Gym with the best weight machines?

Almost every single injury I see in 15 years in the gym comes from leg machines. A lot of nasty ones from the leg press. Lots of tendinitis or rupture patellar tendon doing leg curls working the quad.

And the truth is, you should be doing the workouts you’re not good at

And most people who can’t even do good body weight workouts don’t even need to touch weights. There are about 20 push up variations off the top of my head that will work better than machines and are extremely hard I probably can’t even do 25+ of in some.

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As mentioned, I use the SuperSlow protocol to avoid injuries caused by momentum, and I don’t lock out on pushes. I am not confident in my technique for free weights and, above all else, I just don’t enjoy them, so I will stick with what I like and thus am willing to do and what seems to be working for me. I do highly recommend the book I mentioned — Body By Science by Dr McGuff — if you’re interested in this approach.

This I didn’t know and is worth bearing in mind, thank you. I am average height for a female at home, so I think it should be ok for me here.

Regarding gym times, the time I go (Tuesday afternoons) is relatively empty thankfully.

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In a few of the gyms I’ve frequented here, the machines appear to be used primarily as a place to sit and look at Facebook or get the perfect selfie shot. This makes training here often an exercise in patience and restraint.

But why are you doing calf raises? It’s almost always used for rehabilitation of broken foot and ankles or ligaments in that area to strengthen the calf on one side or the other. There are multiple heads of the calf muscle. Which ones are you targeting and what for?

Almost all leg workouts with machines are for rehabilitation and very light weights. I see guys do such heavy weights on those machines when they cant do it on their feet. Their muscles might be able to support the load but not their ligaments. So it’s not that you don’t lock your legs @pipstar1 . They can be harmful to your joints and ligaments long term. And there is almost not way you fully activate all of your muscles from there.

Anyways, seems like you’re going to do what you’re going to do. But just my input and other guys I talked to who has some impressive resumes as trainers and athletes ranging from training players for Wimbledon and olympians. I tend to listen to them and learn a lot from them.

Need juicy calfs bruh, gotta do those calf raises

Sorry to disappoint you but calf muscles are almost genetics and even bodybuilders just get implants because they just don’t really grow.

lol what

They’re almost genetics. Some people have naturally big or small calf muscles. Very few people can build them to notice any difference, and it takes like real bodybuilding dedications to do. And there’s not real athletic reason to do it unless you’re hurt and rehabbing or there’s a imbalance or weakness in supporting you ankles.

The implants thing just blew my mind.

It’s a know particular weakness for black body builders.

I imagine you would have to refer to them as cows after the implants.

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I don’t do calf raises at the moment. I do leg press. I was asking if there was a gym with a calf machine because I wanted to try it out.

Asking athletes and the like for training advice is not necessarily advisable for us mere mortals, and you identified exactly the reason why this is case when talking about calf muscles — the issue of genetics. People who are top of their game are genetically different to most of us — they likely have different strength and body-building capabilities as well as different capacities for recovery. I think that the findings of scientists, doctors, and other specialists should be taken into consideration as well, especially as their studies tend to have a wider sample than personal experience and anecdote.

So you’re saying my muscular, well-defined calf muscles are just a result of good genetics? How disappointing.

Do loads more calf raises and get them more juicy. I am sure you a potential 5% increase in them.

They’re already bursting with juice…any more and I’m afraid they would explode.

One way they look bigger is actually because you shed some body fat there and see more definition or they become more vascular as you get in better conditioning and more blood goes to the muscles there and therefore it looks bigger when you work out. Actually muscle hypertrophy is really difficult.

I can gain muscle well but I gain fat just as easily. It’s bs.

I’m saying it’s a useless workout and no one really does unless they are rehabbing. Genetics don’t change basic principles, leg press pretty much ignores the rest of your body, you don’t engage any core muscles and back like you would do on a regular squat. Sometimes science isn’t able to measure outside of basic muscle growth and activation. I used to make other trainers teach outside of the textbook a lot and Of course if I simply measure muscle activation and growth in the targeted muscle, machines will match up to anything else. That’s not what I’m saying. Your body has to be balanced and functional, bigger stronger muscles in one area can actually hurt you because it cause unnatural imbalances if it’s not a normal movement you make. Are any of the motions you do on machines things you do in real life? There no instance you just sit and everything is stabilized and balance for you. I just don’t get why anyone would train like that purely because it’s not natural.

Anyways, I’m just saying leg press machines are pretty much used for post injuries to rehab in the world of trainers and physiotherapists. And athletes don’t train to look good, build muscles or lose weight in most cases. They train to be able to use their bodies at effectively as possible, that’s something To think about. So I almost always get my clients to train like athletes to get results unless they have specific goals like powerlifting l, bodybuilding or weight loss.

But I can see you have your own thoughts, and working out is better than nothing so good luck.