What Chuck Does

Wow. This article is so full of shit that I had to basically repost it from Larry’s blog and rant about it here.

Basically this article boils down to this: Each machine or exercise targeting a specific muscle group by restricting the aid from other muscle groups, is bad for you because it puts pressure on your joints and is unnatural in movement. Alternatively you should perform an exercise that is more natural in movement and allows other muscle groups to “help out”.

And that is exactly why this article is such bullshit.

That’s like saying, “You should never run because running puts extra pressure on your joints and is unnatural in movement when compared to walking. Instead, try walking.” The author misses the entire concept of muscle-specific exercise via dedicated machines or motions. The rationale for these machines/exercises (and their movements) is to improve the performance of that particular muscle group, whether it be strength, flexibility, speed etc. You simply can not achieve the same results when you allow other muscle groups to contribute to the motion. Taking unnecessary movement and “help” out of the equation forces that specific muscle group to work harder thus allowing for greater gains in performance.

Now if the author’s take was that muscle-specific exercises are inefficient per minute time exercised, then that would be a different story. Obviously combination movement exercises, like squats, pushups, and pullups target more muscle groups per repetition than leg press, chest press, and lat pulldown respectively.

I’m not denying these machines put a little more stress on your joints and/or are slightly unnatural, but so is typing or even reading. You think your eyes were made to focus at 1-3 feet constantly for hours at a time? Why don’t we instead just look at landscapes all day? Moron!