Gym machines are obviously very practical but pose plenty of challenges. Whether you get one for your home or you buy a subscription to the local gym, the dilemma remains: how can you use them to their best potential to achieve the results you desire? Today we will answer such questions by analyzing the right gym machines for certain body parts and muscle groups.
The Treadclimber: Cardio Training with Emphasis on Legs, Knees, Hips, and Joints
A treadclimber is more than your usual treadmill workout machine. This piece of equipment has the best of both worlds as it is a paced treadmill for walking/running and stair climbing. Many people find cardio exercises a bit boring, so they need a challenge.
Moreover, fitness trainers do not recommend that beginners use more advanced gym machines until they get their cardio warm-up right.
A treadclimber helps you reach a superior level of fitness with an emphasis on the strengthening of legs, knees, hips, and joints. If you want to burn a lot of calories on a machine that packs the benefits of a treadmill, elliptical, and stepper you should check this for Bowflex Treadclimber TC100 gym machine. The best part about Bowflex TreadClimber is that it helps you burn 2.5 times more calories than conventional treadmills. According to user reviews, this easy-to-use machine comes with different levels of resistance to help you achieve your muscle toning, fitness, weight loss, and cardio training goals safely and efficiently.
The Horizontal Seated Leg Press Gym Machine: Quads and Glutes
You can use such a fitness machine at home or gym. The horizontal seated leg press targets the abs, quads, glutes, hamstrings, and calves.
The machine trains different muscle groups in your body, while preparing you for off-machine squats and lunges. While the device does not train your abs per se, it offers them enough toning so you would be able to work your abs separately on other gym machines.
The machine works perfectly for those who want lower-body strengthening and training. When you use it, make sure you set it into the right position, as you may strain your back muscles if you misuse the machine.
The Lat Pulldown Machine: Latissimus Dorsi
As its name says, this gym machine targets your back muscles, known as latissimus dorsi (lats) and shoulder girdle. Fitness trainers recommend that beginners start with fewer weights and progressively add more.
The pulldown machine is ideal for beginners who want to add pull-ups to their future workout sessions. It helps you strengthen your back, build your entire posterior chain, improve spine strength, alleviate back pain, align shoulders, and enhance overall body balance and posture.
Be wary to always perform the lat exercises on the pulldown machine correctly to protect your spine, lower back, arms, and back muscles. But if you manage to master the machine and build those muscles, you will be able to move forward to more complex workouts.
The Chest Press: Chest, Biceps, Triceps
You can separately build your biceps with a biceps cable bar machine and your triceps with the triceps cable bar. However, it is difficult for a single person to buy several pieces of equipment for their home gym. Also, when you practice at the gym, the cable machine may be taken.
For this reason, one of the best machines to use is the chest press. It mimics the mechanics of a push-up, thus training your biceps, triceps, and chest. This piece of equipment is the best way for a beginner to step into the world of compound exercises.
It would be better to work on this machine under a supervision of a fitness trainer, as you could unknowingly use it the wrong way, like using your back or core muscles to perform the exercise.
The Hanging Leg Raise: Abs and Hip Flexors
Beginners know abs are hard to train as our bodies tend to cheat and use the back or the legs to perform the exercise instead of the core. Fortunately, the hanging leg raise leaves little room for shortcuts. To use it correctly, you need to train your arms well – the workout for biceps and triceps is mandatory in this case.
The machine is more of a frame. You prop up on your forearms, get a good grip of the handles, and lift your legs as high as you can. The exercise works your abs, hip flexors, glutes, and arms, but it is mostly an abs-centered type of exercise.
Most beginners start core training on the floor, in a horizontal position – think about Pilates training – but as they strengthen their abs, they should give this machine a try.
Final Thoughts
The human body is an intricate and beautifully designed system. It is hard to use one machine for a targeted muscle group and avoid warming up or training the adjacent muscle groups on gym equipment like the rowing machine.
Beginners can use these machines to learn how their bodies function, what muscles need more strength training, what vulnerabilities they need to overcome (range of motion, weak joints, etc.), and which are the best exercises/machines for them to reach their fitness goals.
