Mistake #6 - Working on machines that isolate one muscle only

Let me preface this article by saying anything you do now that you weren't doing before you started exercising will help you get results.  Having said that, circuit machines are a great starting point to help someone new to the gym and not sure how to get started.  There will come a time when you need to venture off the circuit machines and challenge yourself a little bit more.  Circuit machines train one set of muscles generally in one plane of motion and your brain does not work that way.  The brain works automatically and will compensate if needed.  


Take the shoulder press for example; you sit down, grab the handles and push straight up.  One movement, one motion, the machine does most of the work and you control the weight coming back down so you don't make a loud clunking noise when the weights fall back to the starting point.


Take that same shoulder press with dumbbells; stand, tighten your core, hold your arms out to the side at 90 degrees, push the dumbbells upward toward each other and have them meet together at the top of the movement over your head and then slowly bring them back down.  Performing a shoulder press in this manner engages many different muscles without isolating the movement.


Our movement patterns are as unique as our thumbprints.  Your joints cannot move naturally on a machine. Joints that do not move naturally cause bones to meet at surfaces that are not designed to take as much stress: this can lead to arthritic changes in the joint or injury.  


For most individuals, machine training provides an inferior, incomplete and less efficient way of training.  When a person trains in this manner only, their body relies on the machines and not on themselves.  You burn fewer calories on a machine versus doing body weight exercises such as; free weights, stability balls, medicine balls and cables.


Training in multi planes of motion is more functional to how we normally move our bodies.  Training in this fashion will also challenge more of your stabilizer muscles; the smaller muscles that help the larger muscles.  By engaging more muscles in your movements, you work your body more efficiently.


Check out my Get Fit 101, I teach you a lot of basic moves in addition to increasing your flexibility, mobility, strength, and progressing to much more complex moves, but don't be fooled that you won't learn how to work out more efficiently, more effectively and see more results.