t include a Smith Machine. Serious athletes and body builders will want to use a mix of both types of these exercise.
If you have an adjustable incline bench you can also use the Smith Machine to perform Incline Bench Press (see images below). Note that the much wider stance of the dumbbells means that if you have a choice between this machine and the Dumbbell version – then do the Dumbbell version! The Smith machine shown in the photo is too small for me and therefore my Range of Motion is cramped. Some higher end gyms have much better machines and they really are fabulous but they are expensive.
