[quote]sic wrote:
Some of the comments made me go “hmmm.” Here is a basic overview for those of you who don’t want to read 4 pages worth.
the exercisers slaving away on other stationary machines are building individual muscles in place of whole-body strength
While I agree that free weights rule, show me a machine exercise that uses only one muscle. I’d really like to learn how to isolate my opponens digiti minimi. 
And how do individual muscles not contribute to whole body strength?
If you have a limited amount of time to work out, you’re better off ditching the machine to do different kinds of body-weight and whole-body exercises. You’ll get more caloric burn for your time spent
Ok, I agree that if you can only train twice a week, total body workouts might be for you. But this is the old potato / pahtato argument. TBT vs. splits. I’ve found both to be very effective even if I only train 30-45 minutes per day.
Researchers, for instance, have known that the leg-extension machine… trains you to do just one thing: become very strong at the leg-extension machine. The seated leg-extension machine has nothing to do with how we use our legs…
Ummm, ok. So you never flex or extend your leg in daily activity?
The leg press is equally disconnected from the reality of human anatomy. There are no motor-control requirements on a leg-press machine… In real-life tasks, you have to balance on one leg, you have to sidestep, and you have to get all the muscles to coordinate together.
Now this is silliness. Why do I get the feeling that they are about to suggest squats on a bosu ball as a more real-life exercise?
I don’t think fitness happens best in isolation… This is hard stuff, and it’s a lot easier to share hard stuff than do it yourself. At the clubs, you are going to be turned loose on the machines, and a machine is like an isolation booth.
I don’t know about you, but no one helps me deadlift. All he is doing here is getting ready to advance the idea that we should train in a group or class based atmosphere (think CrossFit) for maximum results.
perhaps the best evidence against traditional clubs is that these days most elite athletes rarely step into one… A functional training approach to fitness stresses the training of movements over muscles… The main purpose of FT is to bridge the gap between absolute strength and functional strength… FT discourages the use of machines in favor of free weights, body-weight exercises, and certain devices used in physical therapy, such as medicine balls, stability balls, wobble boards, and resistance bands.
First off, most of us aren’t training for sport and don’t need to train like a football player would. Secondly, doesn’t this type of training require that individuals (or gyms) go out and find trainers and buy new equipment? Isn’t this just a new way for the fitness industry to make more money?
In 2001, Gregg Glassman founded CrossFit, a back-to-basics functional-training program that’s popular with the military and law enforcement
Ah hah!
Aerobics areas often have smaller classes that utilize free weights, dumbbells, and different types of balance mechanisms
And we all know how much muscle and strength these will build.
While men have traditionally avoided classes, more and more are participating in small group exercises… Some guys worry that they’ll lose bulk, but that’s a misperception. You can still make strength and mass gains, and the advantage is that your body will be in better balance.
Not in aerobics/pink dumbbell classes you can’t! If I did this my workout would be wasting my time.
Train on your feet. Once you sit, you lose your body’s natural anchor: the muscles of the back, butt, abdominal core, and legs. Ground-based training immediately puts an end to a host of outdated free-weight lifts, including the bench press, military press, incline press…
I’d like to see them try to prove that powerlifters at a bench meet are only using their pecs and biceps to bench.
Train movements, not muscles. For the lower body, lunge, step-down, and squat drills are all it takes, and body weight alone is usually more than enough load.
All it takes to do what? Make sure you stay weak and small?
This article is really just about promoting “functional training” to replace traditional methods. Although they seem to promote free weights, you can tell that they would rather have you balancing on a wobble board while holding pink dumbbells that you (in one motion) curl and press overhead. This does nothing to advance training methods.
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I think Chad and few others are cringing at a few of your comments,especially since you said you like New Rules for Women lifting.
Standing is always better, you took the bench as 1 example and ran with it as your platform be nice
