BG-8: Machines vs Free Weights: Which One Is Best For You pt 3.1

Exercise progression and consistency are the keys to success in the gym, which carries over to success in our day-to-day activities and in our weight loss and strength gain efforts.

Over the last few blog posts I touched on the concept of exercise progressions.  Although I didn’t call it that, and I skipped over some of the finer-and-in-between points, you saw how seated exercise machines can limit you.  My attempt was to show you how, not only do they limit you, but they actually move you backwards as opposed to progressing you forward.

In my experience, as both a physical therapist and as a fitness trainer, my goal, and the goals of my clients and patients, have always been to be able to function better by using exercise progressions – to be able to go from lying down to sitting up, then from sitting up to standing, from standing to walking, and then from walking to running.

On one end of the health and fitness spectrum there is some kind of dysfunction, difficulty in functioning or having a low ability to function – for whatever reason – which is where aches, pains, injuries and surgeries tend to hang out. On the other end of the spectrum are the high functioning, elite and professional athletes – the ones that move so well, in every direction and with so much energy that they make it look effortless. You can’t get to that point if most of your exercise time is spent in a seated position.

I talked about the seated exercise machines and the cable pulley systems.  These two ways of exercise, I believe, are the 2 most central ways on the exercise spectrum.  On the lowest end of the exercise spectrum, beyond the seated machines, are mat tables and thera-band, that you could use while lying down, while on the other end are the dumbbells, kettlebells and weighted plates that you could use while walking, running, jumping, changing directions and so on and so on.

In closing this series out, I want to point out that the most important thing to success in the gym is starting out where YOU are and gradually progressing to where it is you want to be.  And Im not saying that you won’t have setbacks.  What I am saying is once you “get to where it is that you want to be, fight with all you’ve got -thru consistent efforts – to stay there.  Don’t sell yourself short or miss out on some of the benefits of exercise, by going to the gym and sitting down if you don’t need to be.  If you walk into the gym, under your own power, skip the seated exercise machines and improve your ability to function, faster, by doing more exercises standing up, whenever possible.

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