[quote]SeanParent wrote:
this is my favorite machine by far[/quote]
Is it supposed to not have somewhere to put your ass?
[quote]sebbie wrote:
Cephalic_Carnage wrote:
Straight up/down smith (or maybe even an angled one, haven’t tried those much) with no counter-weights for In-Human Presses or WRGB, both for triceps… Offers the advantage that you can press towards your feet as well as up and thus engage the tris and especially their long-head a lot more while sparing the shoulders.
Also, if you train tris after chest and/or delts, you won’t have any stabilization problems with these exercises, which is rather nice.
I can’t free-weight close-grip worth shit after chest or delt-training…
And of course it provides alternatives for guys using an exercise rotation etc… And you don’t need a spotter and whatnot.
Smith high incline presses (angle at 70-75 or so) with a wide grip are a fav of many pros such as RÃ??Ã?¼hl, McGrath, etc… Great delt exercise.
Depending on your build (I suppose), one can also rack-pull quite well in the smith (for bodybuilding purposes). Keeps the bar from jumping forward or backward after being set down etc… Not necessary, of course, but it does work rather well in my case. (setup is a tad different from regular rack pulls, same goes for smith rows).
Off topic a bit, but what are In-Human Presses? I see thm mentioned on here now and then but google produces nothing.[/quote]
A smith close-grip variant. Check the old t-cell thread about best exercises for each bodypart or head over to intensemuscle and look up the old in-human quote thread made by future…
I’m too lazy to explain the exercise for the 500th time on here 
My computer.
[quote]countingbeans wrote:
Growing_Boy wrote:
countingbeans wrote:
The plate loaded HS dip machine thing.
Normal dips make my shoulders hurt like a bastard, this machine is a god send. Now I just have to figure out how to strap myself to the seat, because I’d rather think about the dips then hooking my feet in to hold myself down.
I don’t need the seat belt and I routinely go up to 8-10 plates on the damn thing. Gotta set the knee pad tight. I didn’t even know it had a seat belt until one of the PTs told me. That one and the HS decline press, and the HS lo row.
You have thigh pads? You are a cheeky bastard.
Mine only has a place to hook my feet under, and it’s a bitch to keep thinking about holding my legs tight to hold myself down.[/quote]
I am wondering if it’s just a question of the gym or the delivery service being too lazy.
For example at my gym, they finally brought in some Hammer Strength. Unfortunately just the chest-related machines – I mean, who needs to train back? – and the apparently-brand-new Dip machine even has a sticker on it saying how to use the seat belt.
But no seat belt.
Does have the thigh pad device. It’s hard for me to imagine HS selling any machines without that. I am guessing with the machine at your gym perhaps it just wasn’t installed at time of delivery?
[quote]Cephalic_Carnage wrote:
Straight up/down smith (or maybe even an angled one, haven’t tried those much) with no counter-weights for In-Human Presses or WRGB, both for triceps… Offers the advantage that you can press towards your feet as well as up and thus engage the tris and especially their long-head a lot more while sparing the shoulders.
[/quote]
Agrre with CC here. The no counterweight smith machine is good and has changed my otherwise dim view of Mr Smith’s towel rack. Jesse Kellum does almost al his speed work for BP and squat in the smith machine sans counterweight. The band tension you can add is insane here and taking stabilizers out can be useful at times. i often wonder why bodybuilders have not played with bands. Thye gave me crazy hypertrophy.
i also like the Hammer iso compound row and the hammer decline press. Used to be some machines on base that allowed you to set a 10-30% higher negative. They are gone now but they were amazing.
[quote]jackreape wrote:
Cephalic_Carnage wrote:
Straight up/down smith (or maybe even an angled one, haven’t tried those much) with no counter-weights for In-Human Presses or WRGB, both for triceps… Offers the advantage that you can press towards your feet as well as up and thus engage the tris and especially their long-head a lot more while sparing the shoulders.
Agrre with CC here. The no counterweight smith machine is good and has changed my otherwise dim view of Mr Smith’s towel rack. Jesse Kellum does almost al his speed work for BP and squat in the smith machine sans counterweight. The band tension you can add is insane here and taking stabilizers out can be useful at times. i often wonder why bodybuilders have not played with bands. Thye gave me crazy hypertrophy.
