» Do Exercise Machines Promote Functional Fitness

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Cold water immersion (a.k.a., “ice baths”) has become a popular method amongst exercise enthusiasts and athletes to enhance recovery after an intense training bout. The strategy involves exposing either the trained limb or the whole body to very cold liquid temperatures. According to p...

Brad Schoenfeld, Ph.D, C.S.C.S., is an internationally renowned fitness expert and widely regarded as one of the leading authorities on body composition training (muscle development and fat loss). He is a lifetime drug-free bodybuilder, and has won numerous natural bodybuilding titles.

Functional Training

March 27, 2011

Do Exercise Machines Promote Functional Fitness

It is widely accepted that fixed-form machines are “non-functional” training implements. In my recent presentation at the 2011 NSCA Personal Trainer Conference I challenged this dogma. Here is a clip of my presentation exploring the topic.

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2 Comments

An important find from the Spennewyn study is that joint pain increased by 111% in the fixed machine group and decreased by 30% in the “functional” group. That’s a 141% difference in perceived pain!

Comment by Israel Halperin — March 27, 2011 @ 2:57 pm
Hey Israel:

Yes, the increased pain in the fixed vs. free form groups was an interesting finding. I’m not sure, though, whether this might be the result of improperly setting up the machines. I often see trainers put a client in a machine and fail to adjust the settings to the body habitus of the trainee.

Thanks for checking in 🙂

Brad

Comment by Brad — March 28, 2011 @ 11:19 am