I do use the Smith Machine for things like Inverted Rows, Pushup regressions, hurdle movements, attaching bands, etc. but never for exercises like squats.
Right now the campus gym has one Smith Machine, one power rack, and one piece of crap that looks like it's supposed to be a squat rack but doesn't have pins that are long enough to catch a bar when squatting. While it annoys me that this piece of crap was used to replace a perfectly fine power rack, at least I don't see so many people using the power rack for curls anymore. Whereas when I was at Cornell they had tons of racks, but many of them were being used for curls. I guess when people know that there is only one place in the gym where someone can squat with heavy weight, they respect that area more.
|