Someone help me out with helping friends (smith machine question included)

[bma_mat]

I know not to ask this in the Q/A section because it's not part of the program.

I'm doing the SS program perfectly in my gym, but I have 3 friends who don't have the money to pay for gym membership (university students) and are training with me in the gym in my building.

Sad part is, it has NO bench, and NO squat rack, no powerrack, no nothing.

Just has a smith machine, dumbbells that go upt o 35 pounds, and a bar (so they can do power cleans, deadlifts, and presses properly).

Up till now, they can do their squats and benches on the smith machine, but my question is:

How would you program their training (for strength gain and weight gain) under these limited conditions?

Up till now, I have them on SS, where squats and bench are done on the smith machine. What do you guys think?

I've been thinking that maybe I should make the workout more deadlift focused, putting them to do 3x5 deadlifts, and maybe one set of hard front squats.

Then again, I have ZERO experience with programs, so won't do any of this without asking first.



Thanks again, look forward to answers.

Mat.

[Carlos Daniel]

Can you buy a squat stand? If you split it between the four of you it should be cheap enough.

[bma_mat]

Again, they train in my BUILDING gym. Meaning I would first need to get permission to put it in there, then again, it would not be just for us to use, and in the end, I don't wanna go through it.

They don't wanna spend money on gym because they are really low on it, and I already have a gym with a squat rack.


If they had money to spend, i'd take them to the gym I go to, which is 3 dollars a day, cheap enough. Again, they don't have it. They complain costs too much to buy 1/2 gallon of milk a day.

Where I live, average monthly income is like 320 dollars a month.




Now, all I'm really looking for is an alternative with what I have (should I make them clean the bar and do front squats, should I focus training on deadlifts, etc.). Maybe the answer is keep using the smith machine since there is nothing better they can do.

In the end, I appreciate all answers.


My concern is not only for the squat, the bench concerns me too.

[Carlos Daniel]

The problem with front squats is that you would have to power clean the bar and usually one power cleans way less than what one front squats, and front squats for high reps suck donkey balls.

I guess you would have to do OHP and deadlifts. Check out Pavel's programs, the revolve around these two lifts, or so I've heard.

[Carnivroar]

I guess you would have to do OHP and deadlifts. Check out Pavel's programs, the revolve around these two lifts, or so I've heard.

Great suggestion.

[bma_mat]

I have checked it out briefly for the last 10 minutes.

So basically something like this might work? (they train with me twice a week):

Tuesday:
Deadlift
OHP

Thursday:
Deadlift
OHP again??????


It's 3 friends, so theoretically the one working in the moment could lie on the bench, and the other two could raise the barbell to his chest level, and he could do bench press that way? Apart from this benefit, the other two would get some minor work similar to deadlifting while they left the bar each time hahaha.


So mabye better:

OHP and Deadlift
Bench and Deadlift????


Appreciate replies.

[bma_mat]

To give understanding, one of them maxes bench of 85lb on smith machine, other two do 125lb. (5RM). So they could easily for the next few weeks lift the barbell for him from both sides safely (since they can all deadlift over 185lb for 5 reps).

[Jamie J. Skibicki]

Pavel's program is actaully

monday
deadlift 6rm for 5
-10% for 5

Press 6rm for 5
-10% for 5

Tuesday
deadlift + 5-10lbs for 5
-10% for 5

press +1-5 lbs for 5
-10% for 5

Wednesday
deadlift + 5-10lbs for 5
-10% for 5

press +1-5 lbs for 5
-10% for 5

thursday
deadlift + 5-10lbs for 5
-10% for 5

press +1-5 lbs for 5
-10% for 5

Friday
deadlift + 5-10lbs for 5
-10% for 5

press +1-5 lbs for 5
-10% for 5

[bma_mat]

Thank you.

Problem is, can only work them twice a week. So not sure how to accommodate this. I guess I should have included that in the original post.

So any other suggestion? Really they just want to get stronger and bigger. So with the limited tools:
dumbbells 5lb-35lb,
flat bench (nothing to put bar on),
barbell,
plates for barbell,
smith machine.

There must be some 2days/week program that I can pull off.


I mean, what I'm doing now is getting them results, and the purpose of my thread was to see if there was anything I coudl be doing better (because of the lack of power rack and squat rack).

Thank you for any further replies.

[MikeC1]

So SS is obviously out. If I was in your position, I would use deadlifts, cleans, snatches, clean & press, dumbbell bench, and possibly overhead squats or clean & front squats. Those depend of course on your ability to teach the lifts. Why are your friends so poor that they can't afford $3 a day to use the gym?

Your idea to have two guys pick up and hand off the barbell to the 3rd guy to bench is pretty creative, but eventually the weights will get heavy, somebody will sneeze, and somebody else will get a barbell to the face. Not worth it IMO.