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Which is finest for constructing your pecs: Smith machine bench press or barbell bench press?
Some argue that benching on a Smith machine is simpler to be taught, allows you to carry heavier weights, and has a decrease threat of harm, all of that are higher for long-term positive factors.
The standard counterargument is that the Smith machine bench press doesn’t practice as many muscle groups because the free-weight variation and, thus, isn’t pretty much as good for gaining upper-body muscle and power.
Who’s proper?
That’s what scientists at California State College needed to analyze within the following research.
What Did the Researchers Do?
The researchers had 26 weightlifters do 2 separate exercises.
In a single exercise, the weightlifters carried out 2 reps of the flat bench press at 70% and 90% of their one-rep max. Within the different exercise, they adopted the identical rep and weight pointers however changed the flat bench press with the bench press on the Smith machine.
Throughout each exercises, the researchers positioned electrodes on the weightlifters’ pecs, anterior (“entrance”) and lateral (“facet”) deltoids, and used electromyography (EMG) to measure muscle activation throughout every set of every train.
What Have been the Research Outcomes?
Muscle activation was the identical within the pecs and entrance delts, however the barbell bench press elevated facet delt activation by 50% greater than the Smith machine bench press.
Total, these outcomes again up what skilled lifters have been saying for years:
The standard barbell bench press will increase muscle activation greater than the Smith machine bench press, particularly in smaller stabilizer muscle groups that help the chest and triceps when shifting heavy weights.
The explanation for that is simple.
If you carry out the bench press on the Smith machine, the bar strikes on a set path all through all the vary of movement, from the beginning place when your arms are totally prolonged in entrance of you till the bar touches your torso.
Conversely, once you do a barbell bench press (or another free-weight train), you must work laborious to maintain the bar from deviating too far in a single path or one other, and that requires many different small muscle teams to pitch in.
Keep in mind, too, that the researchers solely measured three muscle groups on this research. There are a lot of different muscle groups that additionally not directly work to assist stabilize your physique when bench urgent, together with your lats, legs, and even your abs.
The barbell bench press may additionally have induced extra muscle activation in these muscle teams.
This research casts doubt on one other argument for benching on a Smith machine, which is that since you don’t need to stabilize the bar, you may extra successfully overload the first muscle groups, just like the pecs.
That’s not what occurred on this research.
The Smith machine didn’t trigger any extra muscle activation within the pecs or anterior delts, as you may see on this graph of muscle activation within the weightlifters:
What Does This Imply for You?
At first blush, these outcomes appear to suggest that the barbell bench press is healthier for constructing muscle than the Smith machine bench press.
However this isn’t essentially true.
EMG measurements solely inform us total ranges of muscle activation. Whereas it’s cheap to imagine workouts that activate muscle groups to a excessive diploma will trigger extra muscle progress over time, this isn’t at all times the case.
That stated, in case you needed to guess on which train was higher for muscle progress primarily based on these outcomes, the sensible cash could be on the barbell bench press.
And that’s why investing time in studying how you can barbell bench press accurately typically pays dividends in the long term.
None of this implies benching on a Smith machine is fully with out advantage.
The Smith machine bench press will be good for doing extra quantity (units) to your pecs after you’re already fatigued from doing heavy free-weight presses. It’s additionally helpful in case you’re coaching round an harm or you probably have no different tools accessible.
In any case, it trains a lot of the similar muscle groups to an analogous diploma, and it’s efficient at serving to you achieve upper-body power.
Simply don’t make the error of prioritizing the Smith machine bench press over free-weight alternate options, together with the flat barbell and dumbbell bench press and incline barbell and dumbbell bench press.
+ Scientific References
- Schick, Evan E, et al. “A Comparability of Muscle Activation between a Smith Machine and Free Weight Bench Press.” Journal of Power and Conditioning Analysis, vol. 24, no. 3, Mar. 2010, pp. 779–784, https://doi.org/10.1519/jsc.0b013e3181cc2237.
- Vigotsky, Andrew D., et al. “Larger Electromyographic Responses Do Not Suggest Larger Motor Unit Recruitment and “Hypertrophic Potential” Can not Be Inferred.” Journal of Power and Conditioning Analysis, vol. 31, no. 1, Jan. 2017, pp. e1–e4, https://doi.org/10.1519/jsc.0000000000001249. Accessed 15 Dec. 2021.
- Schwanbeck, Shane R., et al. “Results of Coaching with Free Weights versus Machines on Muscle Mass, Power, Free Testosterone, and Free Cortisol Ranges.” Journal of Power and Conditioning Analysis, vol. 34, no. 7, July 2020, pp. 1851–1859, https://doi.org/10.1519/jsc.0000000000003349. Accessed 30 Aug. 2020.
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