free weight bench press has more muscle activation than smith machine

This is logical. In essence the smith machine is not a free weight. It cannot move in 3-dimensional space. Even when you do the pressing exercise on the smith machine you can feel that you are only focusing your energy on moving the weight upward so you don't recruit all the small stabilizing muscles in your chest and arm area. If you have the time you can try out the chest press on the smith machine and you will increase the weight really quickly but after you get back to the good old free weight barbell or dumbells you will see that you actually lost strenght. When you preform exercises with the smith machine it is unnatural for the body. When you preform the pressing movement with the barbell you will notice that the barbell will move a little towards your head and you will generally move the weight around a little bit, but with the smith machine your line of movement is in one line and this is really unnatural for the shoulder joint.

Hello i am 65,i have diabetic and other health issues, so to keep myself fit, i do some yogic breathing exercises in the morning, because burning sensation in soles of feet, i walk on a virtul walking machines that shakes my legs.. Can i try this, well with these problems? Thank you so much for this discussion and the link. Professor. . Cheers have a lucky day ahead. God bless you. Welcome always.

hi bart I can understand why as you are really lifting the whole weight not just some of it using the machine. Until I injured my left shoulder I used to lift weights just to keep my upper body toned better.but I fractured my shoulder and had to have a shoulder joint replacement with loss of ability now to normally use my left arm. I wanted to rehab with weights but I c annot make my left arm lift the five pound weight, its crazy and pathetic if a joint thats false willnot work with my own arm.

But then why come me lift so much more heavy weight on the smith masheen? LOL Doesn't matter what you tell people they will always choose the easier path when left to their own devices. For most people that means they will keep using all the fancy hammer machines and cable systems and half sass smith machines. Makes them feel better seeing more weight be moved with much less effort. Anyone who actually cares about building some muscle doesn't need a scientist to explain how controlling heavy weights activates more muscle and stimulates growth because they've already been putting in the work. The real question here is What unifies humanity more? Its fear or its laziness.