sounds like your a bit of a light weight, smith machine squats and dumbell lunges - get under 220kg (485lbs) with a machine that doesnt allow your body to move in a natural manner and tell me that they are better for you. On the flip side if you are a lighter trainer or newer gym goer then just about any movement is ok. The one thing I dont agree with on here is Burpees - if you are training for muscle gains and on a 4,5 or 6 day split why do a high impact total body movement when you are separating muscles into their own days

Highly disagree with ya bud. Smith machine locks your movement and will not allow you to train your support/stabilizer muscles. Have you ever seen rookies do bench-press (not on a smith machine)? You will notice their arms shake, bar moving out of proper form, well you will never ever fix that by doing smith machine bench-press for example. Only by using free weights will you be able to train your stabilizer muscles; which in the long-run prevent injury.

Im with JD on this one. I just think this author does not like machines in general. Just about every machine takes away the work of stabilizer muscles ( most, not all machines). Of course you might get a better workout with a free weights or a barbell because of this, but someone who has proper form ( and actually contracts their core while doing the squat, which alot of people ignore) you will be fine on a smith machine. If she wants to try to get her point across then show me medical journals explaining these facts to back up her article.....without these its just another article on a .com site

agreed.