I think sometimes, often with good intentions, we all over-complicate things on occasion. This article really seems to be good about driving home the points of basic lifting and that you don't have to spend countless hours in the gym to reap great strength benefits. I know I'm looking forward to getting back to the basics and having a little extra time...hopefully cutting back to 4 workouts a week from 6.

http://oakbrook.suntimes.com/2014/09/02/from-the-community-weekly-wellness-hard-work-on-basic-exercises-darien-mfc-sports-performance/

thanks for sharing

It's an interesting article but I'm not sure I agree 100% that those are the only exercises you need. My trainer teaches me a lot of full-body exercises that hit a lot of muscles at once to be very efficient but we also add in some small muscle exercises (like triceps) that are harder to work. I like to have a variety of exercises to choose from but I don't do all of them every time I work out.

I agree about the machines, though... I've done that in the past and just don't really get any effect. But now that I'm doing more free weight and body weight exercises, I see a lot better results.

Good for you researching and working to find out what's best for you.

Ginger

I didn't so much research it as I really just ran across that article by accident. I think what the author is trying to say is that you don't really HAVE TO do "isolation exercises" to hit muscles like the triceps when you can do body weight movements like dips that work triceps, shoulders and chest and pull ups for lats and biceps or deadlifts for almost every body muscle. I don't do any bicep curls, but they get worked a lot through my pull movements. I don't think there's anything wrong with doing a bunch of isolation exercises for every muscle, but if that's all someone does, they're not likely to get the results they're wanting. I may be wrong, but I'm guessing the reason the article was written is for someone that's not finding the time to lift 6-8 hours a week, when they can get just as good results, if not better, working out more efficiently with compound movements. If I ever lose more time for lifting, I truly feel I can do deadlifts and power clean & jerks each week and would be just fine with them as they are full body lifts. In the end, it really gets down to a person's goals and how much time they have to lift I guess.

I agree completely about the isolation exercises... I feel so much better and stronger and more balanced since I stopped doing the isolation machines and started doing more of the full body stuff. My upper body is definitely improving in strength but there are some things I am not strong enough to do yet so I do still supplement with tricep stuff with free weights... wanna try to avoid as much arm jiggle as possible!

I think sometimes, often with good intentions, we all over-complicate things on occasion. This article really seems to be good about driving home the points of basic lifting and that you don't have to spend countless hours in the gym to reap great strength benefits. I know I'm looking forward to getting back to the basics and having a little extra time...hopefully cutting back to 4 workouts a week from 6.

http://oakbrook.suntimes.com/2014/09/02/from-the-community-weekly-wellness-hard-work-on-basic-exercises-darien-mfc-sports-performance/

Are you secretly a Chicagoan?

I would say my routine in the weight room is pretty basic. I try to hit all the major muscle groups via squats, lunges, dead lifts, lat row, chest press and fly and biceps and triceps work. Then I do some abs on the ball and some planks and call it a day. That's my quick and dirty routine. I try to go as heavy as I can and then go home to my couch and cry. LOL!

The thing I have noticed since beginning CrossFit last year is that the difference between barbell/weight work and machine work is vast. For example, I finally got moved from "squat to a box" to "squat to plates" yesterday. Immediately, losing those 2 inches meant that my squat weight max dropped from 125 lbs to 80 lbs, while I have to build THOSE muscles up and learn to support myself even more. The machines would probably just allow me to build up the weight amount without building up the functionality.

Interesting article.