The Pro’s of Machine Exercises

Safety first

You don’t need to worry about balancing a bar or dropping a dumbbell on your foot.  Just get into the machine and push or pull;  the machine moves in only the direction it’s built to go.  Also, machines allow you to train without a spotter. Ever get stuck under a barbell on the decline press or have trouble getting the bar from behind your head on the shoulder press? Machines effectively eliminate the need for a spotter in most cases, so there’s less risk of getting stuck under a heavyweight.

Quicker pace

Exercise set up typically requires you to pull and replace a pin, and change a plate or two at most. By comparison, loading and unloading Barbells and swapping dumbbells poundage can be a cumbersome affair. Machine training facilitates faster workouts and can help you increase your training intensity.

Perfect for beginners

Biomechanics of the movement are predetermined machine pretty much dictates your body position and you move the weight in only one plane. That’s helpful if you’re a bit uncoordinated, which beginners typically are. You also don’t need to worry about balancing a weightt. But starting out on machines, you condition the muscular and nervous system before moving onto free weights.

Injury avoidance

By restricting motion, machines generally take the stress off a joint, which helps in the rehabilitation of many injuries. Also removes the need to get the barbell or dumbbells in position, which can sometimes aggravate injury more than the exercise.

Constant tension

With machines, their’s never a point where the tension is removed from a muscle as you experience with free weights, for example, the top position of the machine preacher curl or a pec dec flye loads just as much resistance as any other part of the move.

Here are a few links of machine moves you can perform as a part of your routine.

1. https://feelfitastic.com/video/overhand-grip-machine-chest-press
2. https://feelfitastic.com/video/standard-smith-machine-squat
3. https://feelfitastic.com/video/horizontal-machine-leg-press
4. https://feelfitastic.com/video/triangle-bar-seated-cable-low-row
5. https://feelfitastic.com/video/parallel-grip-machine-shoulder-press