Why you should use exercise machines if you don’t want to get injured
There are some serious flaws with dumbbell and barbell training especially if you have injuries.
When I started working in the fitness world, I always used to think…
Machines are “bad”
Machines are only good for beginners.
In order to gain muscle, you have to train with free weights (dumbbells and barbells).
And that is how virtually everyone in the industry thinks.
Then I came across Tom Purvis and Resistance Training Specialist (RTS) program and it blew my mind.
I loved it because the information cut through the “bro-science” and used physics and science to explain things.
You can’t argue with proven scientific facts!
This is going to get a bit technical but bear with me.
If you understand this, it will help you with your training for the rest of your life.
One principle that I learned was the concept of strength and resistance profiles of an exercise.
Something you must realize with weight training is that the weight (of the machine, dumbbell, barbell), in of itself, does not matter.
What matters is the weight multiplied by the distance to the joint you are targeting. This is called the torque.
A classic example to illustrate the effect of torque is a chest press versus a chest fly
With a chest fly the distance to the joint (the shoulder) almost doubles compared to a chest press. And so, for the same weight, the chest muscle has to work a lot harder.
You might think that is good, but it is not!
The problem is, the further away the weight is from the joint, the harder the joint has to work to stabilize it and allow the arm to move
This means more joint shear stress, more potential for wearing down the joint and possibly arthritis down the road.
The trouble with all dumbbell and barbell exercises is that as you go through the range of motion, the exercise gets harder and harder because the torque gets larger and larger.
Further to that, as you go through the range of motion, you also get weaker and weaker for the same reason.
So, it is going to be easier where you are stronger (i.e., not challenging at all).
And harder where you are weaker => potentially too challenging.
What is worse is that you will only know you selected the wrong weight when it gets too hard at the bottom of the lift.
In the case of a bench press that is when the bar is close or on your chest, you will have to get out of that position to stop the weight crushing you.
This encourages you to launch the weight back up with every muscle in your body with no control at all (= huge potential to injure something).
Another consequence of all this is that free-weights will only make you strong in one position.
With a bench press for example, it is only challenging for the chest in a more lengthened position.
But one of the most important parts of the muscle to strengthen is when it is fully shortened (that is where it is weakest).
The holy grail of an exercise is one where it provides a consistent challenge across the full range of motion.
This means that all lengths of the muscle are challenged according to the strength of the body in that position, joint stress is minimized, and you are less likely to cheat.
When you cheat (perhaps unknowingly) your workout is less efficient.
And in a world where everyone lacks time, efficiency is important!
This can only be achieved with a carefully designed machine.
Unfortunately, most machines are not designed with these considerations (most likely because of profit margins).
And that is perhaps why machines have a bad name because most of them are horribly designed.
That is why at the Body Engineers we have carefully selected machines that take the above into consideration.
We want what is best for our clients.
It is not about constructing a gym purely for profits, but a gym designed to engineer your best you.
If you want to know more, let me know by contacting us.