There Is A Method to the Madness
This is a podcast where I will be discussing all aspects of physical fitness. I am an exercise physiologist and personal trainer and owner of Maxwell's Fitness Programs for the last 25 years. My passion is health and fitness and I am excited to share my views, some stories, interviews and much more with you.
There Is A Method to the Madness
Choosing the Right Exercises for Your Fitness Goals
Welcome to. There is a Method to the Madness. My name is Rob Maxwell. I'm an exercise physiologist and personal trainer. I'm the owner of Maxwell's Fitness Programs and I've been in business since 1994. The purpose of this podcast is to get to the real deal of what really works and, most importantly, why things work. Hence the name. There is a method to the madness. You know what I mean people. In other words, like there's a reason why we do the things that we do for physical exercise and fitness and the way we eat. Like there really is a reason and if you follow the science you will find it.
Speaker 1:Today I'm going to talk about the different modes of strength training. Before I get to that, let me thank Jonathan and Lynn Gilden of the Gilden Group Realty Pros. They are committed to providing the highest level of customer service and home sales. Why don't you give them a call and figure out what your home is worth? 386-451-2412. I was talking about exercise selection in one of the last podcasts and that's like really important, and I was explaining how we have to cover all the major muscle groups in the body and we have to kind of have an understanding of the joint actions, like what the muscles are supposed to be doing, or at least trust somebody to help you with that. But there is a method to the madness of exercise selection, and there also is a method to the madness when it comes to the mode of resistance that you're trying to use. The modes are going to be free weights, such as barbells and dumbbells and kettlebells, and then there's going to be what we call selectorized machines. That are those are the machines that have the weight stack attached to them. Then there's going to be body weight exercises, which are often thought of as calisthenics, and then there are tubes and plastics and things like that that are moldable, that you can pull to use as resistance. So there's a lot of different modes of strength training and there is a method to the madness as far as which ones to pick. Now a little spoiler alert here there is no best. There are pros and cons and there might be best modes for you on certain exercises, but there are no best.
Speaker 1:So the scientific terminology for resistance training is DCER, and that's we used to call it isotonic training compared to isometric training. So isometric training is when there is contraction of a muscle without joint movement. So when you pause on an exercise, that's an isometric contraction. Or when you hang from a bar, that is going to be an isometric contraction, things like that. Or when you do a plank, that's actually an isometric contraction. Isotonic means that there's contraction with joint movement, but you know the powers that be decided.
Speaker 1:Isotonic was too easy of a term, so they came up with DCER, which stands for dynamic, constant external resistance. So basically what that means is that resistance is resistance as long as it's dynamic, meaning that your joints are moving, the load is external, so it comes from without the body, and there is resistance that remains constant, meaning that, like, the resistance doesn't change as you move through the range of motion, which is true for isokinetic training, but I don't want to get too far in the weeds on that, but those are some of those machines like curves. Back in the day, those types of places had isokinetic resistance, meaning as you started to feel sort of the resistance to struggle, as you started to feel sort of the resistance to struggle, the load would be reduced a little bit, which kind of is very counterintuitive as far as trying to gain strength. It's probably not the best mode, although it is better than doing absolutely nothing. So when it comes to fitting that description of DCER or isotonic training. What that means is that really any mode of resistance can fill the bill.
Speaker 1:I mean I've used everything over the years effectively. I've used some of the most expensive, fancy selectorized machines and those would be Med-X machines which are no longer in production, but they were the absolute best. They probably just priced themselves out of business because essentially their machines were over ten thousand dollars a piece, so leg extension would be about ten grand, and that was 20 years ago, so now it would be double right. So I mean they are just they were top notch. What made them so expensive was all the engineering involved was perfectly matched. So all of the cam arms and all the levers and everything was perfectly matched to the strength curve of each muscle, which a lot of struck selectorized equipment is. But what made them special is they literally had zero friction built in because there were no guide rods. The load was packed into an air tight cam so there was no guide rods that had to slide up and down, so there was zero friction. So they felt so good on the joints and you could use a lot of resistance. That's what made them so expensive. So I've used those effectively and I have gone into people's kitchens, as we were training at their house early on, and have used soup cans and vegetable cans for resistance, and also that was effective.
