There was a line of machines I used at a gym a few summers back where the user would actually move in space during the execution, but it didn’t affect the ROM, performance or feeling at all. This feature aside, the machines were all very smooth and controlled, and honestly, I enjoyed using them quite a bit… can’t recall the name at the moment for the life of me 
S
Possibly the Roc-It line from Hoist Fitness?
You may recall in a past post I claimed I’m as strong as I need to be. Well yesterday I bought several Heavy Cannon balls that were in milk cartons. Each ranged from 100-150 pounds. When I went to lift them up I could barely get one off the ground with out a struggle. The guy I bought them from , a tall skinny lanky fellow with out any apparent over abundance of muscle just grabbed the cartons with ease and tossed them up into the truck! I stood there in amazement thinking all these years of Nautilus machines didn’t seem to help at all when I really needed it. All I could think of was that I should have been doing some deadlifts and farmer walks kind of stuff long ago.
Scott
This is a conclusion a LOT of trainees need to come to.
And outside of farmer’s walks, just plain old “carrying heavy stuff” is huge. I actually prefer that to a farmer’s walk. The latter is too evenly distributed and too easy to game. Pick up a heavy rock, sandbag or keg and carry it as far as you can: your whole body will hurt.
And you can even do it in the (dis)comfort of your home!
Yep, 100%
I’m really good (relative to my other strength levels) at trap bar carries. If I can pick it up, I can walk with it, and probably quite a long way. Make that a Sandbag carry or the like, and it’s a while different ball game, I’ll struggle with even fairly minimal weights.
I recently read an academic paper by Stuart Phillips with the title: Training for Strength and Hypertrophy: An Evidence Based Approach. When it came to strength, the primary conclusion was:
Resistance-Exercise-Training induced muscular strength is primarily mediated by load and specificity…
That is a fancy way of saying that if you want to lift heavy shit in real life, you need to lift heavy shit in training, using movements which are similar to the lifts you want to perform in real life. Of course, strongman competitors and weight lifters have known this for a long long time. Nice to see that science is catching up.
I think machine training is OK for developing the size of major muscle groups. It seems to work pretty well for some bodybuilders (e.g., Jay Cutler). But machine training misses a couple of key things:
Grip strength. Often the amount you can lift is limited by what you can grip. Perhaps it is a protective mechanism, but I think if your grip is failing, the body says… too much, no way you are going to move that.
Core strength. Sitting in a machine and lifting heavy does not teach you how to brace your core, and coordinate torso muscles with hips, legs, shoulders, and arms to exert maximum force in free standing lifts. That has to be specifically trained.
You also didn’t mention how old this lanky guy was. Sometimes, you run into fairly skinny looking young people who have amazingly big deadlifts. I think it is a combination of having done some heavy lifting (via job or gym), having good biomechanics, having a high proportion of fast twitch muscles, and an efficient nervous system that can recruit a high percentage of those fast twitch fibers for a maximum effort lift. I’m thinking of the guys who have 40-inch vertical jumps and often do real well in the NFL Combine…
What are you gonna do with all those cannonballs?
Gonna have to disagree with you on the core. Nautilus did not come out with any abdominal machines for several years after the others. And it was only because customers demanded it due to the fallacy of spot reduction. The nautilus torso machines, especially the pullover, worked the abs and “core”(core is a whole nother debate for me!!).
I collect artillery projectiles of all sorts, mostly Revolutionary and Civil War but I do have some WW 11. What do I do with them ? I look at them.
Scott
Resistance-Exercise-Training induced muscular strength is primarily mediated by load and specificity…SPECIFICITY is the key word here. The lift “heavy shit” is completely true. However, specificity of SKILL comes into play here also. This is why you see guys who don’t look strong, but because they do it all the time, they have the muscle coordination and skill to look strong doing things they do all the time. Using machines, or a barbell or dumbbells you can increase the muscles’ ability to produce force. But, if you want to apply that increase in strength and ability to produce force you must perform those specific activities (lifting other stuff).
Totally agree with the Core strength point. Again Specificity of Skill. As far as Grip strength, I believe specific grip training will improve all your lifts and ability to perform other tasks. Don’t believe just the gripping you do with barbell lifts is enough.
Scott, you mentioned in another post that your legs were big enough. Do you still train them? If not, from a strength standpoint, this is a mistake. Here is an unsolicited suggestion for anyone. Get an old army duffel bag, put some sandbags in it for a base weight of 50-70 lbs. With sandbags in the bottom, you could then add wt plates to increase the wt as needed. Pick it up, curl it, press it, pick it up and set it down on a higher surface, load it up and carry it. Sandbags in the bottom, a little safer if you drop it on your foot. And, you’ll get that grip strength you want. Add a set or 2 with the bag in addition to the machines and you’ll get that “functional” strength you want. I used it, but I really that term.
You must have a pretty cool backyard.
Not nearly to the extent that compound movements through multiple planes will.
Working a muscle in a very limited ancillary role or even just through a specific isolated motion has nothing on actual athletic or work motion.
Yeah, the “Core” term is another one I don’t particularly care for. Find that term in an anatomy book! But, that’s where we’re at now. Let’s NOT discuss that!
Did not like those machines at all
Didn’t you say that you are 68 years old…remember to take that into consideration when comparing yourself to others
There are compound movements amongst those machines. My point tho was that machines do work your abs directly
I 100% agree!!
I think the guy is in his 50s? I do have several friends who are skinny as a rail yet strong as a bull. I think this guy moves heavy stuff around all the time so he’s just used to it? When we took the crate out of my truck this morning it took my son and I to carry it to the house and it was a struggle. Oh well, it wasn’t the first time I sucked at something and it won’t be the last, ha ha!
You should have seen me/us trying to move the 450 pound cannon ball I have, ha ha!!
Scott
Do you have the cannons too?
No cannons yet, ha ha!
Scott