Smith Machine Pistol Squat
Trains the Quads.
- Equipment
- A machine
- Mechanic
- Compound
- Force
- Push
- Level
- Intermediate
How to do it
- Set the Smith machine bar at about shoulder height and stand under it on one leg.
- Rest the bar across your upper back and unhook it, or hold it in front for balance.
- Hold the free leg out in front of you.
- Lower by bending the standing knee, letting the fixed bar path support your balance.
- Go as deep as you can while keeping the heel down.
- Drive back up through the standing foot, then finish the side before swapping.
Common mistakes
- Standing with the foot under the bar as for a free squat. The bar's line is fixed, so the standing foot moves forward to meet it — otherwise the knee travels a long way past the toes.
- Treating the fixed path as the whole difficulty removed. The machine takes out the balance, which is a large part of a pistol squat, and leaves the strength and the ankle range untouched.
- Letting the heel lift. A heel coming up means the foot is too far back for the fixed line, which is a setup problem rather than a mobility one.
- Loading it heavily. One leg under a bar on a fixed path is still one leg, and the load is limited by the knee rather than by the balance.