Smith machine bar weight

Does this vary widely? I have a Body Solid "Pro Club Line" smith at my gym at work. It's an old one. When I set it up, it seemed to me that the counter weights are small, and probably just about offset the bearing assemblies and hooks, etc, which are welded to the otherwise standard Olympic bar.

Does anyone know if they're generally designed that way? Going by "feel", it seems that way to me, at least on this one. I'm doing a chest workout right now, and I sure can't push anymore weight on the smith than I can a regular O bar.... So I HOPE that's how it it! Lol!

I have used many smith machine and worked in many gyms with smith machines. It has always been my assumption it weighs standard Olympic bar weight.

There was a discussion about this on another site. This guy took a scale and put it under a Hammer Strength Smith machine and it weighed 5 lbs. My experience has been that different brands have different weights. Some seem heavy and 1 I remember seemed almost perfectly balanced.

Correct me if I'm wrong but on many machines arent there counter weights within the machine, possibly to offset the weight of the bar? FWIW I tell all my PT clients that all Olympic bars are 45LBS, so I always tell them to factor that into recording the weight. Why confuse the newbies??

There are counter weights to offset the weight of the bar. So why tell them to add 45 lbs?

beachbody said:

There are counter weights to offset the weight of the bar. So why tell them to add 45 lbs?

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The newbies I do....they are overwhelmed at first anyway, let alone try to remember the bar in may cases really doesnt weigh 45LBS on that up and down thingy as they call it LOL

PS For shits & giggles, I weighed all my olympic bars and they all came in bit different weights, most were 42, 43 or 44 lbs, not one a 45

i would say its around 20-25 lbs my son has been switching back and forth on them and from what i can tell its about 20-25 lbs difference. i actually do my heaviest press exercise with smith machine either flat or incline and switch to dumbbells for the other. the regular barbell kills my shoulder if i go heavy. im the only one in my gym who puts on 4 plates and i rep it 6x but i wont go over 3 plates with straight bar

I dunno, I guess they could all be different. This particular one; it's a Body Solid Pro-Club line but a pretty old one; has a small counterweight in each upright. The uprights are 2 x 4 box tubing, so the weights are small.

I had to replace one of the pulleys when I got it, as one of the pulleys was broken. So, I pulled the counterweight up the upright tube holding the cable with thumb and forefinger - it doesn't weigh much. I am guessing that the little counterweight probably is roughly equal to the bearing sleeve and safety hook welded to the bar.

I'll tell you this: I sure can't push any more plates on this Smith than I can a free barbell, so I believe that I'm at least estimating correctly.

With lighter weights, I think the load FEELS lighter because of the momentum. The bar is sliding so nicely on those bearings, it just wants to keep going. When I get 3 plates on each side, there ain't no momentum going on, at least not in the anti gravity direction!

I don't know why it never occurred to me to do this before now. I just spotted the shipping scale and weighed the Smith machine bar. 27 pounds.

The Survivor said:

The newbies I do....they are overwhelmed at first anyway, let alone try to remember the bar in may cases really doesnt weigh 45LBS on that up and down thingy as they call it LOL

PS For shits & giggles, I weighed all my olympic bars and they all came in bit different weights, most were 42, 43 or 44 lbs, not one a 45

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Good point. I weighed a couple bars at the gym once...one was closer to 35 and one was about 42. But, they both looked like standard olympic bars.

And I just weighed my Olympic bar: 42 lbs.

I use to hate the thicker bars, and liked using the skinnier ones, but as i got older and stronger i started using those thick bars,

anyone else have a prefrence

I was always told the average was 15lbs

google tells me this:The typical smith machine barbell only weighs about 15 pounds when you factor in the pulley set up. Whereas a free weight barbell weighs 45 pounds. So if you have the same weight plates on a smith machine compared to a barbell it's going to feel lighter simply because you are lifting less weight.Sep 7, 2015



In any case, I’ll always appreciate the smith machine for shrugs and bench. Bench probably sounds weird but after a wrist surgery I was only comfortable building my pecs with dumbbells and smith machine bench. I’ve since moved on from the smith machine for pecs but that damn thing did wonders for me at one point in my lifting career.

furthermore, in my studies I've found various schools of thought when it comes to shrugs as i'm sure my bros have seen over the years as science and theories change. for shrugs, some would say that the traps, a muscle group found behind you (meaning towards the back of your body), would be best stressed from a point of resistance that comes from behind your body from a grip perspective. shrugs with a barbell behind my back have always felt conducive to a great squeeze of the traps while under a poundage i couldn't achieve doing shrugs another way. the smith machine is very conducive to this environment of heavy weight in a safe controlled environment where risk of injury is minimal. bench, shrug, military press, or otherwise.

I have mixed feelings about the Smith. On one hand, I like the safety factor built in for working out alone. OTOH, with heavier weight, I find it gets difficult to rotate the bar and hooks back on the pegs. This is true whether doing bench press, squat or bent rows. Lighter weight, no sweat. Get to the heavy sets, gotta save a little strength to get the bar back on the hooks.

Also, mine (not really mine, it's in the gym at work; but I set the gym up and bought all the equipment, albeit with company money) is an older, '90°' version, as opposed to the newer ones that have a 7° or whatever it is angle. I know the barbell doesn't move in a totally linear plane when doing bench press or military press. So that makes it feel unnatural, though I like the 90° version for squats.

I'm not allowed to have a barbell at the work gym, so Smith and dumbbells (as well as the multi stack machine) are my only options when working out there. And I do get a good workout. I just have to add an extra 20 lbs or so to make it comparable to my barbell workouts.