The 11 Best Smith Machine Exercises, CPT-Approved

You’ve probably strolled past the Smith machine without a second glance, thinking, “No thanks, that’s for babies.” I get it — I used to think that too. But as a NASM-CPT (and not a baby... I'M NOT A BABY), I’ve learned that this guided barbell can unlock some glorious gains when used properly.

So, for those uninitiated: what is a Smith machine? It’s a barbell fixed to a vertical track, sliding up and down and locking in place wherever you need it. This guided path provides stability for Smith machine exercises — no wobbling or fighting for balance like with a free-standing barbell — which means you can focus on dialed-in muscle activation and rep-out heavier loads with confidence.

How To Use Smith Machines

You’ll find Smith machines in many commercial gyms — but if you prefer working out from your own home gym, you can add the REP® Smith machine rack attachment to your  PR-5000 or PR-4000 power rack — check out our Ares™ 2.0 Builder to see how it could work with varying setups.

Without any weight plates loaded onto the bar, select the bar’s starting height:

• Shoulder height for squats and lunges
• Mig-thigh for RDLs
• Mid-shin for hip thrusts
• Or adjust as needed for other lifts

To adjust the bar height, twist the bar back to release it from the safety catches. Once you’re ready to set it in place, twist the bar forward so it locks securely. After loading your weight plates, get into position, twist the bar back to start your lift —maintaining that twist throughout your reps — then twist it forward again when you’re ready to rack the bar.

Keep in mind you’ll face different directions depending on the exercise, so the direction you twist to lock and unlock the bar may vary accordingly.

The Best Smith Machine Exercises

Smith Machine Squat

We're kicking off our list with the most controversial Smith machine exercise — because who doesn't love a hot take? Here’s the TL;DR on why the Smith machine squat is heavily debated: the bar moves along a fixed path, which some argue is disadvantageous or even risky for squats since our bodies don’t naturally follow a perfectly straight up-and-down motion. Plus, the Smith machine can give a false sense of security, tempting lifters to load more weight than they can safely handle.

That said, for beginners, bodybuilders, and anyone rehabbing an injury, the Smith machine squat can be a useful tool when done with good form — providing extra stability and allowing you to focus on form or muscle isolation without worrying about balance. This back squat primarily targets your quads, glutes, hamstrings, and calves.

How To Rep:

• Set the bar at shoulder height, face towards the machine, and step under the bar so it’s resting on your traps.
• With feet set shoulder-width apart, unlock the bar so the weight is resting on you.
• Brace your core, maintain a neutral spine, and lower down into your squat.
• Keep your knees slightly pressed out and drive through your feet to return to standing.

Smith Machine Bench Press

When your gym-buddy is MIA on chest day, the Smith machine bench press is here to support you. Bring in a flat bench and you're ready to target your pecs, anterior delts, and triceps with this upper-body push.

How To Rep:

• Set the bench beneath the bar and adjust the height of the bar so it's about arms length away from the bench.
• Lying flat on the bench, align the bar with your mid-chest.
• Take a shoulder width-grip with your wrists stacked over elbows, then unrack the bar.
• Lower the bar down to your chest, keeping your elbows at about a 45-degree angle to your body — not flared out, not pinned tight, but somewhere between the two.
• Exhale as you drive the bar back up, extending your arms fully.

Tip: Keep your wrists locked straight throughout this move — like you would when throwing a punch — to prevent unnecessary stress on your wrist joint.

Smith Machine Deadlift

Just like your standard deadlift, this move can light up your posterior chain, building serious strength in your quads, hamstrings, lower back, grip, forearms, lats, and core. While a standard deadlift starts from the floor, the fixed position of the bar path here might feel awkward and uncomfortabler. As such, try finding a good starting position and range of motion that works for you and your body. We’ll detail how to start your pull from the floor.

How To Rep:

• Set the bar on the lowest setting (or mid-shin, below the knees, or mid-thigh, if the Smith machine doesn’t go low enough and you want to mimic a rack pull).
• With your feet hip-width and under the bar, grip just outside your legs.
• Hinge at the hips, bend your knees, keep your chest proud, spine neutral, and brace your core.
• Drive through your heels and midfoot as you pull the bar up, keeping the bar close to your body as you stand tall.
• To lower, send your hips back then bend your knees once the bar passes over them.

