Smith Machine Leg Press

Legs · Machine

How to do it

Set the guided bar half a metre off the floor, resting on the safeties. Lie on your back underneath with your hips close to it and place your feet on the bar at shoulder width, knees bent. Unhook and press through your heels until the knees are almost straight; lower under control. It is an improvised leg press when there is no machine. **Check the safeties and never lower further than you can press back**: there is no escape lever here. The classic mistake is snapping the knees locked at the top.

Variants

The drawing shows one way of doing it, and the technique above describes that one. Almost every exercise has variants — standing or seated, the grip, the bench angle — and is still the same exercise: if you do it another way, write it in the exercise note and you will have it every time you train it.

Also works: Calves, Glutes

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