The importance of training with "free weights" and the concept of "muscle chain"

1) In nature there is no muscle isolation

2) That individual biomechanics does not marry with "constrained" movements

3) That the servo-assisted mechanisms create limitations in training

Deepening the various points above, we begin to dispel the myth (still widespread in the gym) of muscle isolation. The musculoskeletal system never works in a strictly sectorial way, but as a single system that - depending on the movements to be performed - activates chronologically certain muscle chains. The discussion is very complex and articulated, but suffice it to say here that when we train believing we are "isolating" a muscle, in reality we are activating many muscle groups, each with different roles (postural, synergistic, agonist, antagonists ...) Would you ever say that in an exercise like the standing Fly (lateral raises) the first muscles to "activate" are the PERONIERI? NO ... and yet it is so!

So, do all those machines make sense to train the glutes, forearms, anterior / posterior deltoid "individually"? Basically no! Here, then, we connect to the concept of a single individual with its own biomechanics, posture, etc.

The machines (although they have the possibility of being adjusted according to the body size, height of the subject, etc.) tend to make stereotyped movements that do not always match the muscle - tendon - ligamentous structure of a single individual. This leads to a forced dynamic movement in pre-established and non-customizable "tracks", with consequent possible injuries to the articular structures (bags, capsules, tendons, ligaments ...) and muscles. Moreover, arriving at point three, the stereotyped and servo-assisted movements of the machines do not allow (or allow it in a very limited way) the intervention of the so-called postural and synergistic muscles, which are so important and fundamental in everyday life. muscles intervene in all our motor activity to "stabilize" the body in a static or dynamic way according to the movements to be made. This leads to an "optimal and fluid execution of the movement. If a machine "stabilizes" the movement instead of your synergistic muscles, then the training is (biomechanically) incomplete.

All this serves to introduce the "importance of" training especially with the so-called "free weights" (to be clear: dumbbells, barbells, cables ..) and to use machines only in some cases. A Personal Training service carried out only with machines, in my humble opinion, does not make sense. The motor learning that the PT must favor cannot be separated from the use of free weights. Machines do not allow motor learning in the true sense of the word.

It may be objected that the machines are safer and allow a less risky and more "self-managed" training. This can be shared (in part), but a true, complete and equally safe workout cannot be separated from the supervision of an expert in the Fitness field who certainly does not limit himself to "putting the customer" on the machine and abandoning him to himself. The Personal Trainer must instead:

• evaluate case by case
• define and update a training program in progress customized after having carried out all the evaluation tests and the physical state of the subject and train him mostly (not exclusively ..) with "free weights".
• combine a diet "regime" (never restrictive but nutritious and without sacrificing taste) with the chosen physical activity.
• guide the customer, step by step, towards his goals COMPATIBLE with his genetics.

So, it is we a "servant-assist" the customer, and in a SAFE and EXCLUSIVE way !!