Marcy Pro Smith Machine Review 2024 (SM-4903)

To help you get a good understanding of the SM-4903, let’s look at the main features of the product and the variety of workouts it supports.

Before we do that, here are some quick facts to get you started:

Dimensions:

• Cage footprint: 86” L x 73” W x 86” H (218 cm L x 185 cm W x 218 cm H)
• Bench footprint: 48” L x 27” W x 49” H (122 cm L x 69 cm W x 124 cm H)

Total product weight: 390 lbs (177 kg)

Weight capacity:

• Smith bar max weight: (300 lbs) 136 kg.
• Power rack max weight: 300 lbs
• Pull-up bar max weight: 300 lbs
• Dip station max weight: 300 lbs
• Cables max weight: (150 lbs) 68 kg per side
• Bench max weight: 600 lbs (272 kg)

Workout stations: Smith machine, power rack, dual high and low cable pulleys, dip station, pull-up station, and an adjustable bench

Warranty: 2 years

Estimated assembly time: 6–7 hours

Note: Before purchasing any heavy-duty fitness product, examine its dimensions to understand whether it’ll fit in the space you’ve designated for it.

The SM-4093 workout stations are the Smith machine, power rack, cable pulley system, pull-up-bar, dip bar, and adjustable weight bench.

Here’s everything you need to know.

1. Smith Machine

Your average powerlifter might not be the biggest fan of even a highly-rated Smith machine; however, they’re an excellent option when used the right way (especially if you’re training alone).

The best feature of the SM-4093’s Smith machine is the smoothness of its glide. At no point did clients feel any weird sticking points or friction, which allowed them to crank out their reps comfortably.

The Smith machine comes with a highly essential safety feature: evenly spread-out steel lockout points. This means that if you fail mid-rep, all you need to do is turn your wrist 30 degrees and re-rack at the nearest lock-out point.

Another thing to note is the barbell. The amount of knurling on the bar is enough to keep your hands from slipping out, especially when your palms are sweaty.

And while the weight limit on the bar is perfect for beginners and intermediate lifters (~300 lbs), we wouldn’t recommend lifting beyond that.

“I’ve found the smith machine to be one of the best ways to overload single arm Zercher squats in a safe and effective method.”

- Dr. Joel Seedman, PhD in Kinesiology

Exercises that you can do with a Marcy SM-4903 are squat variations, glute bridges, hip abductions, cable kickbacks, good mornings, deadlifts, and calf raises variations, among others.

For many of our clients, the SM-4903 was the only piece of home gym equipment they needed because it allowed for various upper-body and lower-body workouts.

Here are some of the many exercises you can perform with the Marcy Pro, making it a good addition to your home gym:

• Quads: Multiple squat variations like the back squat, front squat, and hack squat. Other quad burners include lunges, standing leg extensions, and step-ups.
• Glutes: Kneeling squats, glute bridges, hip thrusts, hip abductions, and cable kickbacks.
• Hamstrings: Good mornings, stiff-leg deadlifts, and Romanian deadlifts.
• Calves: Calf exercise variations like seated, standing, and reverse calf raises.
• Traps: Deadlifts, rack pulls, shrugs, and high rows.
• Chest: Multiple chest workouts like incline press, decline press, flat press, and reverse-grip press; dips and dumbbell flys.
• Lats: Pull-ups, chin-ups, lat pulldowns, lat pushdowns, cable rows, barbell rows, and dumbbell rows.
• Abs: Hanging leg raises, hanging knee raises, sit-ups, cable crunches, cable wood chops, and side bends.
• Shoulders: Standing overhead press, seated shoulder press, behind the neck press, upright rows, lateral raises, face pulls, and rear delt flys.
• Triceps: Close-grip bench presses, skull crushers, overhead extensions, tricep pushdowns, and tricep kickbacks.
• Biceps: Multiple curl variations like standing cable curls, overhead cable curls, dumbbell curls, hammer curls, and reverse curls.

