 When it comes to strength training, you have many options, most notably free weights and machines in today's episode. We're going to talk about the best machines or to be more clear, a machine only workout that you could do for your body, utilizing the machines that we deem to be the most effective. I like this. This is different. I mean, well, we all we all we're so negative about them usually. I'm trying to be nice on this. Well, you know, and I think it's important to explain that, right? Why I think because the benefits of free weights are just and barbell training is just is just far superior than training on machines, regardless of what you hear on the internet and the arguments that are there. And we've talked about that at length in other episodes. But I do think there's time where you're traveling or, hey, I've been training this way for a long time. This is a nice interruption. And so I think the idea of putting together a workout that one of us would do at a gym where we're not going to do any free weights, what would it look like? What machines would we choose? Why might we choose those machines? Yeah. And how would we put together a really good workout? If I had to do like a total body type workout, like what would that consist of? Like there's definitely a few machines I'd probably steer towards more so than others. Yeah. Now, ideally, and I know a lot of times that they're the question is posed as machines versus free weights. And we've had episodes like that. But the truth is a good, well-balanced routine, especially one that you follow for years and years and years. And hopefully that's the case, right? Hopefully you start a workout routine and you never stop. You always follow it. It shouldn't use both, right? Machines and free weights because using them both gives you the best of both of both worlds, ideally speaking. But there are times when you might want to just do machines. They tend to be faster, easier. Big box gyms will typically have these machines that we're going to talk about to be available. And they're just, they do feel different. There are pluses and minuses. A little less damaging, I would say a little bit. Yeah. So I've been now using primarily machines for the last maybe six weeks on purpose. I've never done a machine-only workout for any length or period of time. Typically when I do it, it's like what you said Adam when we're traveling. And I'm noticing a few different things. Of course, they require less stability and support than free weights do, which means that you're not going to gain the same stability and support type of gains or strength that you get from full weights. However, the other side of that is it's less damaging. I mean, when I do a press or a row or whatever with a machine versus it's free weight counterpart for the same reps, same intensity, right? Let's say I'm pushing them both really hard. It just damages the body less. Now that allows me the ability to train more often. I'm less likely to over-train. I could do more sets, add more volume. Of course, that means with free weights, I might be able to do less and get the same type of results, but it is, it does cause less damage. And so it feels different on the body, you know, going real hard on a machine overhead press just doesn't hammer you like a barbell overhead press and there's some value. Sometimes you're tired. Sometimes you're overstressed or sometimes you want to work out longer, which is what I'm doing right now. I'm going in and I'm trying to get more volume in and I can't get away with that, you know, with free weights. Yeah. I think we've always recognized that there's value, especially to if you're rehabbing and there's limitations with your function at the time. So you have to be mindful of certain, certain amounts of ranges of motion and, you know, your capacity with that and being supported in positions like in seed positions. And I think like that's where machines really shine in terms of helping you to still express your muscle contraction and get blood flow and still kind of that really does then aid and contribute towards rehabilitation and healing. So, you know, there's benefit with that. And then to the fatigue point, like you do get fatigued with free weights and then it becomes a little bit more risky because if you can't really brace and really control your body to its full degree, you know, that you kind of leave yourself open for injury sometimes. So I've actually trained for an extended period of time like this for a long time, way too long because I came from that camp of like feeling a muscle, right? That was like the best way to build or work a muscle was like how well could I target it and feel it and you know, there's one of the great things about machines is do a good job of targeting specific muscles. Oh, it's why bodybuilders like machines. Right. It's easy to isolate a muscle on machine because everything's supported. Yes. And so I definitely was in that camp for a long time. Now, the reason why I think we probably haven't done this episode and why we talk primarily towards like why everybody should be training and lifting free weights is because like all of us at one point had figured out like I've seen the difference and it's like a drastic difference of the gains that I got from training free weights in comparison to all the years of training on machines. And so I definitely way more a fan of teaching my clients freeway training, but there are places for training like this. So I'll still interrupt my freeway training with a day like this occasionally. And a lot of that time is when I'm either one felt like I've overreached and I've trained too much and so