Firstly, let's have a look at a typical gym. There is usually several bench presses, one or two squat racks, an oly lifting platform (if you're lucky), and the rest is probably machines. Machines that target your biceps, or your triceps, or your anterior deltoids, or your hamstrings. Sounds great right? No body part is missing out... What people fail to realize is that technology doesn't equate to superior training. Just because there is a new machine which targets your shoulders, doesn't mean that it's better than the good ol' fashioned standing military press.
Why the hate for machines?
Consider training with a dumbbell. You have to control the weight forwards/backwards and side-to-side. What about training with a BB? Side to side movement is eliminated, limiting the degree of freedom. And what about machines? you are restricted to ONE plane of movement and your stabilizers get no workout because the machine is doing their job. Strength is a function of the joint angle being tested so strength will not be applicable outside this ROM. In fact, in a real life situation, your CNS will halt muscular action if it realizes the stabilizing muscles are lacking strength. This is why a big vertical bench press on the machine, has little carry-over effect to bench pressing with DB's or BB's, or why squatting on the smith machine is completely different to squatting in the rack.
While you may think machines are for beginners, and the safer option, THINK AGAIN!
'The novice must be taught from a base of mobility to progress from stability' - Verkhoshansky, Siff. While it is encouraged to begin with resistance machines you need to ask why? Is it so you can get stronger before you use free weights? If so, this is nonsense. Wouldn't it be safer to train with free weights when you are weakest, rather than learning a new motor skill with a heavier load. That sounds like a much higher potential for injury!
Intermuscular co-ordination is the process where multiple muscle groups work together to carry out a movement (ie - a Squat). Exercises which isolate a specific muscle groups are going against the natural way your body performs - as a kinetic chain. They lead to inappropriate muscle recruitment patterns which are detrimental to athletic performance, and can even lead to injury. Safety in the gym has cost you injury where it counts - in your sport!
Though entirely fictional, the training montage in Rocky is a good illustration of how training effectiveness has little association with technology. Whenever this scene would come up in conversation, it would always sounds something like "Drago had this superior, high-tech training while Rocky was training in the woods". All you have to do is look at the fight result to see whose training was superior. It was Rocky's training in the woods! Staying up to date with the fitness industry isn't always advantageous. In fact, some of the best training modalities were created years ago. The next time you are doing bicep curls on a machine, or leg extensions like Drago, just remember he lost.