[/quote] Hmm. Never really thought about bands.
Most of us do partials anyway… Bottom half or three-quarters on bench, incline and overhead presses, bottom three-quarters or midrange on curls and such, rack pulls rather than deadlifts, bottom three-quarters for squats (or top half for guys who squat knees out in front and narrow-stance… I couldn’t do that, my patellar tendons would snap…), top half on pulldowns and so on.
I guess I could use bands to take some weight off at the top of an incline press or so… But I can just as well do bottom partials. Or I could add weight at the bottom of the press, but yeah… Same thing again.
With bands you’d have to set them up as well (and buy them in the first place as most bb-gyms and commercial gyms don’t have any) etc… Takes more time I suppose, but maybe not much. No idea, never used any.
That being said… How would you employ bands for bb purposes and how did you yourself employ them?
Do you prefer band work over partial ROM work?
[quote]
i also like the Hammer iso compound row and the hammer decline press.
Used to be some machines on base that allowed you to set a 10-30% higher negative. They are gone now but they were amazing.[/quote] ← Those sound interesting. Never heard of such machines before. Remember the brand, by any chance ?
[quote]Cephalic_Carnage wrote:
I guess I could use bands to take some weight off at the top of an incline press or so… But I can just as well do bottom partials. Or I could add weight at the bottom of the press, but yeah… Same thing again.
[/quote]
The way I understood his post, he’d use the bands to add weight at the top of the movement.
Anyway, I’m definitely interested in how exactly you’d incorporate the bands as well.
the seated ham curl machine
it just feels more effective than the lying one
unless i use the twisted variation where my torso is off the pad while using the lying curl
http://us.commercial.lifefitness.com/content.cfm/ospd
This is probably my favorite machine. I basically stopped doing pullups after I used it a couple times. I’ve never done anything that hits my lats as well as this machine.
[quote]Cephalic_Carnage wrote:
jackreape wrote:
Cephalic_Carnage wrote:
Straight up/down smith (or maybe even an angled one, haven’t tried those much) with no counter-weights for In-Human Presses or WRGB, both for triceps… Offers the advantage that you can press towards your feet as well as up and thus engage the tris and especially their long-head a lot more while sparing the shoulders.
Agrre with CC here. The no counterweight smith machine is good and has changed my otherwise dim view of Mr Smith’s towel rack. Jesse Kellum does almost al his speed work for BP and squat in the smith machine sans counterweight. The band tension you can add is insane here and taking stabilizers out can be useful at times. i often wonder why bodybuilders have not played with bands. Thye gave me crazy hypertrophy.
Hmm. Never really thought about bands.
Most of us do partials anyway… Bottom half or three-quarters on bench, incline and overhead presses, bottom three-quarters or midrange on curls and such, rack pulls rather than deadlifts, bottom three-quarters for squats (or top half for guys who squat knees out in front and narrow-stance… I couldn’t do that, my patellar tendons would snap…), top half on pulldowns and so on.
I guess I could use bands to take some weight off at the top of an incline press or so… But I can just as well do bottom partials. Or I could add weight at the bottom of the press, but yeah… Same thing again.
With bands you’d have to set them up as well (and buy them in the first place as most bb-gyms and commercial gyms don’t have any) etc… Takes more time I suppose, but maybe not much. No idea, never used any.
That being said… How would you employ bands for bb purposes and how did you yourself employ them?
Do you prefer band work over partial ROM work?
i also like the Hammer iso compound row and the hammer decline press.
Used to be some machines on base that allowed you to set a 10-30% higher negative. They are gone now but they were amazing. ← Those sound interesting. Never heard of such machines before. Remember the brand, by any chance ?
[/quote]
Think the machines were Lifefitness. Doing seated chest supported rows with a 30% greater negative was fantastic.
