(06-16-2016, 06:35 AM)Con Wrote: Could you post a picture giving an example and showing me what you mean?
I have heard people say this before but I honestly have no idea what they mean.
Unless you mean lacking muscle in certain areas such as spinal erectors?
I thought about finding some pics but out of respect for the people I would be using pics of I chose not to. So I'll explain a little differently.
There are physiques that have missing pieces because so much of their training has been focused on the "important" muscles i.e. chest, side delts, biceps, quads, calves, lats. You can focus on these muscles pretty hard with machines but if you use free weights and you get heavy enough you're body will recruit the synergists and stabilizing muscles even more through increase neural output. Let's take the bench press versus a machine press.
Machine press (strict w/ contraction focus) - chest and minimal deltoid and triceps
Bench press (all out heavy) - chest, deltoids, triceps, serratus anterior, coracobriachialis, bicep (short head) and abdominal muscles.
The synergists muscles will still come into play during the machine press but if you're training the way most do with machines it's much less. There's so much stability in the machine that you don't have with a barbell.
So sometimes I see guys on stage with good chest development but have no front delt. How? Sometimes I see guys with great lats but no traps. What? Great quads but no hams. Huh?
There's also an injury component to machines. You're body was meant to accomplish these movements as a chain of muscles. When you lay down on a bench or pad then move a resistance in a straight plane with no stability needed, you are taking out pieces of the chain. You may end up with overdevelopment and imbalances which may lead to injury.
Keep in mind this is just my opinion. I'm not trying to say this is all right and everything else is wrong. Just wanna make that clear.
(06-16-2016, 10:56 PM)Scott Stevenson Wrote: Simpleon't plan your MR's. Those exercises are supposed to be selected in an autoregulated ("intuitive") fashion.
-S
If we like planning, can we? Personally I enjoy walking into the gym knowing what I need to do and having some numbers already in my head. Since I train first thing in the AM I am sometimes tired and unmotivated. I find planning the session the night before (when I'm amped to go train be next day) forces me to do the biggest and most intense movements I can.