Quote:
Originally Posted by Kezz  surely it doesnt matter if stabilising muscles are brought in to use or not, i should imagine they would get worked in other movements like dumbell presses and flys etc |
Yes and no.
Its going to depend on a persons training as to whether they get trained or not (as you said)
Giving the example of using the Smith to Squat you don't activate your 'core' + other muscles (leave that one for the time being) as much as you would when free weight squatting, so you loose (or dont gain...) 'functional strength'
One would expect to see improvements in deads as a result of improvements in squats to some degree as a result of core muscles being worked in both. You loose some of this when you smith squat.
But I've said before - I avoid suing the Smith, but have no real issue with it - as long as correct form is used for that machine.