Does you gym have squat stands?

I asked this question myself. After feedback from here and looking at the 5x5 site, this is what I went for:

http://www.bodybuilding.com/exercises/detail/view/name/dumbbell-squat

The benefits of barbell squats are immense, and your gym should get rid of the Smith machine immediately, It ruins people's form, forces them into an unnatural movement pattern and creates more problems than it solves. Replace that thing with a squat rack, like, yesterday.

When squatting you're moving a weight through space with your body, which has to adjust around that weight and balance it and exert effort to move it. That means you're using your entire body, and squats are as much of a core workout than they are a lower body workout. Barbell squatting mimics the way our bodies move naturally, and it works the same muscles and muscle groups, together, rather than isolate them. Nobody does anything out in the natural world using just a couple muscles a time. Our bodies are designed to move as a unit, with many muscle groups engaged together, and barbell training honors that.

If anybody wants to front and back squat any kind of weight, really, you have to have a squat rack, because cleaning all that weight yourself is going to limit you immensely, and you're simply not going to get very strong. So either hire people as spotters, or just get a power cage/squat rack, because if your lack of equipment limits people's strength goals, they're going to just find another gym.

Power cages also make bench presses much safer, which cuts down on the gym owner's liability because people can't drop weights on their chests or heads when they get too happy with the benching and bite off more than they can chew. Power cages are the way to go, really. Any gym should have at least one if not several of them.

http://www.mensfitness.com/training/pro-tips/get-stronger-7-reasons-to-never-neglect-squats

http://www.livestrong.com/article/461799-the-benefits-of-barbell-front-squats/

http://www.myweightlifting.com/power-rack-training/

http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2013/01/24/rage-against-the-machine-how-to-switch-from-exercise-machines-to-free-weights/

i started with front squats, then switched to hack...they were fine for several weeks. then the weight got too heavy for my back...i hated them so much. i probably could have looked into form a bit, but like i said...i hated them.

so now i'm back to front squats, doing ATG so i can do at a lower weight since power cleaning the bar up for fronts is only feasible to a certain point. i also added lunges and more deadlifts to compensate for the lack of "normal" squats.

i workout at home...no squat rack.

Dani H - Thank you for the articles! I will read and forward to the gym management.

You're welcome. Power cages are a lot cheaper than Smith machines anyway, and much more functional. For what they spent on that Smith machine, they could probably have purchased several power cages, plus bars, plus plates, plus benches, plus dumbbells plus kettlebells, and etc., and kept a lot of people busy at the same time rather than with just one machine that only one person can use at a time.

Of course what's done is done, but if your gym owner is serious about turning things into a "real" gym, then now is the time for them to think about what equipment to purchase, and with free-weight training undergoing quite the resurgence at the moment, it would probably be the way to go, rather than spend all that money on all those expensive machines that are so limiting in what you can do with them.

Having said that, for pulling/rowing exercises, machines are probably the way to go (IMO) because rowing with barbells can get so darn awkward.

If I was starting a gym, I'd buy me some classic free weight equipment and hire trainers that are experienced with barbell training and the classic lifts, and teach people what real strength is all about, the kind of strength that they can take out of the gym into their lives with them and actually use. But hey, that's just me. I'm biased like that. You don't need fancy schmancy; just time-honored stuff that has proven itself and that is always going to work, and work well.