5 Reasons To Stop Using Machines

Unfortunately most people are using work outs and fitness facilities that are stuck in the 1980's. This is back in time when synthesizer pop music and mullets were "cool". Major corporate gym chains and even most mom and pop facilities are loaded with exercise machines, treadmills, ellipticals, bicycles and all sorts of other counter productive equipment. Throw that in with members who have no clue how to use the equipment, let alone know what muscle they are working when they do so and you have a recipe for fitness disaster. I am going to offer you five reasons to dump the synthesizer music, mullets and out of date fitness practices once and for all and encourage you to start training functionally.

1. Music With Synthesizers and Mullets Aren't Cool
Mullets and synthesizers were cool in the 1980's, along with exercise machines and traditional cardio equipment. If synthesizers and machines are no longer cool, then it is safe to say exercise machines are also no longer cool. You and I likely agree that synthesizers and mullets are no longer cool, therefore, logic tells me neither are exercise machines or traditional cardio equipment...Modus Ponens son! (those philosophy classes paid off!)

2. Machines Keep You Sitting
Let's see, you wake up in the morning and sit in your car as you commute to work. Then, when you get to work you plop down in your office chair and depressingly stare at a computer for eight to ten hours. After that you sit down and commute home, but make a quick stop at the gym to work out. Now, if you're doing the math at home you've probably spent eight to eleven hours sitting on your ass all day...why would you continue to do so when you're supposed to be getting some physical activity? Most machines keep you sitting down which reduces the amount of muscles needed to perform activity, thus reducing the amount of calories you burn in a session. Get off your ass and workout standing up!

3. Machines Perpetuate Muscle Imabalances
Using machines that keep you sitting have another HUGE draw back. You know the low back pain, knee pain and shoulder pain you feel on a daily basis even though your playing days are over (or never even started)? That's coming from all the sitting you do which causes weakening, lengthening and shortening of important postural muscles such as inactive glutes, lengthened back muscles, shortened chest muscles and weak trunk stabilizers. If you're someone who sits a lot, the time you spend in the gym should be on fixing these muscular imbalances. Sitting in a machine and pushing weight around in a seated position only makes these pains and distortions more prominent.

4. Machines Work In A Fixed Range Of Motion
The human body is a dynamic thing. Training on machines only takes away from this characteristic of the human body. Machines with a fixed range of motion take away the challenge of controlling and stabilizing the resistance when performing a lift. By training with free weights in a standing position, you activate more core muscles, more stabilizing assistor muscles and overall you do more work in a given lift than with machines. You can also freely adjust the movement with free weights to comfortably navigate your own individual biomechanics. This state cannot be achieved with exercise machines!

5. Traditional Cardio Machines Are Ineffective & Inaccurate
I know you're proud for having burned 800 calories on the elliptical, but I have a secret to tell you: the machines estimated calorie burn typically more than doubles what you ACTUALLY burned during your workout session. All of the sudden, burning 300 calories in an hour doesn't seem so productive and you're right. Just 20 minutes of rhythmic kettle bell work has been shown to burn up to 400 calories! That's 1,200 calories if you do it for an hour! Base your cardio training around interval based activities that require large muscle groups, high intensity, explosive work or anaerobic work.