Speaker 1:I have remote clients now that don't have a lot of equipment at home. One of them is a physician, and when she finishes work she goes into her little office, because it's the best time of day for her to actually train is before she goes home, because she's got three little ones at home and she has. In one office she has two pound dumbbells. In another office she has two pound dumbbells, and another office she has zero. So we have to do a lot of effective body weight training for her resistance and it works perfectly fine. And then, of course, here at my gym I have pre-core equipment, I have some novelist equipment, I have body masters equipment, I have free weights, I have bands, I have everything and I use a combination of everything here.
Speaker 1:So there is no best all right. There are pros and cons. There's a method to the meta, so let's start with selectorized equipment. What makes it so good? Well, number one is the quality of the equipment. It's very convenient. So if you're training a lot of people and you are doing a lot of different exercises and stuff, it's very easy to go from one machine to the next without having to essentially trade out and change out a lot of equipment. So, like one of Ellen's remote clients, for example, like all they have at home is a bar that they have to put plates on and off constantly. And I know she's saying you know, we would save probably 10 minutes in this workout if they would just at least get some dumbbells where they can pick them up and go. But they're constantly switching out the plates and everything.
Speaker 1:So that is a pro and con, right, you might think. Well, I mean, so you take a little time to do it. But the biggest complaint that we hear in our world, when we ask people why don't you do it strength training that is, you know they say, well, I don't have time. So if you're like adding time to a workout, then you're kind of like hurting your chances of sticking with it. If that's how you think and if there are smarter ways to do it, like don't be penny wise and you know, pound foolish, you know just like, go get some equipment that's going to work, that's going to take your excuse away, essentially right.
Speaker 1:So selectorized equipment is like ideal. For that. All you have to do is set the pin and go. Now, that's not the only thing about it. A lot of people don't understand that there are cams built into the equipment.
Speaker 1:So Arthur Jones of Nautilus fame first perfected that back in the early 1970s. What he decided was and he figured out was that each muscle has its own strength curve built into it, meaning there's a point in the muscle, in the range of motion, where the muscle is the strongest and there's a point where it's weakest per limb, per muscle. And free weights don't match that curve right, because free weights are just pure. You're working against gravity with a load, which is fine, but it doesn't match that curve. So, for example, the biceps are actually weakest at their fully lengthened position and stronger at their most contracted position. So if you're picking up, say, a 40-pound barbell to do a barbell curl, well, you are now using kind of an unfair load, meaning that at the very bottom, when they're the weakest, you're using a load that's going to be matched at the very top, when they're strongest. So the bicep isn't getting the most benefit that it could get.
Speaker 1:Don't get me wrong. This does not mean selectorized equipment is superior. It just means it takes care of that aspect. I believe everything works out in the wash, so to say so, that's not huge, but it is a perk to it. So selectorized equipment do have that going for them Not always All of them. Like multilinear cable machines, like a multipurpose cable machine does not have a curve built in because there's so many different exercises you're going to do. But a pre-core or a NOLUS or a Cybex or whatever Life Fitness leg extension is going to have that built in.
Speaker 1:Another thing that selectorized equipment does is it really enables you to isolate those muscles that selectorized equipment does. Is it really enables you to isolate those muscles? I mean, yes, we can do a compound exercise, which means that you're doing two or more muscle groups at one time, compared to an isolation exercise where you're doing one. Like, say, squats are going to work your quads, but it's not going to isolate your quads very well. For that you're going to need a leg extension to do that. So that's another thing that selectorized equipment do for you.