I'm kind of sore and so I want to go in there. I'm not trying to reduce intensity or if I've just been consistent with freeway training for a while and I hadn't done that or if I'm traveling like those tend to be the reasons why I would interrupt my normal training cycle now with this. Yeah. I think there's also a lot of value for the advanced lifter because the advanced lifter when you've been practicing with strength training for a long time you're able to activate more muscle fibers with a set than somebody who doesn't have that same experience. And so using a machine isolating a muscle group and then pushing the intensity you're going to get some good hypertrophy benefits. This is why what you'll notice with high level bodybuilders is they typically start with free weights. This is where they build the majority of their muscle and then they start to move more to machines as they become pros and get even bigger and larger. Like you know if you're a 270 pound bodybuilder you know doing a standing barbell overhead press you're going to exhaust yourself after five sets and it's going to be tough to finish the rest of your workout versus sitting in a shoulder press machine that puts it's the track is set you just push come up. You don't have to stabilize as much and balance as much on the body allows you to finish training the rest of your body. Now for for someone who's not a pro bodybuilder whatever is listening right now it's great to combine the two. So now you can look at higher volume workouts lower intensity higher intensity and you can start to piece these things together. This is why workout programming can sometimes be so complicated because all these factors come into play like a squat machine versus a barbell squat same volume same intensity same tension not the same effect on the body different considerations for what exercises you follow up with how many sets you do and so on like one of the big things I noticed with machines is I push the intensity harder and I feel okay like if I go to failure on a machine it does not feel like going to failure on free weights and this may be why sometimes we hear in social media these fitness influencers say you always have to train to failure. I wonder if it's because that's what they train primarily on and they notice that that intensity needs to be to be a factor for sure it could be and so and I'm finding myself pushing that intensity higher with machines than I would with free weights but the isolating part is a good one like if you sit on a machine and try to isolate your rear delt or try to isolate you know your triceps or you know your upper chest or you know mid chest or the mid back you're not worried about stabilizing controlling you're not worried about you know having to hold your body in particular way you are there you're set in that position in fact when I would train clients I would often use machines to teach a client to contract the muscle in a particular way move a particular way so that later we could we would have some of the strength to then be able to do the free weight version of that particular exercise. Now you talk about you know programming and why it can be very nuanced right but there are some rules that still apply regardless if we're talking about free weights or machines and one of those would be how you prioritize exercise selection right you know we started off with legs I do want to explain though to the consumer that's the general population that might follow this is that you know we or we prioritize them in big muscle groups right so most of your energy goes to like a leg a leg machine but if you were someone who had a specific body part that you were trying to develop that would take priority to put that first yeah so just keep generally speaking you would start right start with legs right and move through to the smaller muscle groups and you'll get better results this way now this is a full body workout and you could follow this workout two days a week and you could get away with this workout without developing muscle imbalance or anything for a good six weeks or so and you'll probably get some some decent results but you will want to mix this up at least after that period of time because it's the same exercises over and over there is no stability component and you may start to develop movement pattern issues. Today's giveaway is maps power lift to enter to win leave a comment below this video in the first 24 hours that we drop it subscribe to this channel and then turn on notifications if you win we'll let you know in the comments section also this month sale maps anabolic and maps anabolic advance are both 50% off if you're interested just click on the link at the top of the description below all right back to the show now the first exercise we said legs and this week we discussed a little bit about whether or not we would put a leg press here or a hack squat I think those are the two best lower body compound lift exercises that you could do that will produce guys kind of the biggest bang for your butt most muscle most strength most performance I think initially I thought of a leg press because you could really load it substantially but in you guys talked me out of it with the range of motion it's true get a superior range of motion with a hack squat so you can express that you know a little bit more effectively and really get that post here chain a little bit more I also thought that we you know we agreed on on machines that should be in pretty much every gym right because there's examples of like I mean I would love a belt squat machine right here oh yeah yeah I know but not easy to find no not easy to find at