I’m stronger right now, real world, with my combination of weird stimulus (horse stance, wrestler’s bridge holds, pushing shit around at work), calisthenics, labor job (carry, stairs), and planet fitness than I ever was in any “real” barbell gym.
I thought back to this anecdote on a now defunct site, where he spoke of boggling people’s minds as he repped out the leg extension, full stack, one legged before he ever “seriously” lifted weights.
I remember having just joined pf, and blowing this chicks mind when she realized I’d repped the stack into an isometric hold…normal two leg style.
I’m nearing this point one legged now.
Obviously I’ve gotten stronger, the forklift at work is a prime example.
But how?
People, “hardcore” gym culture, likes to bag on machines.
In all honesty the level of fitness, and ingenuity I see at the pf location I frequent is higher than at the “serious” gyms I’ve went, at least among the gym’s population of serious trainers.
“But the stabilizers!”
That’s the #1 thing held against machines. It’d only be an issue if machines were all you do.
The only physicality you have.
I do a decent amount of calisthenics. That’s the stabilizer stimulus, and likely more effectively than with a barbell.
Cause I do my pushups and bodyweight squats my barbell bench and squat are moving up just fine with machines as the heavy stimulus. I’ve kept the small muscles firing.
Especially holding that high horse stance in my bedroom at night.
Machines and calisthenics combine to a rather effective bypass of the barbell. Machine for the heavy, calisthenics to hit the stabilizers, keeping you athletic, mobile.
Que sera sera. Stronger is stronger.