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What Exercise Machines are Lacking

What Exercise Machines are Lacking

Ever walk into a gym and feel overwhelmed by all of the exercise machines? It’s tough to know which ones to use and how to use them without proper demonstration. Clients who are new to exercise can benefit from using machines because they are safer, easy to use, and can give you a full workout with the variety of machines you find in a gym today. Plus, it takes out the guesswork in figuring out what exercises you can do for the day.  You can easily show up, go from machine to machine for an hour and call it a day, right? Well, there’s something you need to know!

exercise-machines-cables
Exercise Machines

The secret is: Personal Trainers are taught to teach clients exercises that do not require machines! Why?  Because machines are not the best use of your time if you want to see real long-term results. Although they are effective for beginners, machines offer artificial support and typically work in one plane of motion.  My role as a Personal Trainer is to get clients using free weights or body weight for their exercises.  The reason is that free weights allow individuals to perform exercises in ALL planes of motion, and increase the demands on a person’s stability.  Free weights can allow for more complex exercises and even synergistic moves that a machine could not do.  The added bonus: Complex exercises with free weightsburn more calories than a seated machine exercise.  

Next time you work out, try using barbells or dumbbells to perform the same exercises that you would with a machine.

For example, Barbell Deadlifts using a barbell instead of a machine.

Keep in mind that cable machines are still important.  They help individuals to develop stability, power, and strength.  If you work out from home, you may use resistance bands as an inexpensive alternative to cable machines. 

Need help learning free weight exercises? Try Kelly’s Personal Training!

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