all I mean it's rare to see them in a gym but I mean it would be awesome but reverse hyper yeah the idea and really I think what we thought about was like man most everything in here would almost be in a hotel gym I mean yeah you know most of these exercises can be staple machine yeah they're staple machines in every major commercial gym and so as the listener that might be go oh man I would do this because you have some really cool machine at your gym that nobody else you know one thing I want to add before we continue in our time of working in gyms which has been a while now I've been and I've been working in gyms for two and a half decades we saw the emergence of plate loaded machines which didn't exist before before machines were selectorized meaning you move the pen and it was a weight stack and then all of a sudden hammer strength they were the first ones yeah to come out with a loaded hammer strength and they became very popular because now you think to yourself what's the difference if you add a plate to to a machine versus moving a weight stack well the difference was hammer strength tapped into how tension works throughout the body and it mimicked free weights more than machines in other words with a press or a row what you'll find is one portion of the rep will be easier than another portion of the rep versus most cable lead you know selectorized machinery if you put 75 pounds on the on the machine it's 75 pounds from the beginning to end whereas with a hammer strength or the plate loaded when now there's lots of plate loaded equipment what you'll find is it'll be loaded it'll feel the heaviest at the part you're the strongest and easiest at the part where you tend to be weakest because the the way that they design them with the angles and the leverage the free weight will get heaviest or opposed gravity most at the times when they're most opportune this actually makes plate loaded machines more effective in my opinion in many in many in many ways and we will talk about one particular plate loaded piece of equipment here but a hack squat I you know we think it's better than a leg press because the range of motion I mean do a leg press see how far you move the platform do a hack squat see how more how far you move the platform it's just a greater fuller range of motion and it more it's probably has a little bit more carry over into the everyday world because it's mimicking a squat whereas a leg presses you know I'm on my back pushing something away from me which you don't really get to might as well be in a recliner yeah just like throw some weights yeah I've seen I mean and have you guys are I've seen I've seen someone if you if you can hack squat really good way you're sometimes a decent squatter yes there's some carry over into even the barbell squat there I've seen people that could stack and load the entire leg press that can't squat 225 so that there's there's no stability in the war it is just they're always the biggest peacock it's that different I mean it's that different that you could get really strong with the leg press and yet still can't even squat 225 pounds you you start pushing three 400 pounds on a hack squat you're probably able to squat 225 barbell back squat so there's a lot more carry over I think to it too so I think that's just another example of why that why we chose a hack squat over leg press next would be a seated or lying hamstring curl now here's an exercise you can't really mimic very well yeah with three weights yep there really isn't a a leg curl I mean I guess you could do like a what's a no what's a Nordic curl yeah good luck doing that are really challenged unless you're really strong yeah a lot of skill involved you could do a physio ball leg curl yeah but you're not getting the same yeah well it's stability and both those are both those are great movements right not to knock them but one of the things that lying leg curls also keeps tension on the muscle the entire full range of motion to where you lose that with Nordic curls you you're at the top of the curl it's much easier the very end is extremely difficult and so finding a range where you can actually complete the rep and then actually still get a good workout all the way I'm curious so you guys more prone to doing the seated or the lying I personally prefer doing the lying hamstring curls you know what I I enjoy both I don't I don't I like the seated because the seated puts my hamstrings in a more of a stretch position at the end of the motion so I feel more lying to stretch yeah interesting I don't think it's a big difference although both of them are loading it a little bit differently but the main motion is the I think I think this the seated is easier to have better form the lying you people's hips tend to shoot up and come off of it and they also tend to move and flex their their feet and their ankles and so it ends up filling it in their calves or they let their hips rise off so it takes a little bit better or a little bit more technique to do the lying I think I feel like the seat is really easy to do but I'm with you I feel the stretched more in line I like both I mean I these are actually movements that even if I'm training mostly free weights I still will have this this is one of the few how do you work the leg so there's the hamstrings I mean there's there's there's a few heads of it but one part the leg bicep you really only work when you flex the knee like fully and you can't do that with freeway now deadlifts the flake of deadlifts remain deadlifts I mean you work the whole hamstring hinge but yeah but you're not getting that leg curl yeah you know that that which is why that still this is