Smith Machine Hip Thrust

I'll shout it from the rooftops — I love the Smith machine for hip thrusts! Unlike a free-standing barbell, the raised bar makes loading and unloading weight a breeze. You can also set the bar high enough that you don't have to awkwardly shimmy underneath it like you would when starting from the floor. This move is a glute-builder's dream, and when you're done, cleanup takes seconds — not the full minutes you'd spend wrangling free weights. Thank me later.

How To Rep:

• Place a weight bench parallel to the bar, and set the bar so it sits just above hip height when you're in your locked out position — a little bit higher than bench height.
• Slide under the bar and take a seat on the floor with your upper back resting against the bench, knees bent, legs spread about shoulder-width apart, and feet flat on the ground.
• With locked out arms, press the bar into your upper thighs just below your hip bones. Now, drive through your heels, lifting your hips until you're a straight line from shoulders to knees.
• Lower with control by dropping your hips back down to the floor.

Tip: If the weight of the bar hurts like a b***h on your thighs and hip bones, slap on a bar pad to help give you some cushion. In a pinch, you can also try wrapping the bar in a sweatshirt.

Smith Machine Lunges

If you love unilateral work because of how it can tackle muscle imbalances, but don't love toppling over, the Smith machine lunge is for you. This move helps target your quads, glutes, and hamstrings while keeping balance less of an issue than with free weights. That fixed bar path helps take the focus off of stabilizing the weight and places it solely on your leg drive.

How To Rep:

• Set the bar at shoulder height. Step under the bar and rest it on your traps. While standing tall with your feet shoulder width apart, go ahead and unlock the weight.
• Take a big step forward with one foot while keeping your chest tall.
• Drop your back knee toward the floor while you keep your front knee aligned over your front ankle. At the bottom, both knees should make 90 degree angles.
• Drive through your front heel to come back up, stepping backwards to return to standing tall. 
• Repeat those steps until you've finished your reps on one side, then switch to the other leg.

Smith Machine Split Squat

The Smith machine split squat is one of my favorite moves for building both explosivness for sport and a phat ass. Go heavier with lower reps, focusing on speed to build power, or drop the weight and increase the reps to target hypertrophy. While it looks similar to the Smith machine lunge, you stay in the lunge position for the entire set, eliminating the step back to standing between reps.

How To Rep:

• Set the bar at shoulder height. Step under so it rests across your traps and unlock the weight.
• While keeping your core braced and torso upright, take a step forward with one leg and inch the other leg back.
• As you lower down, bend both knees — the back knee will travel towards the floor while the front knee stays stacked above your ankle.
• Drive through your front heel to come back to standing — think of moving straight up and down.
• Tackle your reps on one side before switching to the other.

Tip: A slight forward lean can increase hip flexion, increasing your glute activation. 

Smith Machine Shoulder Press

If you've managed to commandeer the Smith machine at your gym, you might as well use it for your entire workout. The Smith machine shoulder press is an isolation exercise that puts serious heat on your shoulders. Plus, that fixed bar path lets you focus all of your attention on pure pressing power without worrying about stabilizing the weight.

If you're on the shorter side, you might be able to do these standing, but we recommend tall kneeling, single-leg kneeling, or as we'll detail below, using an adjustable bench like the Nighthawk™.

How To Rep:

• Bring in an upright bench so it's just behind the bar, and adjust the bar so it's at chin level when you sit.
• Seated, place your hands a hair outside shoulder-width, palms forward, and wrists stacked over elbows.
• Engage your core and keep your back against the bench as you press the bar overhead.
• After a full extension, bring the bar back down to your shoulders, keeping your elbows slightly in front of you instead of flared out.

Smith Machine Row

The Smith machine bent-over row is here to build your back, targeting the lats, rhomboids, traps, and posterior delts. You'll also feel some heat in your erector spinae, the muscles that run along your spine, which help to keep your back from rounding and maintains your bent-over posture.

How To Rep:

• Once the bar is set to around knee height, place your feet hip-width apart with your midfoot directly below the bar.
• Set your hands on the bar about shoulder-width apart, with either an overhand or underhand grip.
• Hinge at the hips while keeping your chest proud and back flat.
• Row the bar up towards your belly button, squeezing your lats as you drive the elbows back.
• With control, return the bar back to start.

Tip: To protect your lower back, avoid rounding or arching your spine. Think about making a straight line from your head to your hips throughout the movement.

