Why does any gym have a Smith Machine?

[Greg C]

Yeah. It does, doesn't it. 15 years driving them. Little medical issue (bilateral Meniere's), so now the deaf guy is building them instead. Turns out that's pretty interesting too.

[Mart002]

Legal liability reasons: If some fool dies/becomes injured doing bench presses with a suicide grip or befalls some other calamity while lifting weights, the presence of a Smith machine gives the gym owner a viable defense, namely that the fool could have been using a much "safer" machine to do the same exercise. For this reason, I would recommend to any gym (inc. WFAC) that a Smith machone be acquired, since they have become de rigeur in the modern Amercian gym, people are familiar with them and they expect to see them. We all know the Smith machine is dangerous to the joints, but the legal defense to the lawsuit is not based on any real saferty, but the paper perception of safety. If there is a Smith machine at the gym, the injured fools lawyer cannot argue that the gym patron had no safer alternative to bench presses, squats, whatever. So, long story short, Rip should buy one.

The power rack has some pretty nifty safety bars, probably cheaper than a smith machine to.

[Kevin99]

OP, you just started this thread because you wanted everyone to dis the Smith and have some laughs right? I see no other plausible explanation. Do you also wonder about all the wonderful Nautilus machines in the gym?

No, I really did think I was missing something. Every trainer at my gym uses these things with their clients. They're ubiquitous. And I've only been doing SS since April, so there's a lot I still don't know.

Also, the Smith Machine is often the only piece of strength equipment at hotel gyms. If there's a plausible use for one when I travel, I'd like to know it. Seems like the answer is "chins/pull-ups."

[reformedsmithmachineuser]

We have one squat rack in all of Augusta -- Maine's Capital City with a population of 20,000. It is at the Y and I NEVER have to wait for it unless someone is using it to curl off the safety bars.

Rip, as a Red-Blooded American, you should skip the trip to Iceland and come to Maine instead. If an appeal to your patriotism does not work, how about your survival instincts.

Iceland is a hotbed of volcanic and seismic activity.

http://en.vedur.is/earthquakes-and-v...m/earthquakes/

[Mark Rippetoe]

We have one squat rack in all of Augusta ... Rip, as a Red-Blooded American, you should skip the trip to Iceland and come to Maine instead.

You don't see the problem with a seminar here? They have thousands of squat racks in Iceland. Maybe you should move.

[Marotta]

Hell yes there are plausible uses. Dude, I love the Smith Machine at my gym. Let me count the ways:

1) It's the only place I can do chins
2) I can slide benches under it when I need room to power clean
3) It keeps people out of the squat rack
4) It keeps people out of the squat rack
5) It's great for benching when I don't have a spotter.

Just kidding about that last one Rip.

In my university gym they are right in front of the power racks, so between sets, I lower the bar to knee height and take a seat until it's time to squat again. This, and chin-ups are the only two uses I have for smith-machines.

[Shion]

I've seen people "clean" on the smith. Try and not shit yourself while attempting to picture that.

[EricD]

You don't see the problem with a seminar here? They have thousands of squat racks in Iceland. Maybe you should move.

Took the family on a vacation to Iceland last January. I had a hard time leaving, it was so beautiful. It is the most beautiful place I have ever visited in my life, and that's saying a lot having grown up in Alaska.