one of the few that actually still find its way into my free weight training total I'm still going to do this exercise next is the cable row another exercise that I would say if I was only doing free weights I would inject cable rows in there I like cable rows because you can load them there's still a stability component but you're not bending over holding a weight which requires a lot of stability like one of the drawbacks we could also make it a plus but I'll say one of the challenges of like a barbell row is you need to be able to stabilize and hold yourself back yeah while rowing the weight yeah with a cable row the positioning you're not fighting gravity you're still fighting the weight but it's even easier to stabilize yourself now what I love cable rows with clients because to get a client to depress right bring their shoulder blades down and back to get that nice open chest squeeze back position teaching them in a bent over position with the barbell row or two dumbbells is so hard it's like it naturally makes them want to roll the shoulders for it's valuable for anybody yeah even if they're like a beginner or not a beginner like just to learn how to combat a lot of the daily habits that we have of reaching for things in front of us sitting you know with their protracted shoulders to be able to get back in good posture and retract the shoulders and keep that chest high but then also reinforce that by strengthening it they feel an immediate difference in a good feeling of so this is maybe and I'm trying to rack my brain right now go like is was there a time that this isn't true but as far as I can remember this is true these the single most used exercise I'd ever done with every single client I don't think I've ever had a client I did not teach the room fact is the first back this is the first exercise I would do a lot of times just a moment it's such a teaching for my assessment yes cable for overall posture even before I go we talk so highly of like things like the barbell back squat if you're if your client doesn't know how to retract and depress their shoulders to even set the bar on their back yeah you want to be able to bench press yes yes so this is such an incredible movement that I would say if I had to go back and assess what exercise did I use the most out of all exercise in the gym I'd probably say the CD cable room yep like there was okay or how old you were okay what your goal was this was a staple movement that I either use to teach and get you going on it or there was a staple movement in your routine for trainers this is invaluable because what you do is you put your client position you have them sit upright and it's not hard for you of course get the permission from the client to place your hands on their shoulders and help them move in position and move and contract and get this nice full squeeze in the mid-back which they probably haven't felt for a long time it's try doing that with free weights you can and I've done it but it's really hard because now you're battling gravity you're fighting them trying to round their back and they have to learn how to hit on bracing properly yes yes well and it directly opposes what everybody is almost like everybody is challenged with I don't think I ever trained a client that didn't have some form or another of forward shoulder and forward head and so we just we do everything in front of us that that movement is so important to develop those muscles that bring the posture into that position that it was a go to it was a starting for everybody it was a staple exercise I kept and so that has to be in this now for just pure muscle building also up there this is also a great exercise for just general overall muscle building of the back now as far as handles are concerned there's a lot of different handles and people make arguments for each one the the traditional narrow handle I think is probably the easiest yeah for most people to use if you go real wide now you can get more upper back and rear delt now that stuff but just in general cable rows got to be one of the best ones agreed all right next up is a plate loaded chest press now I wrote plate loaded here instead of machine selectorized because when hammer strength is the first one to really do this but what you'll what you'll notice when you do these is first off the way the resistance feels as you press the weight up allows the weight to feel heaviest at the end where you're strongest lightest at the bottom where you're not a strong so follows this natural strength curve which we know through training with bands and chains makes a big difference also hammer strength was the first one that I know of at least you know in mainstream to change the angle of the press so that your hands are further apart at the beginning and they slowly come together at the top which is like if you're if you understand what the pecs do they bring the upper arm the humorous into centerline so rather than pressing straight out which a barbell fixes your hands right so you still get that motion but with a with a plate loaded because the hands come together you actually get a greater range of motion this actually makes it a pretty damn good exercise for the chest yeah now did you guys have a favorite as because what's kind of cool about these is they have you know the upright vertical press they have the incline version of it even have the flat least that the gym that I was out they had the the flat where you lay on your back yeah that's my favorite yeah I like the one really in your back yeah if you can get a hold of that one that's my that's the best I always see the incline the most I think yeah that's what I usually