Squats, Soloflex Muscle Machine vs. Freeweights barbell

[bucksteelsoloflex]

I have had a few people email me and ask how I found the squats on the Soloflex compared to freeweights.

I have very strong legs, way above average, and I squat deep on freeweights. I stand 5' 10.5" I strongly prefer freeweight squats. While I love most of the exercises on the Soloflex, I find the range lacking and I don't care for having to start in a compressed position. One of the reasons I don't like starting this way is because my abdominal girth is unfortunately way above average as well.

I think the taller you are and the deeper you squat the less you will like the Muscle Machine on squats. The shorter you are and the shallower your squat the more you will like it. If your squatting technique on freeweights is less than perfect stick to using the Soloflex machine because it keeps your form in a safe range so you should avoid injuries. If you are injured, then you might find using the Muscle Machine would be better and safer until the injury has healed, depending on the nature of the injury.

With a little tinkering the barbell arm can be lengthened and this would greatly improve the range on squats. If you have a pair of barbell arms, try connecting them with some strong clamps should easily do the trick. I haven't experimented with this. I have just done a set of squats on my dual framed system and then went to the muscle Machine configuration to compare on squats.

The heavier you lift, the more important good form is. Anyone can lift a light weight with good form. It takes a strong man to be able to lift heavy weight with good form, especially on the more technical lifts. Showing off with heavy weights with bad form or going for new personal records on lifts with bad form is a recipe guaranteed to cook up future injuries. Also, the supporting muscles to hold good posture and form do not get developed properly resulting in workouts creating instead of correcting muscular imbalances.

You are only as strong as you can lift in good form without wraps, belts, and support equipment. If you are not sure on how to do a lift properly, stick to doing it on your Soloflex equipment until you get proper instruction before attempting it with freeweights. There is a time and a place for cheating and "loose" form, but is is a deliberate calculation on specific exercises. Unless you know what you are doing and understand the risks involved as well as the benefits, stay with strict form for safety reasons. Injuries due to impatience can set you back months. Stay safe and systematic.

Squats are a very important exercise, if you have the room, the Rockit is a good investment. I had to let mine go due to lack of room. Also if you rig up a dual system, you can hang a very heavy barbell using the Shermworks self spotting setup in between them which is supposed to be great for squats according to many online reviews.

I would use the Muscle Machine for heavy partials and isometrics if I feel inclined to do those.

If you think I missed something or disagree, please post your comments. I'm in between sets on my workouts.

[Flex257]

I agree that squats and other really long range of motion exercises on the soloflex are tough. Because of this I have broken a number of bands doing squats on the soloflex. Also, the resistance curve is a bit steep on long range of motion exercises.

I am even taller than you (6'1") with long legs. To make it work for me I usually set the bar height on hole #8 (sometimes a bit lower) and I use a combo of weights and resistance straps.

But, there are some good benefits to soloflex squats:

1. safety - if you can't do anymore, you can easily put it down.
2. no spotters needed - even if you go heavy
3. as you stand up the resistance does ramp up to (sort of) match your strength curve - so the upper range gets a lot more work than it does with weights
4. no momentum effect - with weights if you stand up fast the momentum further reduces the effective load on your muscles. With soloflex you can train fast (if you want to) and still avoid ballistics and momentum. You can't through an elastomer. This forces you to work through the whole range of motion.

[bucksteelsoloflex]

Hi Flex257,

I really look forward to your participation and contributions here.

The lack of negative resistance of the weightstraps does have some advantages in certain aspects of training. There is a device called the minigym that lets you train without negative resistance for example. Olympic lifters, do not lower their weights under control, they just drop them.

Negatives cause more mass too pack on the body, and also makes you more sore in a training session. For pure strength training I prefer freeweights with heavy low reps. With the Soloflex, I like to use it for high rep training, and explosive high speed training for the reasons you mention. If I exercises like that with freeweights, I would more than likely injure myself badly.

People that think the Soloflex is a piece of junk do not understand this, nor do they understand all the isometric and partial rep exercises that can be done all out safely.

I like the Muscle Machine for front squats, I dislike it on regular squats. I dislike having to start on the bottom all the time. Some day I intend to get a long bar made up with a shoulder brace that should solve the range problem of the short barbell arm on squats. The triple bench platform I made does make squatting a better experience.

[Flex257]

Hi Flex257,

I really look forward to your participation and contributions here.

The lack of negative resistance of the weightstraps does have some advantages in certain aspects of training. There is a device called the minigym that lets you train without negative resistance for example. Olympic lifters, do not lower their weights under control, they just drop them.

Negatives cause more mass too pack on the body, and also makes you more sore in a training session. For pure strength training I prefer freeweights with heavy low reps. With the Soloflex, I like to use it for high rep training, and explosive high speed training for the reasons you mention. If I exercises like that with freeweights, I would more than likely injure myself badly.

People that think the Soloflex is a piece of junk do not understand this, nor do they understand all the isometric and partial rep exercises that can be done all out safely.

I like the Muscle Machine for front squats, I dislike it on regular squats. I dislike having to start on the bottom all the time. Some day I intend to get a long bar made up with a shoulder brace that should solve the range problem of the short barbell arm on squats. The triple bench platform I made does make squatting a better experience.

You raise a number of excellent points. Powerlifters always want max power for their weight, so they probably avoid eccentrics - because they are not trying to put on muscle mass, except as needed for their performance.

I have an isokinetic mini-gym and you are correct - it provides only positive (concentric) resistance. Actually I am planning on selling it o Ebay. If anyone is interested, PM me.

If you lengthen the lever arm on the soloflex, several things will change:
- the load that you experience will be less than with the standard arm
- the resistance curve will shift so that you have less of a spike up in the extended range - so it will be easier to do long range-of-motion exercises. But the lower part of the range (with no resistance) will be extended too.

With my be bands you may not need to go with the longer arm - because my resistance is quite linear through the entire ROM. Is there any other reason to lengthen the arm?

[bucksteelsoloflex]

You raise a number of excellent points. Powerlifters always want max power for their weight, so they probably avoid eccentrics - because they are not trying to put on muscle mass, except as needed for their performance.

I have an isokinetic mini-gym and you are correct - it provides only positive (concentric) resistance. Actually I am planning on selling it o Ebay. If anyone is interested, PM me.

If you lengthen the lever arm on the soloflex, several things will change:
- the load that you experience will be less than with the standard arm
- the resistance curve will shift so that you have less of a spike up in the extended range - so it will be easier to do long range-of-motion exercises. But the lower part of the range (with no resistance) will be extended too.

With my be bands you may not need to go with the longer arm - because my resistance is quite linear through the entire ROM. Is there any other reason to lengthen the arm?

Hi Flex257,

Hey when you decide to sell the Mini Gym on eBay, please link to it in the classifieds

With a longer lever arm, just use stronger bands to compensate for the leverage. It should still be good for 500 pounds of freeweights so the resistance should be enough for most people. The resistance will then be more consistent.

Remember that the Soloflex Muscle Machine is designed to give as much exercise as possible in the smallest space possible. It does this better than anything else on the market that I know of at the moment.

I think the Soloflex mainframe , bench. and barbell arm would all have worked better if they were at least a foot longer. I think that the length of the barbell arm is made as short as it can be. One of my ideas has been to consider lengthening those parts.

The short barbell arm is fine for most upper body movements, but it is the range of motion that is lacking on it for full deep squats. The Soloflex Muscle Machine could have had many more attachments and options available for it. This includes many variations of the barbell arm. Some day I will probably get a welding shop to make a few of them.