Plate Loaded Squat vs BB Squat

[Norcalrallyist]

I was wondering if you guys thing that doing a plate loaded squat would be as good as BB squat?

They have a crappy squat rack at my gym and you cant adjust the safety catch any lower so I cant really load up much weight when im by myself.

Ive tried smith machine squats and those are akward and only good for putting stress on my lower back.

The plate loader is great and seems to have the correct range of motion and its safety is right at the bottom of my squat which is nice but, im wondering if its as good as a BB squat

What do you think?

[amusclehead]

is a plate loader a smith machine???

i train solely in my basement so i don't get out much on the new technology, lol. my defintions are limited to free weight and smith

[PROSA]

The squat machines may not be a substitute for regular BB squats, but they're better than using a Smith. Don't be deceived by the amounts of weight you can handle. I've found that 500 pounds on a squat machine is notably easier than 250 pounds on a BB.

[Norcalrallyist]

Amusclehead:

Its something along the lines of this. The motion looks the same but the machine is less complicated and does have goofy movie reel looking weights

http://www.nuclearnutrition.net/articles_Nov27_02.html I couldnt get the link to the picture to work but its on this page

[D&G]

Originally posted by Norcalrallyist
im wondering if its as good as a BB squat

No, a machine takes the stabilising muscles out of the equation, you don't need to balance the bar so your doing less work.

[scott_donald]

freeweights rule much better than the machine...