starting 5x5 next week, and...

Tamstar1985

...i discovered that my gym only has a rack for smith squats, not traditional ones. now, until i get the money together to buy a rack myself, would smith squats be okay to work into the program?!

any suggestions or advice, ladies?

a_vettestingray

You get away with front squats or goblet squats for a couple of weeks, but the weight progresses very quickly in this program. I think I was able to do it at home, using my husband to load the weights on my shoulder until we got to 75lbs. He has a bum shoulder and couldn't load it for me anymore. I also maxed out on my deadlift with the weights I had at home, so I finally started using that gym membership I paid for.

darwinforyou

I have a problem holding the bar across my shoulders (I have very small shoulders) for squats, so I do a sumo squat and use the handweights. At my gym those go up to well over 100 lbs, so I can keep going up 5 lbs and not worry about loading or carrying the weight on my shoulders.

CoCoRedRider

I have the same situation at my gym, but I am currently using the slightly taller rack that's above the inclined bench press. I straddle the top of the bench to get the bar on my shoulders then duck walk away from the bench. I just started so I'm not sure how safe this will be when the bar gets heavier but it works for now. The Smith rack really felt like cheating to me. Another improv I read about on this forum is the hack squats: http://www.exrx.net/WeightExercises/Quadriceps/BBHackSquat.html.