do that's probably my second favorite right so if I had an old pick if they if the gym had a lying on your back press then I would do that then the second one would probably be inclined now here's a here's a you know kind of a side note I like the sitting up plate loaded chest press for my elderly clients my clients with high blood pressure my clients had trouble laying on their back and for trainers watching this you know if you're watching this you don't work out you think what do you talk about you take a client in their fifties use out of shape or sixties use out of shape you have them lay on their back it's some of them came out of it so then they'll pass out yeah and sometimes they came to touch their head to the bench because they have such bad forward head and you'd have to put things underneath their head a sitting up chest press made it easier for me to get them in that motion of course the goal was to get them to be able to lay on their back at some point all right next up one exercise on the Smith machine I love that you had to put this in here I wouldn't have the bathroom and then somebody's yeah if you press if you go back if you go back far enough on the podcast you've heard me talk about that especially body building days when we would talk about the Smith machine and I know we would roast it a lot of times and I agree I admitted that I love I used to love doing it for shoulder press because I didn't need a spotter for it right it's like an exercise that I could really push the weight also made it great for strip sets or drop sets which I love to use it for too so I actually really liked the Smith machine for shoulder pressing which is I believe the original purpose of it it's been used for a million different things now because like everything else in the gym we get creative with it we make up exercises that you can do on it but was that the first I believe that it was yeah it was designed for upper body and I think primarily for shoulders was what it was originally for I have to look up the creator of it but I remember when I'd see people doing lower body movements on it I'd always comment on like that's not the the the intent the creator of it did not intend it to be for lower body exercises do you do it with the back supported incline where you bring it all the way to vertical when you're pressing yeah so I'll have like it well I mean I actually like just like just a slight yeah slight incline so it's way way higher than a chest incline but it's not quite fully 90 degrees right and then I can get that way I can bring the bar all the way right all the way down on my call this is why I like the Smith machine seated press it's most bodies can do it whereas machines sometimes if you're too tall too short doesn't work and it's a barbell so you can move your hands in and out again fitting most people and it's a nice full range of motion overhead press in fact the Smith machine seated press was how sometimes I would teach a client to be able to get full extension if I put them in a seat that supported their back and then had them press up and so this happens too with a lot of clients they don't get they can't get that full extension it can't get it all the way up then what I would do is I place my hands on the barbell I'd press it up for them and pull their hands up and then I'd see if I could let go and create a nice isometric contraction I remember clients like that and it was always a tell for me when I would see them go to press and they would lift their heel yes and you realize that like that's just a natural inclination is to get higher up your body just kind of comes up isn't that funny yeah by the way some Smith machines I'd say I'd say a good percentage of them now don't just move the bar straight up and down what you'll notice is there's a slight angle to the to the to the barbell this is actually beneficial when you're doing it overhead press when you press up with the barbell you bring the weight up and then you kind of bring it back over your head for nice straight position with a Smith machine that goes straight up and down if it goes in front of you it stays in front of you some of them many of them now actually have an angle to where it actually ends up directly above your head when you press it up so if you have the option get the one that has a slight angle most people didn't even notice but that would be the one that I would yeah again though this I mean the idea picking the Smith machine was knowing that every gym has even your hotels have a Smith machine because I mean you can make the case for like a Viking press I think is one of our favorite I wish you could but I mean again you don't you don't see so I know again there's going to be people that hear this and like oh man this shoulder I will get put an honorable mention if you're learning to do an upright row for your shoulders Smith machine is a great way to learn it because you're it's on a track and some people have a lot of trouble trying to figure out what to place their elbows and do an upright row Smith machine makes it a lot easier although the free weight version is I think superior next up for triceps this is much more common nowadays in fact I rarely ever see a normal gym that doesn't have this machine in the past it was actually quite rare in fact when I was a kid if I saw one of these I'd run to it it's a dip machine you actually see is quite a bit now where you sit in the chair you grab the handles behind you and you push them down I like it and they usually have like the plate load of ones where it gives you that support yeah you put your knees on it what do they call oh you're talking about oh you're