PLANET FITNESS QUINCY NEWS FULL
"Any machine that moves a muscle to its full range, with an appropriate strength curve, with appropriate resistance, is the best possible way to condition that muscle, to make it stronger," he said. Similarly, he said, the shoulder machine and the ab machine should not be spurned. Nothing does that better in a progressive way, where you can add a little bit of resistance as you become stronger." "It puts it through the full range of motion, hopefully with the appropriate strength curve. Take the back machine that my gym did away with: "The lower back machine is the best possible exercise for strengthening the lower-back muscles," he said. Machines target major muscles in ways that strengthen them for all movements, Westcott argues. You don't need the saber saw.' Brad Schoenfeld, PhD It found the program effective at keeping the weight off and protecting the subjects' muscle mass from the shrinkage a diet typically causes.Įschewing machines in fitness is like 'telling a carpenter, just use a saw and a hammer. In his latest study, Westcott looked at 45 subjects who worked out on strength machines and got aerobic exercise twice a week as part of a post-diet weight maintenance plan. "We know this from the studies we've done in nursing homes where we've actually rated the functionality of the nursing home residents." "Our studies have shown that the basic exercises" - like leg or shoulder presses on machines - "improve function as well as anything else you can do, and actually quite a bit better," he said. "It's so simple to train muscles, and people are trying to make it so complex," he said. I got a resounding "no" from Wayne Westcott, Ph.D., a professor of exercise science at Quincy College and author of more than two dozen textbooks. But are we, the gym members, likely to be physiologically better off with fewer machines?
PLANET FITNESS QUINCY NEWS FOR FREE
But must my trusty machines be put out to pasture? And it's not just my gym - health clubs around the country have been retiring more of their machines lately, according to a recent article in the Wall Street Journal headlined "Gyms Ditch Machines To Make Space For Free Weights."Ĭlearly, these are business decisions, responding to expected demand.
I'm all for workouts that help us live our lives. This year's list of top fitness trends includes body-weight training and functional fitness, defined by the American College of Sports Medicine "as using strength training to improve balance, coordination, force, power, and endurance to enhance someone’s ability to perform activities of daily living." They were "dated," the manager told me, and underused the simple weight benches and squat station that replaced them are sure to be more popular.Ĭertainly, this is the era of "functional fitness." From CrossFit to TRX to kettlebells, functional workouts are on the rise, promoting "body-weight" exercises like squats and push-ups, unstable surfaces and complex movements that mimic those we need for everyday life. Now, instead of being transported from our ellipticals to outer space or Victorian England, we're slimed by the ugly politics on the news.īut the gym also got rid of three machines: the shoulder press, the sitting ab machine and the sitting back machine - gym classics used for decades.
It was bad enough that my gym stopped showing movies on the giant screens facing the cardio machines. WBUR's Carey Goldberg isn't happy about that. Facebook Email Many gyms are getting rid of certain machines, like shoulder press machines.
0 kommentar(er)