Speaker 1:Machines, all right. What are the cons to them? Well, there's a big footprint, so you have to have the space. So, meaning that a gym, that's not a problem If you're a personal training gym, like me, it can be a problem. As many of my clients know, I'm constantly tweaking things to try to find the ideal floor plan and you know the more equipment you have, the more that that gets in the way. So that's a problem. The other thing is they're expensive. So for home gyms they're expensive. I mean all these machines are going to be about $5,000 a piece. So if you want to fully equip your gym at home, I mean that's a good 80 grand at least that you're going to pay to do that. So there is expense if you're thinking home gym. If you go to a gym, no big deal.
Speaker 1:Free weights are great because of their portability. I mean you know they sound like they're heavy to move and everything, but let me tell you they're a lot lighter to move around than moving around my you know 600 pound leg press machine, right. So they're a lot more portable so you can move them around in different, various areas. They are great because they are a pure, natural, consistent, objective load. So no matter where you go, you know and again, I mostly use dumbbells for free weights, so let's just use those as an example, them as an example. So if you are using 35 pound dumbbells at your local gym and you go on vacation, they're going to be the same load. That's great. That keeps everything nice and consistent.
Speaker 1:Whereas if you're using, say, a leg extension that's a pre-core at my gym but you go on a cruise and they have life fitness you can't compare apples to apples. You don't know if that 50 pounds is really the same, because so much of the equipment comes down to engineering, so you just don't know right. So there's that there's a consistency to them. Plus, it's just resistance. I mean it works. It's simple. I mean I love dumbbells for that reason, typically when I travel, that's what I mostly use, you know, because I can just kind of stay in one area of the gym and do everything that I need to do. So personally, I love dumbbells. Another great thing about dumbbells, especially when we're talking free weights, is the fact that you can work isolaterally, so you really can work one side at a time. If you have a deficiency from your right arm to your left arm, that's a huge perk. They allow for great range of motion. So that's a perk.
Speaker 1:A downside to free weights there's a greater learning curve. So you know, machines are kind of easy to figure out. You know, I mean don't get me wrong. There are people that still, you know, get on them wrong and so there are ways to make mistakes. But for the most part you can look at it and go okay, I sit there, I put my back there, it looks like I put my hands there, it looks like I push. I mean that's pretty simple when if you put a couple pound dumbbells on the floor, a couple pair of dumbbells on the floor, and you tell somebody to do a dumbbell fly, if they're not overly experienced, they're going to look at you funny. So there's a greater learning curve. Plus, there is a greater spotting issue with free weights. So if you're training very intensely and going to failure, you can do that on a machine and not really feel like you need a spotter On free weights. You would need a spotter if you're going to failure, if you have any weights up over your head, if you're in a horizontal or vertical position.
Speaker 1:So there's pros and there's cons when it comes to body weight exercises. There's pros and cons, cons when it comes to body weight exercises. You know there's pros and cons. The portability factor can't be beat. You can do them anywhere, at any time and when I travel and I'm not, I don't have access to a gym and I'm out in the trail, spending a lot of time in the mountains I will do different forms of resistance training outside. I will do squats, I will do lunges, I will do push-ups. If there's something to pull on, I will do squats, I will do lunges, I will do push-ups. If there's something to pull on, I will do pull-ups. If there's not, then no pulls. But whatever, I will still get in a good workout so I can use my body for that.
Speaker 1:The downside is, body weight training is not nearly as easy as people think that it is, and it drives me crazy when I hear parents say things like well, I'm going to have my kids start with body weight exercises because it's easier, and I'm thinking okay, so a pushup, a regular, standard pushup, means that you're doing 70% of your body weight when you do it. Now, most kids can't effectively do that. Now, if you put them on a chest press machine with replicates, a pushup, and you put it on 30 pounds, well, now you're doing like 30 to 40% of their body weight. As an example, they can do that easier. So it's not as easy for an adolescent especially, or pre-adolescent, to maneuver their bodies in the effective way that they need to do it. To do an exercise, I hate when I see little league baseball teams or basketball teams doing lunges, walking lunges. They can't lunge, like they're literally not strong enough to do it, yet they're not coordinated enough to do it. And I would say that's even true with squats. I see kids doing squats and their knees are out over their toes and they're bent over. So it's not easier and I'm just using the kids as an example because I hear that all the time when it comes to body weight training. But it's not easy for conditioned adults either.
