Why machines are bad

Before you start reading this article, machines refers to all weights machines in the gym except for cable based machine such as seated row and lats pull down. Smith machine is considered fixed movement weights machine. All cardio machines such as treadmills and power riders are bad machines. This does not exclude certain models of stationary bike and row machines.

Why machines are popular.
Enter any commercial gyms and you will see many treadmills and machines. Why are machines so popular even if it’s not good for us? (Excluding bodybuilders) You can say it is because of money. 1 machine costs a few thousand dollars and the manufacturers do have a high margin for sales of machines. Slimming centers sell “weight loss” package for monetary gains too. This shows us that money talks! With successful marketing, any untrue claims can become real.

This does not help when lazy trainers just put their clients on machines so that they have an easier session - lesser things to teach as compared to free weights. That is why I will NEVER use machines with my clients.

Why cardio machine is bad!
Machine provides an unnatural environment to training which can actually increase the risk of injuries.

Take treadmill as an example. When we run, we are using our glut (butt) & hamstrings to push our body forward. What about a treadmill? The ground below moves. You will use a lot less hamstring and glut muscle when you use a treadmill because you just need some other muscles such as calves to creating that bouncing movement. This is 1 of the reasons for big calves for treadmill users. (Hence the myth of “jogging make my calves big”)

So what can happen when your body starts to get used to the function of jogging without using glut and hamstring? Your body may be programmed to use a treadmill. Sooner or later, you will find walking/running on normal road to be very weird!

There is risk in steady cardio. Read more at “Start HIIT today”.

Why weight machine is bad!
A lot of trainers will put their clients on weights machines to “condition” them for free weight later on. This is crap! The more you use a machine, the less conditioned you will be for free weight.

I will use chest press as an example. When we use a chest machine, our muscles are isolated to only pectoralis major (chest). You are program to do that movement with only isolated chest muscle. Consider the movement too. When you use a machine, you can only push according to the plane/angle by the machine. This is not applicable to your daily activities such as pushing the door etc.

I will use 1 real example from my client. One client of mine can chest press 50kg on the machine. I give this client a 35kg load on free weight. He can hardly balance the bar. His body is so adapted to the fixed plane and isolation from machines that his body is screwed. I have to spend more time to work on his stabilizing muscle to get him on free weights.

Regarding muscle imbalance, it can hurt our body too. I will not touch much on “muscle imbalance” because I will cover this in another article that’s coming soon.

One more bad point
Do you experience joint pains from resistance training? If you use machines for training, please stop using machines now. Due to the unatural movements, they will hurt your joints too.

What to look out for in a gym?
Easy. Look for a gym with all free weights/cable machines or a gym with a lot of these. If you just want to increase your network, you can just choose a gym with biggest crowd.

Conclusion
For a start for yourself or for me with my potential clients, stay away from machines. The kind of rehabilitation works that’s need to be done once your body is screwed is very time consuming. Stay away from machines and start on real training.