Welcome back!

A lot of trainers are into the “compound” exercise scene as if doing full range, natural motion exercises is a new discovery. (Ask any cave man lugging home part of a wooly mammoth about the newness of this type of exercise).

At the same time they are decrying the use of pinweight machines for various reasons.

I disagree and here is why.

If you are a complete beginner to strength training, a number of pinweight exercises will start to build up certain muscles. Instead of trying to concentrate on lots of things at once, the nature of the pinweight machine and its realtive isolation of muscle groups, means you concentrate on less and can end up doing more.

You get to feel how certain muscles are working together, instead of worrying if you are gonna fall over or not. So when you do attempt the bigger compound exercises your (shoulders lets say) will just naturally do the right thing because they are used to working out and are stronger already.

This is the exact same regime I used to rehabilitate myself after a half dozen visits to hospital with heart problems.

Strength gains in the early stages come along very fast, so the psychological booster effect of progress and success already will mean a trainee is willing to try different more complicated moves. Then the compound exercises with free weights can be introduced.

And by the way, despite doing one armed dumbell rows with 100 lbs, I much prefer a seated row on a pinweight machine any day of the week. So even for advanced trainees I believe pinweight machines have a place within an overall training program.

However, once past the beginner stage, then I am an advocate of free weights and olympic style lifting for overall body conditioning.

In that respect the “new” fangled science of free weights is the best way to strength train.

Oh by the way, a lot of rehab or realignment exercises can only be successfully done with pinweights - rubber bands just won’t cut it.

Live long. Live free.

Rick