Women Beware: Weight Lifting Machines Are Holding You Back From A Better Body
Are you like the other 75% of gym goers who relies on weight lifting machines to give a great workout? Jumping from one machine to the next as if it is musical chairs, never thinking twice that your workout might be considered below par…
… Those machines that are spread all over the gym floor are not really there for a purpose. Yes, you read that right… they are there as space fillers. To take up room and make a facility look bigger and better than its competition down the street.
The sad thing is that a large majority of gym goers depend on these machines for resistance training with the idea that they will build great muscles and see wonderful results.
The truth of the matter is that using the machines really don’t begin to compare to the workout and the results you could be getting from lifting real weights.
I am not sure if it is fear or laziness, but for whatever reason people love those darn machines. They take a lot of the thought process out of workouts and gives its followers the satisfaction of believing they just had a great workout….
The problem is it a false satisfaction. You aren’t really pushing yourself and you will wind up disappointed from the lack of results you see in the mirror or on the scale.
Enough is enough. It is time to reveal the 4 reasons why these “miracle” machines just aren’t your answer to getting lean and ripped.
But only read these if you are ready to see the light and change your ways to get real results…
1. Fixed path of motion. Each of the machines run on a fixed motion. You head to the bicep curl machine and the only option you have is to curl up in one set pattern. The angle never changes with the reps.
With a fixed range of motion, you have no choice but to move a certain way. Often you are not moving in a path that is functional in real life and athletics. You are failing to use stabalizer muscles, and your joints can’t get a complete workouts because they are stuck in one direction.
Back to the bicep exam, the bicep has 2 attachments (bi = two heads) and that means to give the entire muscle a workout, it should be hit from different angles. There seem to be more variations of bicep curls than there are flavors of ice cream:
Hammer curl, preach curls, incline curls, barbell curls, and the reverse bicep curl to name a few….
Get the picture?
2. Too Goldie Locks. Of couse you can adjust the machines for your height and body size but let me just tell you… normally it isn’t just right.
Women have a harder time with this, it seems as if most of the machines were designed by men with men in mind. For petite ladies, even the smallest setting may not fit… leading to trouble.
Without proper positioning your form will suffer, your exercise suffers and what is even worse… you risk putting strain on joints and muscles that you shouldn’t have to worry about.
3. Targeted muscles. Machines are made to isolate one (or a few) muscle(s) instead of hitting multiple muscle groups that you could get from weight training with free weights.
That means it is likely to take working out on every machine for you to hit every muscle group!
Just for perspective… it would take 4 machine exercises to cover everything that doing squats hits.
Also muscles are not getting the benefit of having their assistant movers and stabilizers working with them. These stabilizers are getting shafted leaving you weaker and short on results.
4. Lack of attention. Why do you have to pay attention when using a machine that does everything for you?
If you are sitting on the leg curl machine and chatting away with your gym friends during a set then you aren’t pushing yourself hard enough. This is so easy to do when playing on machines.
Plus, many people don’t take their workouts seriously enough. They jump on these machines just so they can say they weight train…
But not paying attention to each and every rep and just rushing through will have you making to great body gains. And you end up frustrated and confused.
Really push yourself, no matter what type of exercise you are partaking in. That is… if you want to see your body transform.
The bottom line is this: free weights lead to real results and machines will have you frustrated and depressed.. Don’t hold yourself back by relying on these for your training. Work on getting serious and getting feminine ripped.
Taylor Ryan is a NASM certified personal trainer and figure competitor. As the head trainer of TheArtOfWeightLifting.com she is passionate about teaching people to forget the fads and learn what really works to get lasting amazing results. For more from Taylor, check out www.fitness-analyzer.com and www.totaltonedwomensclub.com/blog.
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