HELPING ASHEVILLE LIVE LONGER STRONGER SINCE 1994
HELPING ASHEVILLE LIVE LONGER STRONGER SINCE 1994
Proper strength training requires at least nine different factors: full-range resistance, automatically-variable resistance, balanced resistance, both positive and negative resistance, direct resistance, resistance in both the fully stretched and fully contracted positions and unlimited speed of movement. Barbells provide only three of those requirements, while a PROPERLY-DESIGNED exercise machine can provide them all! Most CURRENT exercise machines do not provide the ability to “fine tune” the resistance to an equal degree, so a barbell is better in that sense; most exercise machines provide the capability of increasing the resistance only in increments of at least 20 foot-pounds, four times the minimum change provided by a barbell, far too big a change to permit the increases in resistance that are actually needed. MedX exercise machines, however, have solved that problem once and for all time; with this line of machines you can adjust the resistance in increments of only two foot-pounds, which is the same thing as adding only one pound to the weight of a barbell, so you can adjust the resistance to the next level that is required by anybody from the weakest to the strongest person. MedX machines provide both isolated and compound exercises, while barbells provide primarily compound movements, since most truly isolated exercises cannot be performed properly with a barbell or a dumbbell.
Are free weights natural movements? Not to the least. If you want to get natural then go lift some sticks and tie a few rocks to them. I can assure you that a Ferrari will get you to your destination much faster than a horse and buggy. Just what are the “advantages” of free weights? If you are not involved in competitive weightlifting, the only advantage of free weights is cost. But if you are involved in competitive weightlifting, then you must use free weights in order to develop the skills required for that activity. A barbell limits the path of the resistance to a much greater degree than a machine does. While performing a bench press, for example, the use of a barbell requires you to follow a very narrow path while lifting the weight; if you deviate from this narrow path you will lose control of the weight and drop it. Whereas, with a machine, you are provided with the capability of following any one of a great number of possible paths while lifting the weight, without the risk of dropping the weight. Some trainers will try to tell you, the requirement to balance a barbell so exactly during a bench press is supposedly some sort of an advantage because it serves to develop the stabilizer muscles that are required to perform this balancing act. Simply BS! There are no such muscles as stabilizer muscles . Stability is a neurological adaptation, not a muscular one. In fact, the most likely result is an injury to the so-called stabilizer muscles.