talking about the gravatron gravatron or the knees supported one so I mean yeah I mean just because honestly like it dips it seems like it's a very simple exercise a lot of people have a hard time with the strength involved in a dip and so if that's your issue and you know a lot of our alternatives is like like taking a rubber band and kind of helping aid in that support but you know a good machine they have for that is is pretty helpful yeah in fact I would say that's the best version they have that a lot too that's a common that's a pretty common like different versions of that but basically the the gravatron or whatever that supports the knees when you do that that's the brand name by the way this is the actual machine yeah I know there's a bunch of different ones that they it's the one you just don't do the the leg extension version of that turn that into influencers exercise I mean part of why it it's up there for us too is it's it's it's like a compound movement for your triceps right so it's such a great as such a straight such a great movement and why would we not do kickbacks or overhead extensions or pushdowns like those are all isolation movements and you get so much more growth and gains from doing just you get good range of motion the shoulders yeah you get some nice functional development in dips in general are one of the best movements you could do for the upper body and most people can't or I'd say many people can't do a good full-body you know I body weight dip when I when I first started lifting I I'll never forget the first day getting our gym membership and my buddy took me over to a dip bar and I couldn't even do a single one dip I couldn't do I couldn't didn't have enough upper body strength to do it and so avoided it for a really long time it wasn't until coming back to it later on and realizing how much benefits come with the dip yeah all right next up would be a bicep exercise and this has got to be the easiest machine to find any gym because I think any gym will have it it's a preacher very popular a preacher curl machine for the biceps now preacher curl because I think it's easy to set you in position lock your elbows in place work the biceps I will say this every machine by the way has a a axis of rotation or a joint in the machine that you want to line your joint up with to make sure you're in the right position because your arms may be longer or shorter and with the joint of the machine then you'll find your wrist in hand doing weird things as you're trying to to curl the weight up I a preacher machine is actually another one of those exercises that even as I moved away from a lot of machine training it's still found its way regularly in my routine just because even though you can do a freeway preacher curl the tension is different yeah when you're on the machine you've got you got full tension the entire range of motion through the movement where when you're doing dumbbells you get that great dumbbells stretched position but then when you get the top of the preacher curl I mean you can sit there all day and and hold that in that position where when you're in the machine you've got that tension still there you can you're in a flex position so one of my favorite exercises to do now you'll notice we didn't put calf machines here because most people use calf machines anyway when they work calves and core because I don't know about you guys but have you guys ever used a good core machine it's always contract it's always hip flexor very yeah I've never found a good set you up for success no you know I find cables you could not only that but I also feel like your core because that you're your your core muscles the primary is to stabilize right the spine and support your posture it's such an important thing to learn how to do just your body like to be able to do that like to to fit in a machine just to to build abs so my abs look good is one thing but it's that that your core muscles through functional movements of just your I think is superior anyway so even if I was trying to I mean and you don't need anything you do like you do reverse curls laying on the ground or full ever sit up crunches have yet to use invent a machine that really no in fact I've used core machines and I can make them work my core well because I know how to make my core do the work I have never seen anybody go in one of those and and do it and not you know so they feel it once the flexor for teeth yeah and their abs feel tired from stabilizing but that's it alright so sets in reps you can do because these are machines you can go up to four five sets of each of these exercises and you want to keep your reps in that eight to 12 rep range although cycling through lower and higher reps is probably a good idea especially if you follow routine like this for longer than just a few weeks that being said the way I use it is is the way you just prescribed it though which is I'm going to I'm going to do 100% I mean I'm they're really low rep for machines yeah and it's not that you can't do it and it does have video there's plenty of science to support there's benefits to that it's just use it for that for this application the way we've explained how we all integrate and use machines this is like a day where I'm going in there and I'm doing 10 to 15 rep range and I'm going to do probably four to five sets of each one of these exercises look if you're a hard gainer if you have trouble building muscle gaining weight hard gainer guide it's totally free you can also find all of us on social media Justin is that on Instagram at mine pump Justin I'm on Instagram at mine pump DeStefano and Adam is on Instagram at mine pump Adam