Speaker 1:Let me give you the simple example of a pull-up. Can you do one? I mean, I say that because most people can't. So a pull-up is one of the hardest exercises people can do. It's a body weight exercise. So the problem with body weight training is it's not as easy as you think. So when you travel, if you don't have a lot of control of your body, it's not going to be the easiest mode of strength training for you to do.
Speaker 1:Now there are ways, and I encourage everybody to build up to being able to do body weight exercises Like if you're not strong enough to do some body weight squats. By all means, please continue to work on the leg press until you can. If you can't do a pull-up and I think it's great goals for anybody at any age continue to work on pull-down exercises until you get there. So, yes, I absolutely encourage people to be able to do those things because I think it makes you feel really good about yourself. At the same time, you have to understand that it is a hard mode to do a full body workout with. Now can you do modified squats? Absolutely, crunches. Yes, of course there are bodyweight exercises that are easier to do, but the point is to get in a full workout where you're working all the muscle groups. You really have to have a strength level, a strength baseline, to be able to do it, and that really goes with the bands and the elastics and the tubing and all that too.
Speaker 1:It's like it's great to take with you to travel with. It is a form of resistance. It's got its place in physical therapy for sure, but one of the problems with it is is the resistance eventually runs out. It's extremely portable. You can take those bands wherever you go and if you're able to do body weight exercises. They can kind of assist you and give you a little more resistance in certain areas, but the resistance runs out, meaning that eventually you're going to have to continue to go up and up and up on your tubing, which is usually shown in color systems, and eventually you're going to get to a point where you're not really using more load. You can do more repetitions, and I think it's great for maintenance, as I said, and I think it is great for physical therapy, as I said, and I think it is great for physical therapy. But I think eventually you will need something a little bit more than resistance bands on a regular basis for your strength training. All right, so there is no best.
Speaker 1:There is a collection of many, many tools in your toolbox to use, to pull out and say, oh, I can do this, and there are certain modes that are going to be best for you on certain exercises. Like there are free weight exercises, I prefer Just speaking for myself, like I love a goblet squat. I still like a leg press as well. I like a dumbbell fly. I mean, there are certain modes that I like on certain exercises better to isolate my quadriceps and my hamstrings, I would prefer to do leg extension and leg curl. So there are just different modes.
Speaker 1:I always kind of quiz people because I think it's important. I like to teach people how to do the right things the right way, and I don't always just want to tell people what to do. So oftentimes I'll say so do you feel this more than this? Because everybody's different. Somebody might feel a dumbbell curl more than they feel the machine, and sometimes they don't know. And I just encourage people to pay more attention because your body is telling you at that moment what is working better for you.
Speaker 1:But you have to pay attention to it, you have to listen to what it is saying. For example, I personally at least. Lately and again it changes and I think that's important to listen to too. I personally will feel a much greater burn and blood pump in my biceps when I'm doing alternating dumbbell curls versus the machine curl. Why, I don't know. Maybe I'm tempted to go a little heavier on the machine curl and so there's less kinesthetics, there's less feeling involved, don't know. But I do know that I listen to it. So when I'm in a pinch for time and I have to like only do one exercise for one set, oh man, I'm feeling those dumbbell curls, alternating curls, better than this. I'm going to choose to do that.
Speaker 1:So we have to pay attention to what works for us, also understanding we don't have to do it all. We don't have to. Oh, I need to do the machine, then I need to do the dumbbells, then I need to do the barbells. No, that's a myth, that's not true. All right, we pick the tool that is best going to work on that muscle via the correct exercise. Okay, why? Because there's a method to the madness. And if you haven't checked out Overhead Door of Daytona Beach yet, their products, man, their new doors, are something special, man. They are sharp, they are top of the line and they have the best customer service. So please give them a shout.
