maratoolSmith Machine Dead Lifts
How to do the smith machine dead lifts
- Stand with your feet shoulder width apart so that your feet are under the bar.
- Keeping your back straight bend at the waist, allow some bend in your knees.
- Grasp the par with an overhand grip approximately 16 inches apart.
- Straighten your back as you hold the bar at arm’s length.
- Bend over again lowering the bar to just above the floor.
Muscles worked
The prime movers are the spinal erectors running either side of the lumbar spine, which hold the spine extended instead of letting it round under load.
Even with a single joint doing the moving, the muscle is not working alone — the hamstrings assist hip extension and slow the knee down; the calves control the ankle and hold the heel position.
Every exercise for:Lower backHamstringsCalves
How this movement works
Everything happens at one joint. That gives you direct control over where the tension sits; the trade-off is that the muscle gets no help, so the load that feels hard here is a fraction of what a multi-joint version of the pattern would take. Slow, complete repetitions beat heavy ones.
It is filed under strength: produce force against resistance for a countable number of repetitions, and progress the resistance over time.
What you need
A Smith machine runs the bar on a fixed track. You never have to balance it, so you can chase the target muscle harder, but your joints have to accept the path the rails picked.
Every exercise using:Smith machine
These train the lower back too, using equipment this one does not:
- Stiff Leg Barbell Good Morningbarbell
- Supermanbody only
- Weighted Ball Hyperextensionexercise ball
- Dumbbell Dead Liftsdumbbell
- Hyperextensionsbench
Illustration: Everkinetic — CC BY-SA 4.0 — license. Modified versions are shared under the same license. Full attribution →
ⓘ Informational only — not a substitute for professional fitness or medical advice.