leg exercises

jeffisbig said:
My gym has Olympic Weights and one squat rack. Its right next to the smith machine. The smith machine the Personal trainers use for squats (/boggle). I saw one PT have their client doing bench presses on it. While facing one of the two benches set up exclusively for that reason. That really threw me for a loop, and my knowledge of weight lifting is limited to what I've learned in the past month.
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Yup, that's pretty common.

I refuse to believe the trainers purposefully do stupid shit so I truly believe it's a complete lack of understanding. They believe there is more danger to free weights than fixed plane motion devices such as the smith.

Why I do not know.

I mean, in some cases they're right when there's absolutely no experience in the trainee and no formal instruction/oversight. However, I thought that's why they're in the picture; to train the damn client.

Any Joe or Jane can use machines. It's hard to go wrong.

But again, I truly believe the trainers feel that machines is the right starting place for most anyone. That or the bosu ball circus acts you commonly see.

The machine area at my gym has two of every kind of machine -- 2 different brands. Some of the equipment in the free weight room is the same brand and make of the machines only you put free weights on. I don't get the benefit of using one over the other. Outside of the ability of putting on more weight.
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I've gotten into it with a number of gym owners/managers pleading with them to ditch machines. They're bulky, expensive are redundant in many cases. When you have 5 machines to hit the chest taking up a huge area of the gym floor and one or two flat benches and/or squat racks if you're lucky... something is way off. They're completely missing the boat.
 
Sure, chance of injury always rises when lifting heavy relative to your strength.

If I'm doing hang cleans without a platform or olympic plates, I simply set the rack up so I can unload the weight at 'catch' height.
 
i do squats, flys, curls, etc.. with hand weights... i use a chair for tricep dips and i have a total gym but i rarely use it.. i agree that way too many gyms have inadequate equipment and just go all out on the cardio machines, its just ridiculous, you need a balance between the two...and i would much rather lift personally. I have yet to get "huge manly muscles" by lifting, lol... alot of females don't understand that we dont have the hormones to get huge...you have to take testosterone among other things...
 
But females can still build up some pretty awesome musculature. We just need to lift heavy (just like the guys), which is what I try to do.

I can't deadlift anymore, but benching and squatting are still on the docket :D
 
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