The way to set up the bands is to have little to no tension at bottom of lift, and band tension coming on once you come out of hole in squat or off chest in BP. i choke bands together and run them under bench and over sleeve outside plates in BP for this, and choke them 10 100lb dbs and over bar in the squat. Tension at bottom is great for PLers but not for BBers as it is too hard on joints for no payoff in hypertrophy. Chains are great for this too and have a larger margin of error but less hypertrophy. The thing the bands do is greatly add to eccentric work because they actually act to the add to the acceleration of the bar downward in addition to gravity acceleration. Geekspeak but you will feel the differnece when you do it.
Home made Reverse Hyper.
I’m liking this Nautilus Lateral Raise machine at my gym as of late… much more effective for me than db lateral raises. I can do more weight, more reps, and consequently hit my medial delts far better.
[quote]Bill Roberts wrote:
countingbeans wrote:
Growing_Boy wrote:
countingbeans wrote:
The plate loaded HS dip machine thing.
Normal dips make my shoulders hurt like a bastard, this machine is a god send. Now I just have to figure out how to strap myself to the seat, because I’d rather think about the dips then hooking my feet in to hold myself down.
I don’t need the seat belt and I routinely go up to 8-10 plates on the damn thing. Gotta set the knee pad tight. I didn’t even know it had a seat belt until one of the PTs told me. That one and the HS decline press, and the HS lo row.
You have thigh pads? You are a cheeky bastard.
Mine only has a place to hook my feet under, and it’s a bitch to keep thinking about holding my legs tight to hold myself down.
I am wondering if it’s just a question of the gym or the delivery service being too lazy.
For example at my gym, they finally brought in some Hammer Strength. Unfortunately just the chest-related machines – I mean, who needs to train back? – and the apparently-brand-new Dip machine even has a sticker on it saying how to use the seat belt.
But no seat belt.
Does have the thigh pad device. It’s hard for me to imagine HS selling any machines without that. I am guessing with the machine at your gym perhaps it just wasn’t installed at time of delivery?
[/quote]
So I looked tonight at my obviously inferior equipment, I was wrong, it’s not HS. It’s Flex Leverage.
Based on the (should be) attached picture, guess I should be counting my lucky stars it has the foot hook pads. (The one at the gym is in much better shape…)
I decided I’ll just strap myself in with the belt they have for weighted chins.
Damn I don’t have access to the HS machines right now. Those are some of my favorite. Right now all I have is cybex machines to work with they’re ok. THe hack squat machine we have is horrible though. It’s so old and places so much strain on the knee you can’t put on more then one plate.
yet there’s nothing like the feel of a new non-counterweighted smith machine for chest, shoulder and tri work.
My favorite machine is leg press. Legs are the only muscle group where I rarely use free weights, so the 3 different leg press machines in my gym are a godsend.
[quote]jstreet0204 wrote:
countingbeans wrote:
The plate loaded HS dip machine thing.
Normal dips make my shoulders hurt like a bastard, this machine is a god send. Now I just have to figure out how to strap myself to the seat, because I’d rather think about the dips then hooking my feet in to hold myself down.
+1 on this machine… When you get your nuts pinched between 45lb plates doing weighted dips, this machine becomes very attracitve…
[/quote]
Amen on the nut pinching…
I think I stumbled upon greatness the other day while trying to avoid any potential ball bustings…
My gym gives out towels when you sign in for the day, so I simply put one in my pants like a QB does to wipe his hands off. It added an extra layer for the chain to bounce against and my nuts were all the more safe.
Bango
Just finished my back workout and used the Hammer Strength Front Lat Pulldown for the first time. This machine left me with a pump in my lats that I’ve never experienced before.
There simply is no equipment out there that is better than HS.
Hammer Strength seated shoulder press. (The one I use just holds 4 plates a side but at the moment I can barely get 2-3 reps with that weight so its all good, I guess). What I love about this is that I can actually feel it bang in my side delts with a really-wide grip and I;m not too worried about going to failure or messing up my rotator cuffs.
Not sure on going so far as saying THE favorite, but a strong favorite that is an unusual choice is the Strive Extreme Row.
I do also like the Hammer Strength Iso Row, enough to have bought one for the house while not having a home gym. They are substantially different but both are most excellent.
However, I could get by without either of them easier than I could without a crossover cable setup (counting the fact that single cable exercises can be done with it as well.)