Why so many machines ? I was recently watching a beginner use a lateral raise machine, a seated lateral raise machine, as he placed himself in a fairly unnatural position, the upper arms were placed against a soft cushion, and the dilattante continued to push against the resistance in a fixed path of movement. As a veteran who was forced to retire from my playing field due to life lessons from my younger days, now, I spend most of my time observing, without interfering. While there were times when I'd correct training forms of the people around me while working out in my old gym, now an intrinsic sense of nihilism has got hold of a part of my mind.
Raw iron lifted in natural patterns that are inherent and unique to your body is the fundamental way to build muscle mass and bolster the supporting structures. What will happen when you replace a movement that's necessary to build your medial delts with a softcore machine that has been built for a standard size ? Quite simply, you won't build the foundation you need as a beginner.
So lets ask the more interesting question now. Why ? Why do the ways of lifting keep evolving, why do we keep replacing exercises that withstood time with machines. Am I against machines ? Absolutely not, the lat pulldowns, the leg presses, cable rowing machines, these date back decades and have been proved very useful, and indeed there should be continuous research and development to provide us with intel to level up. But do we need a machine for everything ?
So i need you to think a little bit, the machines, someone has to put them there right ? Where did these machines originate from ? Who makes these ? Who benefits from the sale and the presence of these machines ? .......... Businesses. And not all businesses, really care about the physique you build.
Who profits from selling machines you don't really need. Businesses. Who profits from useless home workout stations ? Businesses. Look at the diversity of supplements. There has also been an influx of everyday lifters using roids, people who are nowhere near a professional career, there are websites marketing the positivity of consuming Dbol for general health and fitness.
That's what our world has come to today.
Some businesses will do anything to mint money. A business is typically a model that provides a solution to a problem, but we have a new problem, we are getting solutions to problems that don't exist !
And what happens to a newbie who walks into a gym and witnesses machines pervading most part of the complex. They are simply misled. This increases the obstacles an amateur comes across when putting themselves on the right track to training. Back in 2010 when I first stepped into my school gym, I didn't know anything, but atleast I didn't have an additional hurdle of figuring out if I really needed a hoard of machines instead of free weights to build my physique ! Most of the people have limited time working on a physique, so when you make a sub optimal decision, you will be having a greater opportunity cost !
We as humans, our race doesn't know when to stop. Evolution in technology and sophisticated business models have improved our standards of living, but we need to learn how to preserve certain classics.
So what do you have to take out of this ? Yes machines, are indeed useful, even that pretty much useless lateral raise machine which I mentioned at the beginning would deem useful to an advanced athlete working towards a specific purpose. But most of you aren't having advanced physiques ! So stick to the good old basics, the adjustable benches, the barbells, the dumbells ( i never have used kettlebells, something about it seems a bit off to me haha). the cable cross over stands, the lat pull downs, the leg presses, curls, basically the simple machines you find at a gym, these are probably all you need to build an impressive physique, atleast that was all I needed.
Profusion Fitness
Pasindu Liyanage
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