/fit/ - Fitness, Health, Exercise, Dieting, etc

Machines are for the old and injured. How many more gains do you think some gimmick equipment will really give you?

Honestly, a little creativity is worth its weight in gold here. You'd be surprised how much can be done with a barbell alone if you think outside the box. Try pushing a barbell into a corner and lifting one end for "landmine" exercises. I do think something like Olympic rings or a suspension trainer is nice for another generic exercise selection. A machine that that's a little specific for what it offers which I would recommend is the reverse hyper extension. It's great for lower back health and possibly essential for running athletes in their resistance training programs. Pretending all you have is one piece of equipment (or none at all) might force you to come up with new ideas.

>>134746

That's a soleus trainer. You generally want gastrocnemius (the round ball-like head of the calf) training or simultaneous gastrocnemius + soleus training for bodybuilding or general athletics, which should be done with the knee joint extended—not flexed—because the gastrocnemius crosses both the ankle joint and the knee joint and cannot effectively work until lengthened enough.

There is some niche appeal for soleus training for squat-centric sport, but somehow I doubt the strength of the soleus easily becomes a limiting factor in the bottom of even the lowest squats, and it would seem that training of the calves to improve squatting can be done by squatting. Maybe it helps with footing and stability. Full squats cause the hamstrings to bounce off the calves, and I can tell from experience having bulkier calves helps with full squatting. But again that would be a niche appeal primarily for Olympic lifting, and the soleus is involved with extended knee calf raises. I guess the important question is Does the soleus work hard enough with an extended knee? for the few poor souls in Olympic lifting who can't find anything better to do in order to improve their lifts.

>>134746

>>134752

just do clean pulls

>>134736

Machines are a pointless waste of space for women and old people to feel like they're doing something.

>Lat pulldown

Its called a pullup. Too easy? Tie a rope or chain round your waist and throw some plates on there. Too hard? Lose some fucking weight you fatass and do negatives.

>leg curl

>leg press

squats

>hip abduction

Grab a plate or dumbell and rest it against the side of your knee.

>preacher curl station

Curls are gay but if you want to do them anyways you do not need a fucking machine.

Head harness for neck extensions/supinations. The machine for this runs in the thousands while the harness is 20 bucks or so.

Inversion boots for decompression therapy and core workouts. It's good to decompress your spine after a heavy lift.

Any kind of lat machine isn't bad. Ab cruncher machines can be useful for helping build your core. If you really want juicy chest/shoulders, an inverted chest or shoulder machine is pretty much a necessity.

>>134738

Machines are how I improved my deadlifts, push press, and bench press. You use them as an auxiliary lift for muscles that you aren't hitting enough, not as your core lifts.

>>134794

>Head harness

Wait, that's a thing? I've always just attached a belt to my shotgun ammo box and used that.

>>134794

Forgot to add don't do inversion therapy for more than a few minutes at a time or else you risk getting eye problems from the blood pressure. You can do it for longer if you're doing inverted sit ups/core exercises.

>>134797

Yep. There are cloth and leather varieties. I use the leather one. They slip off more often than cloth ones since leather doesn't contour as well as cloth, but they're sturdier and can probably handle more weight.

safety squat bar and trap bar