Easy lovers. Phil Collins cautioned you about them almost 30
years ago, knowing that many people are drawn to what’s fast, easy, convenient.
Rarely is that what’s best for you.
You’re hungry and pressed for time and grab some fast food.
It’s easy, but is it good for you? Cramming to finish that high school book
report and you resort to your Encyclopedia Brittanica or Cliff Notes. And you squeak
by with a passing grade. But did you get the maximum benefit out of the
assignment? Want your ribs slow-cooked
in the oven or crock pot or nuked in the microwave? Quality and your best
results don’t come quick and easy.
You know what’s quick
and easy at the gym? Machines. When I meet with a new member, especially one
with limited weight training experience, they often want me to introduce them
to the machines. They have the wrong guy. Some machine work is fine as a supplement
to your program. However, they’re vastly overused because of their
simplicity (and availability). Sit down, adjust the weight and have at it. Little instruction is
needed because with most machines there are no variables; you will push or pull
the weight in the one plane of motion that the machine allows. Everything is
guided for you. This is not a good thing. Not a real-life application of
strength. If you’re on a machine, you’re probably sitting down with your back
supported and your core and stabilizer muscles completely inactive. There’s no
challenge to your balance, a necessary
but overlooked component of training. For
those reasons, there’s very little carryover to everyday activity and even less
to athletic performance.
Quick example: Let’s take the popular hamstring curl machine,
whether it’s seated or lying. Your heels are behind the roller and you’re pulling
the weight up to your butt. Yes, this will create a nice contraction of the
hamstring. But it does so in a purely isolated fashion. Your hips are
stationary and completely taken out of the movement. As you walk, run, jump,
squat, your hamstrings – or any muscle - NEVER will work in isolation. There
will always be integration with simulataneous hip flexion and hip extension. A
coordinated movement. You want to be coordinated or uncoordinated?
Bodybuilders’ routines consist of a lot of machines and isolated
movements, which undeniably will improve strength and build muscle. But how
many bodybuilders look stiff and uncoordinated?
How many of them are truly athletic enough to excel in a challenge like
an obstacle course or even look natural running up and down the court in a game
of pick-up basketball? That’s because
their muscles have been trained in isolation. There’s no fluidity to their
movements. A much better exercise for the purpose of integration and training
natural body movement would be a hamstring curl on a Stability Ball where the
hamstrings, hips and glutes are working in synchronized fashion. Deadlifts (if
a client can demonstrate adequate hip flexion and extension) are another.
This is not to say that you won’t see me or my clients on
machines. Machines do have a place in a training regimen, although they
shouldn’t comprise more than a third of your routine. Natural movements using bodyweight,
free weights, bands and medicine balls should make up the bulk of your routine.
Understand, there’s a difference, in my eyes, between a big guy and a fit guy. But
if I want to bring out a client’s teardrop muscle, the vastus medialis, of the quad (right above the knee), heck yeah, I
will put them on a leg extension machine. I use the leg press with clients
regularly to build quads and load the glutes. Lat pulldowns are a great
exercise. My oft-stated training philosophy is: feel better, move better, look
better – in that order! I use machines more often in the look better phase.
You want your body to be a fit, functional, fat-burning
MACHINE? Then get off the machines and incorporate more multi-joint,
multi-planar movements, the essence of functional training. Get off the seat,
get on your feet and think integration
before isolation. You think you’ll get fit with the bulk of your routine sitting
on machines? As Phil sang, “you better forget it. You’ll never get it.”
SPREADING THE HEALTH!!!
ROBERT HADDOCKS , CPT (National Academy of Sports Medicine
and National Strength and Conditioning Association) and CSCS (NSCA).
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