Smith Machine Single-Leg RDL

We love an RDL for its hamstring-building power, and the single-leg variation keeps the gains coming by allowing you to identify and correct muscle imbalances from one side to the next. The catch? Single-leg RDLs require a good amount of balance and stability to master. However, doing this move on the Smith machine eliminates that challenge, letting your focus shift to building your hamstrings.

How To Rep:

• Set the bar at a mid-thigh height. Place your feet beneath the bar and grip the bar with both hands about shoulder-width apart. Go ahead an unlock the weight.
• Hinge at the hips with a soft bend in your working leg, and let your non-working leg lift off the ground behind you for balance.
•  Maintaining a proud chest and a neutral spine, keep the bar traveling close to your leg as you lower. 
• Lower to about mid-shin height, then drive through your heel as you send your hips forward to come back to standing.

Smith Machine Zercher Squat

If back squats and front squats aren't your jam, the Zercher squat may be just the ticket to help you target your quads and glutes in a more spine-friendly way — since you're holding the barbell in your arms rather than across your shoulders, you'll typically be lifting a lighter load. As such, this places less compressive force on your spine. Here's how to do the move on the Smith machine.

How To Rep:

• Set the bar around your belly-button. Now, step under the bar and scoop it into the crease of your elbows.
• Standing tall with your feet in a shoulder-width stance, unlock the weight and then clasp your hands together out in front or up by your chest.
• Keeping your toes and knees slightly turned out, bend your knees and lower into a squat. Maintain a tall torso throughout.
• At the bottom of your squat, drive through your heels to return to standing.

Tip: To help you rack and un-rack the bar during this move, use your wrists and forearms to rotate the bar forward or back. Be sure to practice this motion without weight to build familiarity with this movement.

Smith Machine Crunch

We know progressive overload is the key to building strength and size, and the same goes for cooking up some killer abdominals. For this move you'll bring in an adjustable bench — like the BlackWing™ — and use the Smith machine to add resistance to your crunch.

How To Rep:

• Slide a bench beneath the bar and set the bar to a height where you can unrack it while lying on the bench with your arms extended.
• Now, lie on the bench with the bar positioned inline with your belly button.
• Extend your arms, grip the bar, and unrack the weight.
• With power, crunch up and use your abs to send the bar overhead.
• Return back to the bench with control.

Smith Machine Tips and Common Mistakes

While a Smith machine can provide a sense of safety — you can rack the weight when you need to and balance is supported via the fixed bar path — here are some tips, tricks, and common mistakes to make sure you're getting the most out of your Smith machine workout.

Warm Up: Always start your workout with a proper warm-up to get your body ready for the work ahead and decrease the risk of injury.

Set Safety Stops: Before you start your lift, adjust the safety stops to catch the bar just below your lowest range of motion. This will help protect you if you can't finish a rep.

Start Light: No ego, amigo. Start with a light weight to dial in the movement pattern and work your way up from there. 

Bar Path Discomfort: Everybody's got a different body, and sometimes the Smith machine's fixed bar path might not match your body mechaincs for a given lift. If the movement feels awkward or unnatural, don't force it. Switch to using free-weights so you can move in a way that feels natural for your body

Core Engagement: While the fixed bar path adds stability, don't just rely on the Smith machine to do all the work. Brace your core and maintain solid form from start to finish to stay in control.

Takeaway

With these Smith machine exercises locked and loaded, you'll be tackling some seriously sweet gains with added safety and stability support. This versatile tool can tackle a total-body workout, unilateral training, and muscle isolation — making it a powerhouse addition to your fitness routine.

FAQs

Is the Smith machine easier than free weights?

The Smith machine's fixed bar path eliminates the need for users to balance and stabilize the weight, making it easier for some users to focus purely on the targeted muscles. If stability is your limiting factor, the Smith machine can be a helpful piece of equipment to train safely and effectively. However, the machine doesn't reduce the actual weight you're lifting — so the muscular effort required remains the same.

Can I target my abs with a Smith machine?

Yes! Try doing Smith machine crunches to target your abdominals. This move adds resistance to your crunch and allows you to work with progressive overload — you can increase the weight as you get stronger to promote muscle growth.

Rosie Borchert is NASM-CPT, former Nike Volleyball coach, and fitness writer whose work has appeared on BarBend and Tonal. If anyone would like to hire her to play beach volleyball, snowboard, binge watch TV, or go climbing, please get in touch.

This article was reviewed by Ashley Boyer, ACE-CPT, for accuracy.