2013-10-30, 03:13 PM
All machines force a set range of motion, which can be good if you want to isolate a muscle group. Squats and machine squats/Smith machine squats, however, are not interchangeable because barbell squats involve a LOT of muscle groups--by substituting a machine exercise you're ignoring many of the muscles that would be involved in a barbell squat. If you specifically want to isolate the legs, then machine squats/leg presses are great.
tl;dr Squats are compound, machine squats are isolation. They are not interchangeable.
tl;dr Squats are compound, machine squats are isolation. They are not interchangeable.