As you can see, the Marcy Pro allows you to target the entire body. Many clients seemed happy about the fact that they could get a full-body workout from just one machine in the home gym.

Sample Fully-body Workout Plans

Here are three full-body workout plans you can execute with the Marcy SM4903.

Full-Body Workout 1

• Back squat: 3 sets of 8–10 reps
• Hip thrusts: 3 sets of 10–12 reps
• Romanian deadlifts:  3 sets of 8–10 reps
• Seated calf raises: 3 sets of 12–15 reps
• Shrugs: 3 sets of 10–12 reps
• Flat bench press: 3 sets of 8–10 reps
• Pull-ups: 3 sets to failure (or assisted pull-ups)
• Cable crunches: 3 sets of 12–15 reps
• Seated shoulder press: 3 sets of 8–10 reps
• Tricep pushdowns: 3 sets of 10–12 reps
• Dumbbell curls: 3 sets of 10–12 reps

Full-Body Workout 2

• Front squat: 3 sets of 8 reps
• Kneeling squats: 3 sets of 10 reps
• Good mornings: 3 sets of 10 reps
• Standing calf raises: 3 sets of 12 reps
• High rows: 3 sets of 10 reps
• Incline press: 3 sets of 8 reps
• Lat pulldowns: 3 sets of 10 reps
• Hanging leg raises: 3 sets of 10 reps
• Lateral Raises: 3 sets of 12 reps
• Overhead extensions: 3 sets of 10 reps
• Hammer curls: 3 sets of 12 reps

Full-Body Workout 3

• Hack squat: 3 sets of 8 reps
• Cable kickbacks: 3 sets of 12 reps (each leg)
• Stiff-leg deadlifts: 3 sets of 8 reps
• Reverse calf raises: 3 sets of 15 reps
• Deadlifts: 3 sets of 6–8 reps
• Decline press: 3 sets of 8 reps
• Barbell rows: 3 sets of 10 reps
• Sit-ups: 3 sets of 15 reps
• Standing overhead press: 3 sets of 8 reps
• Skull crushers: 3 sets of 10 reps
  Standing Cable Curls: 3 sets of 10 reps

Yes, the Marcy Pro SM-4903 is missing a few features.

Although these didn’t affect the quality of experience for clients who used the machine, many users agreed that this Smith machine would’ve been perfect if not for the following:

• It doesn’t come with any weights (you need to buy them separately).
• The SM-4093 has a user height limit. Users above 6’3” couldn’t comfortably use the machine for squats.
• The bench lacks a leg developer for leg extensions and hamstring curls.

We also had some clients who were skeptical of the Marcy Pro because they felt the stability of the Smith machine wouldn’t be optimal for their strength-training.

However, when used correctly, a Smith machine can give you the same level of resistance training as a free weight rack [3].

“[The Smith Machine] allows for you to attempt heavy lifts without a spotter and keeps the barbell on a guided path — which is a disadvantage for some lifts but a plus for others.”

- Anthony O'Reilly, Certified Nutrition Coach

Based on various online reviews, here’s what customers had to say about the Marcy Pro.

This is an awesome piece of equipment there is so much you can do squats, pull ups, cable crossovers, bench press, dead lifts.....etc and so much more I strongly recommend this product to anyone who is looking to buy a Smith machine. For the house this product is affordable and is also a great size.

- Peter L. from USA

Machine is great — very sturdy and does exactly what it’s supposed to do. The only thing which I guess there’s not getting around is the bench. The bench is great for everything except for flat chest press. The wedge in the seat is huge, and I have to fill it in with a towel.

- Joshua Jordan from USA

The maximum height you can set the squat rack bars is 52”, which is perfect if you are 5 ft 5”. Essentially, anyone taller either must start their squat at 3/4 or drill new holes in the rack to accommodate raising the squat rack mounts — huge oversight by the manufacturer. If you’re handy with tools, a metal 11/16” step bit can be used to modify (drill more hopes) for average-height men. I’m 5 ft 10”, and without modifications, this squat rack would have been terrible.”

- Kris K. from USA