You train regularly, lift weights, row, run, step and swim. In fact you consider yourself to be pretty fit compared to most people and yet, no matter how hard you try, there are some exercises that just never seem to get any easier.
If you’re like most women, exercises like chinups, pull-ups, dips, pushups, and lunges probably present the biggest challenges you face during your workout.
For this reason you avoid them like the plague opting instead for their machine-based counterparts like lat pulldowns, chest presses and leg extensions.
After all, you’re still hitting the same muscles and you seem to handle a fair amount of resistance so you must be getting stronger right?
Well… yes, but not in the way you think!
You see, when you’re on a machine, several factors come together to create the ‘illusion’ of strength.
Of particular note is the simple fact that you are not required to stabilise the weight in your hand (the machine does this for you) and as such you are able to generate more force.
This is great as long as you’re on your machine but try lifting that same heavy load with free weights and you’ll find that you won’t be able to move it.
This is why so many regular exercisers find that they get stronger in the gym and yet still struggle to carry their shopping home from the supermarket, they’re simply not used to stabilising the weight they lift and so they’re not trained for unstable lifting.
Though many exercise equipment manufacturers claim to provide the ultimate in resistance machinery with their space-age pulleys, cams and levers, one has to question the benefits of any piece of equipment that may not produce results in the ‘real world’.