Why am I weaker on a smith machine

[Sixfoottwo]

I have the same. For instance, I like a high incline press in either Smith or with dumbells. I'm weak as fuck in the Smith, will hit like 2 plates or maybe 2 and a half for some reps, however I can hit 60 kg dumbells for 6 reps and with better reps too. Same for Smith squats and regular squats. Don't know why.

 

[Anthony80]

I have the same. For instance, I like a high incline press in either Smith or with dumbells. I'm weak as fuck in the Smith, will hit like 2 plates or maybe 2 and a half for some reps, however I can hit 60 kg dumbells for 6 reps and with better reps too. Same for Smith squats and regular squats. Don't know why.

If I read some of the other guy’s comments correctly it almost seems like their saying a smith machine is almost like a isolation exercise and not compound, but not sure , take bench press for example ,watch someone bench on a smith machine and just pay attention to their movement with bar down and up , looks completely different than watching someone bench with free weights ,the bar moves differently with free weights ,but with smith it’s just straight up and down , really don’t know if that’s good ,seems like for isolation of single muscle maybe it’s good , but also seems like it could cause more injuries , but I’m with you , tried a smith bench with same weight as free weight and could barely get half the reps I got with free weights , so for me ,the smith machine is superior for calf raises only , cause of more balance control than free weight, for me anyway

 

[Tomgrass]

Is your goal strength or hypertrophy?

Somebody said : strong muscle is a big muscle and big muscle is strong muscle. You wanna get bigger? Easiest way is to get stronger.