Smith Machine Bench Press

Chest · Smith machine

How to do it

Centre the bench under the guided bar and grip as you would for a normal press. Since the rails fix the path, the bar always lands in the same place: position the bench so that place is the lower chest, not your neck. Lower to a touch, press, and use the safety catches to genuinely reach failure, which is what a Smith machine is for. You feel the chest without having to think about balance.

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: Triceps, Shoulders

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