Deads and Squats with a Smith machine?

J

Julesx

New Member
A bit of advice please! I'm 50 and have been training for many years & have recently come back to HST. I am making good progress with my upper body and I am very please with the results. I am into my third cycle of HST at the moment. My quads however, are not so good..............:mad:

My current routine is -

A.
Squats (SMITH)
Lat Pull Downs (Pull ups on the 5's)
Bench Press (slight incline) (SMITH)
Arnolds
Bi's and Tr's

B.
Leg Pess
Rows (SMITH)
Dips
Lat Raise
Bi's and Tri's

My gym has lots of machines which are OK but I much prefer the free weights.
There is no squat rack or olympic bar.

Question - all my heavy lifts are done on the Smith machine. I have not tried doing deads with it and I use the leg press for my second quad exercise.

Am I wasting my time using this for my squats and deads? Any alternatives that you guys can think of that would fit into the HST regime? Is this why my legs are not growing?
 Should I just keep on in there..........................:confused:


Thanks

Jules
 
Hi have you tried using dumbells exercises like lunges are good and could you try to name some leg and back machines at the gym please. Does your gym have a set of weighted bars (not Olympic bars) ?
 
Have you tried just clean and pressing the weight up. Anythings better then the smith machine imo. But in all honesty, as long as your creating micro trauma you should be alright.
 
Do you know for sure your legs aren't growing? The exercises you are doing are sufficient for growth. I am midway through my 2nd cycle and my thighs have grown higher up the thigh and not as much closer to the knee and until I measured them I had thought the same thing. I have done stiff legged deadlifts, rack pulls, front squats, lunges etc. on smith machine. I found standard deads too akward. As long as your eating enough you should see growth.
 
tdawg_33 said:
Do you know for sure your legs aren't growing? The exercises you are doing are sufficient for growth. I am midway through my 2nd cycle and my thighs have grown higher up the thigh and not as much closer to the knee and until I measured them I had thought the same thing. I have done stiff legged deadlifts, rack pulls, front squats, lunges etc. on smith machine. I found standard deads too akward. As long as your eating enough you should see growth.
Click to expand...

Mmmmm - You might be right!!

My thighs have got bigger at the top as well - just not as good as I had hoped!

I think I will persist with what I am doing for six months and re evaluate!

I know that the exercises that I have chosen seem demanding enough but as always, I think it is true to say, that we all want to maximize our results - hence my question!!

Thanks for the replies.
 
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