Políticas de Competitividad Territorial

I was a gal who trained with variable resistance from the beginning. My first gym experience was at the University of Florida, with Nautilus equipment. Arthur Jones, the inventor of Nautilus equipment, thought he had invented a way for the entire muscle to be trained equally throughout the exercise range of motion with his revolutionary Nautilus cam system. Jones designed the weight-stack machines with a cam shaped like a nautilus shell to equally distribute the weight lifted throughout an entire range of motion. He wanted to eliminate the biomechanical disad- vantages that are inherent in free-weight training, such as unequal force curves.

Unfortunately, Jones’s system didn’t really train muscles equally throughout their ranges of motion, and neither does any pulley, lever, or cam machine invented since. Machines can be a nice adjunct to a strength-training program, but isotonics should be the core. Most machines can’t stimulate the same amount of muscular hypertrophy, bone mass, and strength as isotonic exercises, particularly exercises that employ free weights. Very few exercises in this book use machines because using free weights has many more advantages.

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Why do so many trainers (including me) emphasize free weights over machines? Here are a few advantages that free weights have over machines:

1. Balance—Using free weights allows your body to develop and improve balance. You have to hold dumbbells and barbells in a balanced position, or you risk injury and embarrass- ment from plates falling off the bar. To provide balance the body has to work overtime, and that’s a good thing. You use accessory muscles (muscles that help in the exercise but are not necessarily the ones you are training) and burn more calories. For instance, if you are performing a standing biceps curl, your core and lower-body muscles have to hold your body tightly in place or you will fall over. Also, your upper-back muscles have to contract isometrically to provide a base of support so that your arms can actually curl the weight and not just drop it on the floor.

2. Functional application—Life does not take place in one dimension, so the exercises you do to enhance life shouldn’t either. You bend, twist, and lift in all dimensions during the day to get the job done. If you simulate the activities that your body needs to do every day when you use weights, then your daily tasks will become easier. Why sit in a machine to strengthen your legs when you really need them to be strong while you are standing? Holding dumbbells and medicine balls is just like holding your children or weighty packages in your arms. 3. Cost and convenience—If you like to work out at your house and want to invest financially

as little as possible, then free weights are the way to go. You can get a workout for your entire body from just a couple of sets of dumbbell exercises. You need minimal instruc- tion and you don’t need a lot of room. Add a stability ball, and you’ve got the perfect beginner’s gym. In a few months, after you are hooked on strength training, you can add Olympic bars and benches. You can find some of the best deals on such items at used sports equipment stores.

4. Posture—Get a double whammy and exercise your core muscles while you are exercising another muscle group. Free weights challenge your core, whereas machines allow you to relax and rest. The problem is that the majority of the public has poor posture from the kind of world we live in. We slouch at the computer and sprawl out on the couch. We don’t pay too much attention to our posture until our muscles ache from fatigue. But if you work your postural muscles, you can decrease that fatigue and improve your appearance. Try squeezing your shoulder blades together while bench pressing. You’ll see your bench press go up with ease and your posture remain perfect.

5. Psychological benefit—Lifting with free weights can really psych you up. Loading up the bar and holding on to the big dumbbells (as opposed to lifting light weights and doing endless repetitions) simply makes you feel strong. There is nothing girly about it.You gain a definite psychological advantage when you use free weights.

6. Perfect fit—Have you noticed that some machines don’t seem to fit you? It could be because most machines are made for the specifications of an average man (5 feet 11 inches, 180 pounds). Free weights are a better fit for women simply because they don’t have to worry about the fit. No matter what your size, free weights can accommodate you. You’ll also eliminate the possibility of injuring yourself from working out on a piece of equipment designed for someone else.

7. Fat-busting properties—Training with free weights burns a ton of calories. First, it burns calories when you grab a pair of dumbbells, hold them, walk to the nearest bench, and set up your lift—likewise when you work with barbells. How many calories do you expend by sitting in a machine and leaning over to move a pin? Second, if your lift is a total-body lift like a squat or a deadlift, almost every muscle in your body is working and demand- ing energy in the form of calories. If you are doing a single muscle group exercise like a biceps curl, you’ll still burn more calories lifting with free weights than with machines; the other muscles in your body are working hard to provide stabilization.