Smith machines are cheating? I would heavily disagree, but I also wouldn't say that benching 4 plates on the Smith is the same as 4 plates on a conventional bar. The Smith machine, just like any other machines, can act in ways that free weights cannot. Stability and balance are mostly removed. This can allow for greater load placement - less energy and effort expended for balance. The Smith machine can also offer many single leg and single arm variants you could not do with a barbell such as single arm shrugs, single arm rows, single leg calf raises, hex presses and more. I have a few personal favorites in the Smith machine. One is RDLs (shown in this video) as they allow me to really mentally focus just on loading my hamstrings and not so much the movement of the bar, I feel safer going higher reps with higher weights than conventional RDLs. I also love bent over rows in the Smith. A barbell has no drag, where as most Smith machines offer some sort of "drag" resistance that you can fe...