Or casual gym users, I just like the term ‘gym rat’. When you hit the gym, are there machines you never touch for whatever reason?
For me it’s the resistance/weight machines, in that I just don’t get the point of them when I can use free weights instead and not faff about with adjusting seats and handles and what have you. So it’s mainly out of laziness.
On the cardio side I don’t get much use out of the elliptical machine either, I just find it waaay too boring, doesn’t get the blood up in the same way as the treadmill I find.
To my surprise no matter how busy it is the rowing machines are usually free, personally I get much more out of them them than bikes or the aforementioned elliptical. But then they don’t have a TV in them, which probably explains it.
There are a lot of weight machines I don’t use. They are either too awkward and difficult to adjust for what they are meant to achieve or I can work that area a lot easier with free weights. But the one thing I’ll never get is the treadmills. Treadmill is synonymous with repetition and boredom and there’s a whole world out there where I can walk without that feeling that I might shoot out the back any moment.
Nobody ever uses the rowing machine where I go. The treadmills are always 100% full of people, strolling along, watching TV.
My doctor AND my physical therapist basically begged me to promise to never again use a back hyper extension bench. Walmart also seems to call it a “roman chair” Robot or human?
I hurt my back on it, in case it’s not obvious why they don’t want me near one.
The only machines I use regularly are the lat pulldown and cable row stations, and the squat/leg press. I use the others mostly as a change of pace. Occasionally if I am tired or sore I will do an all-machine/all-cables workout just to pump a little and stay loose. I don’t do cardio at the gym (I walk the dog for an hour when I get home) so I don’t do treadmills or stair-steppers or ellipticals, of which there are dozens at the gym I work out at.
I don’t like the biceps curl machine, which hurts my elbows and doesn’t fit me no matter how I adjust it. Likewise the triceps stations. I never bother with the hip adductor/abductor stations, which are for people who still believe in spot reducing. I don’t do leg extensions or leg curls, so I don’t use those machines either. There is a crunch machine that I have not used in years. I am old school - barbells and dumbbells by preference.
A while back, they did a survey at the gym to see what improvements we wanted. All the serious gym rats were in agreement - we need another bench, chains and bands, and a T-bar row.
So they bought twenty more ellipticals and another TV. :rolleyes:
LOL summarizes the mentality of my gym completely (can’t replace a bent barbell, but new TV…)
As to the OP:
Having shorter limbs, I don’t do most machines where the pivot is supposed to align with a joint (elbow, knee, shoulder) - these just don’t work right for me.
I’ve never used the hip adductor/abductor stations as I work these areas through other means.
There used to this one, old Nautilus ab crunch machine that would kick my butt. But since it disappeared, none of the replacements do as well as stuff done on the floor or on an incline sit up “board”.
I tried using abdominal machines. Aside from the twist which I use only occasionally, I found they were incredibly awkward to use when I could just sit on the ground and do some jackknifes or crunches. I avoid them from now on.
I’ve also never bothered to try out any machines that focus exclusively on calves.
I use the squat rack, the flat and incline benches, barbells on the floor, and the cable lat pulldown. I could see eventually adding some dumbbells in, but not much more than that.
You write that like you were expecting something else?
Gyms do best if they attract a large number of people who pay their monthly dues but hardly show up. The regulars use/crowd the facilities more per unit dollar paid. You don’t want too many of them. They may have asked just to make sure that was not what they would do!
