Chez Brice !

Hi everyone.

Let's startwith one of the major problem with exercising today : machines !

The objective of this blog is quite humble : to react to all kind of bullshit professed on subjects I have given a little thought. These subjects will be diverse but will remain centered around being healthy, living a healthy lifestyle, exercising and stuff… I hope it will be use full to the people sharing this kind of inerest .

Indeed, nowadays, people think that in order to get in shape they have to get inside a crowded room with air conditionning and lots of thousands dollars worth machines… I just think it is completely wrong.. This is going against every instinctive needs when one think about exercising : breathing fresh air, moving as a whole and not as different part a puzzle with are not.

Let'stake the example of the pull up. The pull up or chin up in itself is a very complete and powerful exercise allowing you to work lots of muscles together and developing a confidence in one's hability to hang from something with just hands and one's facilty to move one's body in the air.

Now lets compare with the lat machine, the most often used substitute for pull up (event though I should say it the other way around),. As its name says it the lat machine allows you to train your lats, a little bit of arms and… that'sit.

So now let's find out why it sucks so much and why so many people still use it.

The reason this machine was created was to help trainees to work their lat, as if the human body was an addition of different part. In order to do so this machine has been created to eliminate any other muscle involvement.

You are now sat on a chair with your body tied up so that the only remaining muscle working is your lat.

Why does people use it so much ? Because it is… way easier. Indeed since less muscles are involved, (part of the work is handled by the machine) it is way less tiring for the trainee while allowing him to feel his lats working and making him believe that he did what he came for : getting big lats as soon as possible.

While it is true that lats are worked with the lat machine it is also true you will be pulling a weight that you will never be a able to pull the same way in the real world because your core for example won't handle the work that you are used to have the machine handle for you.

So basically you're exercising a little part of your body and your are teaching your lats to work alone as if working the lats + working the arms + working the legs = working the whole body. This is wrong the body is not 1+1+1+1+1+1= something it is 1 and that'sit.

So basically you are spending the same time as if you have been doing pull ups but your reap much less, on the other side you are less tired of course but if your goal is to not get tired I think you have missed something.

Another aspect is that working the body as a whole leads to way funnier workout and to sensations such as jumping, dipping and pulling way nearer to normal mouvements and as such more natural and pleasant instead of spending your time working out in front of a machine for a set number of repetitions in a room with lots of people and air conditionning just like you would do… at your job.

i do think that such workouts are funnier because of one simple reason: we were weant to move this way.

I mean, look at all those animals evolving in their natural environement, there was a time where we used to move a bit like them.

Men are made to run, sprint, jump, dip, pull themselves, crawl, wrestle... Just like any other animal. At least this is what i think.

To me, training like this is a way to rediscover a way of moving that today's society makes us forget about.

in my opinion society as it is today is kinda alianating and working out could be a way of escaping this...or to dive even deeper into alienation by going into a commercial gym and following another illogical routine.

Just think about the process behind it as a whole: you will wake up in the morning to go to the office in order to earn money. You will then spend a part of this hard gained money into a gym membership where you will go between 3 and 5 days a week and sit in front of another machine with the sole purpose of making an only muscle grow bigger without any fun or thinking behind it.

This should sound silly to you, that's not what exercising is about. It is about breathing fresh air(cold or warm air), moving your whole body in always changing directiosn and fashions.

I am not saying all my workouts offer such a life changing experience( a bit like my last ) but at least I try to have them make feel me better in all kind of ways, physically and mentally. My ideal workout would be in the nature with other humans doing different kind of exercise really often and enjoying an also ever changing wheather. just like any animal would...












NLS's Test 2012-12-28 13:01:05