DIY Fitness Club

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Smith Machine Leg Press

PJ

Introduction

Turning your Smith Machine into a SAFE and COMFORTABLE Leg Press is super easy!. We just need a to build a Foot Plate that attaches to your Barbell - where the the Foot Plate can still rotate the barbell so that the hooks can be safely dislodged from the pegs - and safely reattach to the pegs.

I have seen others use their Smith Machine as a Leg Press by simply pressing their feet against the barbell, and using their shoes to rotate the barbell. However, This is not ideal. If the barbell slips off the surface of your shoes…ouch! Further, the entire weight of the barbell being pressed solely against a small portion of your shoe bottoms is not very comfortable due to the limited surface area between the barbell and your shoes.

My DIY Footplate design, increases your comfort by expanding the surface area - and further makes things safer by providing more GRIP surface area on the barbell - leading to a safer more comfortable experience.

Tutorial

I used a 2 foot long piece of 2x10 Lumber and two pieces of 2 foot long 2x4s. Then all you need is some screws, anti-slip tape, and some straps….and “Grippy” shelf liner with some spray adhesive. The details are all in the following video:

Troubleshooting

If you have trouble with the barbell rotating this means that you didn’t affix the 2x4s against the barbell in a tight enough manner. To solve this, you can either move the 2x4's inward - narrowing the channel…. OR just add a second layer of the “Grippy” shelf liner.

Straps

Also - As I mentioned in the video I used Luggage straps. Specifically, these: https://amzn.to/3Qcynns

However, these straps could not be shortened enough to have the straps FIRMLY support the Footplate. As is - it still works - in that- if the Footplate became dislodged from the barbell the strap would still catch it, preventing it from falling. However, ideally you would be able to tightly cinch the strap ALL the way down. Therefore, I recommend using Adjustable straps like this INSTEAD: https://amzn.to/444XIp2

Shopping

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