Cable machines seem like a good choice for a home gym, in that you can do a wide variety of isolation exercises, with varying angles of pull, and less limited by the direction of the pull. Good ones are not particularly cheap, at least when new.
Yea I’m finding the used ones I’d be happy with are far to expensive but then again I just started looking for a freedom trainer or a functional trainer? At the moment I’m not sure which fits what I want better ?
Scott
Great suggestions from both of you thanks.
I laughed at these a few weeks ago when I first saw them for sale:
But there is a 1948 photo of a cable machine constructed just like this from Vic Tanny’s original muscle beach gym, the dungeon, on page 21 of new bodybuilding for old school results. Made out of plumbing parts. It does not look so funny with Steve Reeves using it in the photo.
The manual for the single stack freedom trainer has parts diagrams that show how the movements can be driven from a single stack, which pulley system could be adapted for use with a plate stack using regular barbell plates. This could drive pulleys mounted to the wall, floor and ceiling, at the positions needed for various movements, which could save space compared to using arms. The pulleys, cable and more are available as replacement parts for cable machines. Less appropriate parts are available at for instance home depot.
I’m hoping to upgrade my home gym in the near future with some cable options but I will say this, strength bands are an excellent tool. I use them for all sorts of stuff, both assisted and resistance movements. In fact, I would be lost without them despite having a good complement of free weights, bars, rack, benches, attachments, landmine, slam balls, battle ropes, prowler, kettle bells, etc.
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The thing that scares me about resistance bands is the danger they will break and hit you in the wrong place.
Band uses are unlimited. Some are better made than others. I like fitcentric tubes. However, I try to never pull them in a way that it will hit my face if they pop. I’ve heard too many stories.
I’m looking at the bands now that have safety sleeves, which seems to me like the natural way to protect since the band would snap inside the sleeve. Fascinating how bands can modify the resistance curve and path when used with barbells and cables.
I’ve used bands for years. No breakage problems. That one infamous video, where the guy pulls the band until he’s standing 10-12 feet back from the anchor point, is ludicrous. He’s stretched the band so far and the angle is so low, there is hardly ANY resistance difference between the bottom and the top of his curl. He deserved to get popped in the face.
The trick is to pick the right band and the right set-up, so that there’s very little impact at the start and it goes up substantially as the rep progresses.
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The bands with the built in sleeves seem to be lower quality, and do often break, but the sleeve seems to work good for protection when they break. I’m thinking to get better quality bands and then put them in my own sleeve, for which hook and loop braided cable sleeves should work well. That way the bands won’t break and I will have the extra safety.
I’ve had them break on a couple of occasions. Each time I knew it was pending and I was using them on movements where there was no risk of injury, namely, assisted pull up and a band pull apart.
In fact, I was trialling them yesterday in preparation for my workout today. I have fixed some low anchor points on the garage walls and will attach the bands like a cable crossover for lat raises instead of DBs. I’m going to fit another couple of anchor points higher up now to allow a band crossover / pec dec set up.
I’ve had a couple of the lighter, tube style bands break. (Actually, they were ones my wife used, and they got old and/or were overstretched.)
We now have some that have an outer nylon sleeve, and that seems pretty safe. I also have a set of Bodylastics that have a nylon cord running down the center, for anti-snap protection. When the lightest one of that set broke, nothing bad happened.
What I wonder about more is the ribbon style bands (rectangular cross section) that you can get from places like Rogue. Watching video, I’ve seen people put the 41-inch ones under a lot of stress, wrapping around the body for squats, as an example.
I did the straight-arm (but still with a slight bent for elbows) dumbbell pullover mostly in my earlier years of training after reading about the potential for ribcage expansion. I was around 20 at the time and maybe did the exercise on and off for a couple of years. I also re-introduced them years later when I started training at home. I cannot say the exercise was productive or helped in one way or another as I was still doing pulldowns and rows. I seemed to feel it just as much in my triceps as they would be very sore the following day. I can see where this exercise can cause issues and given I am a little more than a year away from turning fifty-years-old, I avoid them. Various rows and pulldown seem to suffice and feel a hell of a lot safer.
This is what I am thinking might work for wrapping the bands for safety. The 3" size should fit a bundle of several bands:
I’m also looking at chains. I’m thinking of sizing the leader so the chain starts to come off the floor at the point of maximum mechanical disadvantage. Could attach small plates to the chain to tailor the strength curve further. So far I have the price of 5/8" chain down to $6.27/foot with free shipping, which is pretty cheap considering the chain won’t wear out like bands. Of course bands are much more versatile so planning to get both.
After much thought, does not Darden’s stage reps make resistance bands an alternative method?
The pullover is a fantastic excercise which I regularly return to. Exactly how many muscles are engaged in a dumbbell pullover?
I feel it in my: Back, serratus, shoulders, triceps, chest and biceps in descending order. How about abs?
Are there any tweaks to be made in order to emphasize a certain muscle group (chest, for instance) more? I intend to try it combined with a band for more resistance at the top.
Are the Darden type dumbbell pullover featured in the M3 program similar to the version described in “the new HIT” page 103? @Ellington_Darden
I was once told that the dumbbell pullover (straight or bent-arm) has too much triceps involvement and not enough lats.
Any thoughts on this or by Dr. Darden?
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Imho…the dumbell pullover incorporated more triceps, shoulders and chest and more of a stretch in the chest/serratus area
the nautilus nitro with the elbows on the pads targeted the lats more, no stretch in the chest area at all
if the elbows are not on the pads, like the xforce pullover, i feel lats and triceps being worked
regardless, the pullover is probably my favorite exercise
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Have you guys tried the Pullovers with the neutral grip tricep bar?
I got good results with the nautilus machine pullover. It’s a bang for your buck movement. It hits just about every muscle in your upper torso. Save for your biceps. It hits more muscle the a free weight version.
I think it’s a better exercise than the free weight pullover.
Having said that I torn a muscle in my lower abdomen resulting in a hernia on the machine pullover. I was moving slowly with 225 pounds.
Back then I was doing machine pullover super setted with pulldowns.
Later I used a DB pullover from time to time. The results were not as good. But I could feel it in my lats. But when I added a pulldown or chinup my lats did not suffer size wise.
I added some shrugs and the occasional row.
Now I rarely use a DB pullover. The range of motion bothers me. I can’t go as deep as I would like. But it’s good for variety.