Smith machine squat: the setup, foot placement and how it compares with the barbell squat

A Smith machine squat is a back squat with the bar fixed to a track. One study describes the machine as "vertical motion of bar on fixed path".¹ You don't balance the bar, and hooks on the bar let you rack it at almost any height by turning it. The glossary has the one-line definition.

This page covers the setup, where to put your feet and what that changes, what was measured when the Smith machine squat was put beside the free-weight squat, what eight weeks of each produced, and the sets. The free-weight squat is on squat form, and the other machine squats are the hack squat and the belt squat.

How to do a Smith machine squat

1. Set the bar at about upper-chest height, and set the safety stops just below the lowest point of your squat.
2. Step under the bar and set it across your upper back, hands just outside your shoulders.
3. Place your feet about shoulder-width apart, a little in front of the bar, so you can sit down between your heels with your heels flat. The next section covers what moving them changes.
4. Stand up and turn the bar to free the hooks.
5. Squat down under control to the depth you can hold with your heels down, then stand back up.
6. Turn the bar back onto the hooks at the top of your last rep before you step out.

These steps are practical setup, not study results. Every Smith machine differs a little: check its placard, and ask staff to show you the hooks and stops the first time.

Smith machine squat foot placement

Because the bar can't drift, you can put your feet anywhere along the floor, and that changes where the work goes. A mathematical model of the Smith squat, not a study of people, calculated that at the same knee angle, moving the feet forward in front of the knees, leaning the trunk forward and shifting the weight toward the front of the foot put more of the turning force at the hips and less at the knee, and the reverse for the opposite changes. Those are calculations, not measurements.²

• Feet further back: more of the turning force at the knee, by that model. In practice your heels may come up sooner.
• Feet further forward: more of it at the hips, by that model.

The practical reading, not a finding: pick the placement where your heels stay flat and you reach your depth, then keep it so the weights you write down compare.

Smith machine squat vs barbell squat: what was measured

• A heavier max on the machine. In 16 men and 16 women tested on both, the squat one-rep max was greater on the Smith machine than with free weights. Split by sex, the difference held for the women only.¹ The study gave an equation for women to convert one to the other: Smith machine squat max in kilograms = 28.3 + 0.73 × free-weight squat max.¹
• Less muscle activity, in a small study. In six people, each lifting the weight they could lift eight times, muscle activity averaged across seven leg and trunk muscles was 43% higher in the free-weight squat. Calf, hamstring and vastus medialis (the inner front-of-thigh muscle) activity were each higher with free weights; the other muscles measured, including the lower back and the abdominals, didn't differ significantly.³ Six people is a very small sample, so take it as a hint.
• More backward push into the floor. In 35 young volunteers, 14 of them women, doing a set of 10 at about 45% and about 70% of their one-rep max, people pushed backward into the floor much more on the Smith machine than with free weights, and the gap grew with the heavier load and through the set.⁴

What eight weeks of each produced

One research group trained sport-science students with one or the other for eight weeks, twice a week:

• Strength and muscle. 37 students, 14 of them women, did back squats and bench presses on free weights or a Smith machine, 4 sets at 70% of their one-rep max, stopping each set once the bar had slowed by 20 to 25%. Almost every measure improved in both groups. Two of the three strength measures, taken from bar speed across loads, improved more when the test matched the equipment trained on, and the cross-section of a front-of-thigh muscle, the vastus lateralis, grew by a similar amount in both.⁵ The authors conclude that people who aren't after strength on one specific version can choose either by preference.⁵
• The backward push. In 20 students, the squat they trained on made little difference to how they pushed into the floor afterwards; the authors conclude that eight weeks of squats did not change how effectively force was applied, whichever squat was trained or tested.⁶

That matches the wider picture. A 2023 meta-analysis of 13 studies and 1,016 participants, whose lower-body comparisons included the Smith machine squat, found that strength gains followed the equipment people trained on and that muscle growth didn't differ between free weights and machines in the five studies that measured it.⁷ And in a ten-week trial of 70 young women, the 32 who rotated the leg press, the hack squat and the Smith machine squat across the week grew their thighs about as much as the 38 who did the leg press every session.⁸

So: if the goal is bigger, stronger legs, use whichever squat you can push hard and add weight to. If the goal is a better barbell squat, the barbell squat has to stay in your week.

The common faults, and a fix for each

• Feet in the wrong place for your depth. If your heels lift, move your feet a little further forward; if you can't sit down between your heels, bring them back a little.
• Stops set too low, or not at all. Set them just below your lowest point before the first set.
• Treating a Smith number as a barbell number. The max was heavier on the machine in one study,¹ and machines differ, so log the Smith weight on its own line.
• Shallow reps as the weight climbs. Keep the same depth every rep, and strip a plate if you can't.
• Squatting through pain. If you have pain, an injury or a medical condition, stop and ask a doctor or a physical therapist.

Sets, reps and where it goes

• What the eight-week trial used: twice a week, 4 sets at 70% of a one-rep max, with each set stopped when the bar had slowed by 20 to 25%, which the authors call a moderate effort.⁵
• What the ten-week trial used: 2 sets of the most reps you could do with a weight in the 10-to-15-rep range, once a week, as one of three rotated leg exercises.⁸
• As a practical start: 3 sets of 6 to 10, two or three reps short of failure, as the first lift of a leg day or after a barbell squat. This is practical advice, not a finding. How to judge reps left.
• Finish the day with the leg curl or a hinge for the back of the thigh. The leg day workout has a full session.

Common questions

Is the Smith machine squat bad?

The studies above don't say so. Muscle activity was lower in one six-person study,³ but in eight weeks of training a front-of-thigh muscle grew by a similar amount on either, and two of the strength measures rose more on whichever was trained.⁵ In that trial it built a front-of-thigh muscle about as well as the barbell squat did. It is still a different lift, and its numbers don't carry over to the bar one for one.

Is the Smith machine squat good for beginners?

None of the studies above tested beginners: the training trials used sport-science students. The machine takes balance out of the lift, which some people find easier to learn on; the goblet squat is the other common first squat.

Is the Smith machine squat good for glutes?

None of the studies above measured glute activity on it, so this page doesn't rank it for the glutes. By the model above, feet further forward shift more of the turning force to the hips.² For glute work on its own, the hip thrust has its own page.

Smith machine squat vs hack squat?

Both run on rails. On the hack squat a pad holds your back; on the Smith machine you hold the bar and your own torso. No study comparing the two directly was found; the hack squat's own comparisons are on the hack squat page.

If you'd rather not plan it alone

The Smith machine squat is quick to learn; deciding whether it replaces your barbell squat or follows it, and how heavy each week should be, is the part a page can't do. Coaching is the version where your workouts live in Trainerize, built around the days you actually have, and a weekly call looks at the week you just had and rebuilds the next one. Coaching to get stronger explains how that works, and here's how to apply. Otherwise: at your next leg session, set the stops, put your feet a little in front of the bar, and do three sets of eight.