The philosophy of gym training

[smallstar]

Cheers,

Is this true: "Each gym machine has its intended muscle. If, when training with that machine, you are doing the most of the work with that muscle, you are doing right. If not, you are most probably doing something wrong."

The point is, I've had a few "personal training programmes" made for me, but no-one ever has mentioned this simple thing until I came up with that myself after a random chat with an instructor. I feel so stupid now. Maybe we need more philosophy at the gym?

Have a day, SS

[Amit_S]

Hmm...yeah I guess you are right. Machines are made for exercising individual bodyparts.
Arnold had a similar line of thinking - he always wanted to isolate and innervate a muscle as much as possible.

But here's my 2 cents:
Why would you want to isolate?
I don't like isolation exercises too much. They do have their uses for bringing up lagging bodyparts for people with asymmetrical development, rehab, prehab and for bodybuilders.
But for regular people who don't have glaring asymmetries, who don't have the desire to be pro athletes it would be much better to stick to exercises which don't isolate but rather integrate. Use exercises which would involve as many muscles as possible.

Meaning you could do leg extensions and as you said try to feel it only in you quads, but doing squats will be a better investment. (and you'll feel it in your calves, quads, hams, glutes, lower back ,abs) And of course- even better would be car pushing or pulling/pushing a sled. You'll feel car pushing in your entire body from the tips of your fingers to your feet. Also car pushing is not as technically demanding as squatting.

[Matthew Shea]

That's especially true for strength training machines. Each machine should actually tell you which specific muscles it's working. The better ones have a diagram to show you graphically what parts of your body are being worked.

That's less true for aerobic machines, though. There's always certain muscles that get worked more than others, but most aerobic machines work several groups at once, typically focusing mostly from the waist down. Some machines get the arms and chest involved, too.

[bluskygirl]

One thing that I learned in my weight lifting journey is that isolating muscles can be effective, but only if you're properly working all the muscles in that group at the same rate. For instance with the shoulder:

You might have a couple different machines that you work on to target two different muscles. At some point they will grow ahead and become more powerful than some of the other muscles in the shoulder that have not received attention. At that point the body will stop or slow down muscle growth on the muscles you are working because it realizes it's out of balance. Having a weak muscle in the midst of a couple well-worked ones will eventually cause injury.

Instead of working on machines that isolate muscles, I now do only core lifting. Core lifting essentially forces the body to use an entire group of muscles together which allows them to grow together and that ultimately leads to healthy development. When I switched to core-type lifting (i.e. pull-ups instead of 5 different machines to target all those muscles) I noticed a huge difference in my muscle growth.

[SmellyOrc]

Isolation exercises should only be used to give lacking bodyparts some work. That is, if you have a sticking point in one of the compound exercises, and you know which muscle group is lacking the strength to complete the rep, THEN, and only THEN, should isolation exercises be used.

A body molded with isolation exercises looks like a collection of bodyparts

Wise words.

And besides, isolation is a myth. Look it up.
And besides², isolation exercises don't nearly build as much strength and mass as compound exercises
And besides³, gym machines suck.

[andrew]

I agree, compound exercises are much better.

[smallstar]

Cheers,

"You should always do at least one aerobic work-out for each heavy-weight work-out." Well, this is what the instructors did point out.

If not that effective, why are gym machines so popular then? At least I find them easy to use, and myself less prone to injury (since I really suck at coordination. )

-SS

[Amit_S]

As to why the machines are popular- well....
1.Hype: The majority of the people out there are looking for secrets, quick fixes rather than plain old hard work and discipline.
2.Bodybuilding:
i. People look at bodybuilders as having the so called ultimate physiques. So most people look at bodybuilding mags to follow their routines- cause its the 'in' thing. However professional bodybuilders really don't concentrate on strength/fitness or health. For most of the pros- strength/fitness is a by product, a side effect of training for size.
All the muscle which bodybuilders have is not contractile protien which is what you need for strength but filled with a fluid call sacroplasm...lets just say its a filler which makes your muscles look big, like a balloon filled with water.
Because their main focus is simply size, i guess most of them concentrate on machines cause it helps them focus on a bodypart at a time.
ii. Bodybuilders are professional athletes whose entire life revolves around their sport, like any other athlete. They have the time, money and motivation to follow their complex exercise routines consisting of compound exercises followed by isolation exercises. They are also the most disciplined athletes on earth...this sport is more of a lifestyle choice than simply a sport.
The question is do you have all that time? If you are pressed for time, then it would be better for you to do the stuff which gives you max returns and min investments.

1 last thing: if you really like doing machine work- then stick to it. Chances are since you enjoy it, you'll work harder on the machine and be more disciplined and persistent. If you do something which is 'better' but you hate it, you really aren't going to stick to that for long.

Aerobics: I really don't understand the logic behind that. I have never been a big proponent of aerobics myself. As it is then make me sick (common cold, runny nose) , make me systemically fatigued- so I avoid them.
I prefer aerobics with a muscular output component. E.g.- high rep calisthenics like squats, push ups or high intensity interval training like the Tabata Protocol.

[smallstar]

Cheers,

Thanks for the insight. I'm actually currently doing weight training because I want to see some apparent results and improvement happen. Sorry for not being precise, for me "aerobic workout" can mean anything from swimming to fencing to actual aerobics.

-SS

[SmellyOrc]

Amit_S hit the nail right on the head with the saying that people want a quick fix.
Thing is, machines are EASY. It's not hard work. (Most) People don't want to work HARD to loose that fat, gain that lean muscle or get faster, or whatever. They want it the easy way. Machines deliver an easy way to exercise. Even when it doesn't produce results, people will make up excuses and still continue using them.
Also, ignorance may play a good part in this.

[Buddy]

My question is why do we want to isolate muscles? The body is a holistic unit. Wouldn't it be better to work the body as a whole? Isn't whole body power more preferable than isolated power? I suppose if you are going for a "look" than you might want to isolate muscles, but for real strength and power, IMO best to exercise whole body power.