Smith Machine Box Squat
Also known as: smith box squat
- Primary muscleQuads
- EquipmentSmith Machine
- DifficultyBeginner
- TypeCompound · Knee-dominant
- Secondary muscles
- Glutes, Hamstrings, Calves
- Body part
- Upper Legs
- Position
- Standing
- Laterality
- Bilateral (both sides together)
- Category
- Strength
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Combining the Smith machine's fixed bar path with a box under your hips leaves almost nothing to stabilize, which is the point: you learn to sit back, touch down under control, and drive up without balance or depth guesswork. Progress by lowering the box before adding much weight.
How to do the Smith Machine Box Squat
- Adjust the height of the smith machine bar to a comfortable position.
- Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, toes slightly turned out.
- Place the barbell across your upper back, resting it on your traps.
- Engage your core and keep your chest up as you slowly lower your body by bending your knees and hips.
- Continue lowering until your thighs are parallel to the ground, or as low as you can comfortably go.
- Pause for a moment, then push through your heels to return to the starting position.
- Repeat for the desired number of repetitions.
Tip: Screw the feet into the floor and spread it apart to keep the knees out and the arch of the foot from collapsing.
Muscles worked
Primary
Quads · Legs
The quads extend the knee and drive you out of the bottom, and front squats and close stance variations put more on them.
Secondary
- Glutes — The glutes extend the hip on the way up and take more of the load the deeper you go and the wider your stance.
- Hamstrings
- Calves
Common mistakes
- Knees caving inward — push the knees out over the toes on the way up, especially out of the bottom where they most want to collapse.
- Hips shooting up first — if the hips rise faster than the chest on the way up, you turn the squat into a good morning; drive the chest and hips up together.
- Cutting the depth — get the hip crease below the top of the knee on every rep unless mobility genuinely stops you, in which case work on it.
- Losing the brace — take a big breath into the belly before each rep and hold it through the sticking point, then exhale on the way up.
Where it fits in a workout
Squats go first in a lower body session when you are freshest. Follow them with Romanian deadlifts or leg press, or superset lighter sets with pull-ups to use the same rack.
How many sets, how heavy and how hard: see what the ACSM position stands support.
Variations and alternatives
Similar exercises
Without smith machine
When to talk to someone
- Chest discomfort, feeling faint or lightheaded, or trouble breathing during or after exercise can be signs of a heart attack. In the US, call 911 right away; elsewhere, call your local emergency number.
- Heart, metabolic or kidney disease, or symptoms like these when you are active: talk to your doctor before you start or step up training.
- Pregnant: ask your obstetric care provider which exercise suits you.
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More exercises
Sources
- ACSM position stand on exercise quantity and quality (Garber et al., 2011)
- ACSM preparticipation health screening (Riebe et al., 2015)
- ACOG Committee Opinion No. 804 on exercise in pregnancy (2020)
- CDC: About Heart Attack Symptoms, Risk, and Recovery (2024)
Sources checked on October 17, 2026. Full citations are in the exercise library.
Animation and exercise data: ExerciseDB, licensed to SetGrip. General information, not medical or coaching advice.