Machines and Sport Specific Training

Magnus Agren www.bodytech.se

In a perfect world you would now be able to read an article about speed training or get the second installment of the stretching basics, but once again the world proved to be far from perfect as my regular computer crashed and I lost most of these two articles. I am a trainer, not a computer freak, so please forgive me for not making backups more than once a week… So sadly enough I am out of a pc for now, but just so you would not have to suffer the loss of something new to read on sport specific training until my new one arrives, I bribed one of my friends to lend me his computer for an hour or two. Here´s what I was able to put down for you in that time, I hope you will enjoy it and that it will be of use to you.

As a trainer and coach spending countless hours in different gyms, you often see stuff that makes you go - hum I wonder… Which is just what happened this last week, while sneaking in one own quick training session between clients.
I was about halfway done when a guy in his late teens came in to start his session. I knew he was from a school with a special sports program for talented individuals, I reckoned he was into either soccer or hockey. You can almost always sort them out by their training clothes… He started out with bench press on the Smith machine, without any previous warm-up, progressed to the machine leg press and, after that, the lat pull down machine. By now I was pretty curious whether he himself had designed the program, or if it had been given to him by the school coach. And ok, I was even thinking a couple of things I cannot print here…

Anyways, I walked up to him and checked if it was ok to ask him a question on who had helped him with his program and what his goal was? The response in order was: “The Coach” and “to get stronger for sports”… To clear things out I needed to know whether he had been specified to do the program as such or if he himself had been modifying it, changing the prescribed exercises. But no, he had actually been following the given program in its entity; he even showed me the print-out! On this I had to ask whether the coach had not told him that he would be better off substituting these exercises with real bench press, squats and chins or at least “real” lat pulldowns. The answer made me speechless (which is a rare happening)! He said his coach had told him that there was no real difference between these exercises and the ones he did, besides from being able to use more weights on the machines and still maintain focus on the muscle he trained! I felt the urge to give the kid a lecture and set him straight on some details, but being too short in time I had to restrain myself and just made a small mental note to call his coach and ask for his credentials…

Instead I will now have to give you dear readers the short version of the lecture on the use of machines in sport specific training. Which is – It sucks, big time!

When using a machine, you take away all core integration, all stabilizers and coordination between different synergists (muscles working as a unit), in short terms. This will make you more prone to injuries, overall weaker and less productive on the field. In my book that is not the way to train for optimum performance!

Picking exercises to increase your performance, you should use mainly those that put both your body and nervous system on toes, so to speak. Please don´t make the common mistake to confuse sport specific training with bodybuilding! Using a traditional bodybuilding program will often result in a big portion of non-functional mass, which can actually make you perform worse on the field! This is not to say that using bodybuilding protocols and combining them with “sport specific application able exercises” is useless- if done right you can get functional mass out of that, too. But back to the selection of exercises! As I wrote earlier they should keep both your body and nervous system on its toes, and to make it easier for you to choose the right kind of exercises next time, I will give you a foundation to stand on.

When choosing exercises to use as a base, you should look at two aspects. First- is this a natural movement for the body or a derivation of it? If yes to the first it will probably be an exercise that is ok to use. We have some original or “primal pattern” movements as one coach would say. They are to squat, to lunge, to press, to pull, to rotate and to bend. Always identify the most commonly used patterns in your sports and evaluate how well you perform them, and look for restrictions that might hinder your progress in them so you then can correct these restrictions and further your progress! I would then suggest that you include some variation of each pattern in your workout, in my experience there is always sometime you will need to perform one of these patterns in your sport and daily life. You should also pay some attention to get an even ratio of horizontal and vertical work when working with press and pull movements! People often have a tendency to do more horizontal pressing, bench variations, and vertical pulling, chins variations, in relation to their opposites. This will lead to unnecessary strength imbalances around the shoulder joints and actually make you weaker in both of these movements. So keep an even ratio. Now you have a bit of insight in which kind of exercises to choose on to the second selection criteria.

You should always strive for as much motor unit activation as possible. This is after all how the body responds to demands on the field - the more efficiently you can use your muscles the better you will do obviously!

So how do I know the level of neuromuscular activation? You can use what the old German strength physiologists call the Scale of Motor Unit Recruitment. There are seven levels of muscular activation and you should strive for at least level five or higher.

Compound vs. Isolation Exercises
(Neuromuscular Activity — NMA)

Level 1

Isolation exercise on variable resistance machine, like leg extension on cam type machine like Cybex and Nautilus machines

Level 2

Complex exercise on variable resistance machine, like leg press on Nautilus machine and their likes

Level 3

Isolation exercise with constant resistance machine, like Preacher curls with pulley and Pushdowns on a cable machine

Level 4

Complex exercise with constant resistance machine, like leg press on standard machines

Level 5

Isolation exercise with free weights, like incline curls and side laterals

Level 6

Complex exercise with free weights, like cleans, squats and other basic exercises.

Level 7

Complex exercise with free weights and an added uncertain factor, like dips on rings, rope climbing and such

Just to clear it out, for those who do not know, an isolation exercise is done over one joint and a complex over multiple joints.

Now you should have some basic knowledge on how to pick your exercises and know why you will never get the same results by using machines as with free weights or your own body! So put your knowledge to use and start training for performance now.

Had the Coach who constructed the kid´s program earlier known these basics, then his apprentice would probably have improved his chances for reaching his goal to perform better - and be functionally stronger!

Your sport specific guru