For all their upside, strength training with free weights can cause inefficiencies that ultimately prevent our workouts from reaching their full body shaping potential. Often requiring a spotter to ensure the successful implementation of their routines, free weight exercises can sap your feeling of independence during workouts. The constant need for plate weights to be loaded and unloaded can also prove quite cumbersome, causing many to embrace machine weights with open arms as a welcome alternative to free weight lifts. Constantly swapping weights can be time consuming, something eliminated by the adoption of a machine weight routine. A list of other grievances could also be filed by those agitating against free weight usage. There certainly are things detractors could point out in order to make a substantive case against using them in place of machine weights.
Having a piece of machine weight equipment that focuses ONLY on one muscle can result in too much of a good thing. Continually placing targeted focus on a single muscle or muscle group could cause a disproportionate building of muscle, but owning a Total Trainer home gym that has an all of the above approach when it comes to sculpting muscles is going to leave the body toned and improved from head to toe.
A glide board and adjustments that allow for 12 different resistance levels and a variety of beneficial angles mean the inflexibility of workout options that dogs some home gyms is not a theme with the Total Trainer. It can be used as a circuit training routine of sorts—impressive amounts of cardio and strength training provided by a single machine. But there is no need to jump from one piece of equipment before immediately hopping onto another like a circuit training regimen would require. They are all at your fingertips in one product, meaning the home gym bar is raised when the Total Trainer is in use.
The exact motions afforded by machine weights in general and the Total Trainer in particular will help impart the top level work to the muscle being honed in on. In short, the Total Trainer essentially “guides” the trajectory of your movements during resistance exercises. Some free weight advocates make the case that stabilizer muscles are not recruited as much due to the fluidity of motion inherent in machine weights, but efficiency of movement is what lets Total Trainer users know they are working the proper muscles during workouts. Isolation of the parts of the body you want to see develop tone and shape is done more effectively via machine weights, differentiating them from the lack of efficiency offered by free weights.
A vivid contrast between these two forms of weight can be witnessed when performing squats. Doing these lower body exercises with free weights carries with it a significant chance of injury if an excessive amount of weight is loaded onto the barbell or incorrect form is practiced. (Both of these miscues done simultaneously are an even worse concoction). But squats on the Total Trainer’s glide board are an infinitely safer undertaking thanks to its ergonomic design which forces you to use correct form. This fixed plane of motion is one of the contributing factors that set machine workouts apart from run of the mill free weight routines. Additionally, this element makes machines like the Total Trainer a safer buy for fitness beginners, eliminating second guessing of whether the lifts are being correctly executed. It will build good habits as far as technique is concerned, meaning newcomers to lifting will not pick up on counterproductive practices when initially formulating their routines.
Owning an arsenal of free weights cannot even begin to scratch the surface of the Total Trainer’s slew of fitness offerings. This is because ownership of the Total Trainer confers a blessing of diverse workouts that make them a more affordable and all around better investment than singular home fitness products such as an individual bench or squat rack. It merely delivers the same benefits that owning numerous free or machine weights would while carrying a much lower cost and smaller footprint. Its machine weight status not only makes it ideal for beginners, but also for anyone who seeks to engage in proper form no matter how advanced their fitness routine. So while the Total Trainer’s price tag, ergonomics, safer workouts, and delivery of economical motions sets it apart from free weights, the hybrid nature of its fitness capabilities even make it an upgrade over owning a collection of standalone machine weight offerings.