Website member Ben asks:
“Hey Russ! I’m at a hotel for the next few months and the gym is all machines. Is there a way I can continue training hard until things go back to normal, or am I stuck for choice?”
– Ben
Trust me, just because your gym is limited to machines doesn’t mean your workout will suck.
Sure, I like to have the choice of as much training equipment as possible, but sometimes being limited actually results in more productive sessions. Heck, some of my best workouts took place in my gym shed (“The Torture Rack”), which was just a bunch of basic barbells and screw-together dumbbells.
So here’s a workout I put together for machine-only gyms. It’s called Rise Of The Machines.
The Workout
Watch the video above.
This is a full-body workout which involves the following classic machines:
- Seated Row
- Chest Press
- Lat Pulldown
- Shoulder Press
- Leg Press
Most gyms have all of these, and they’ll target every part of your body.
You’re going to be using a Muscle Buster technique I call “5/25”. This is a x30 rep set where you’ll select a weight which represents about 30% of your 10RM and then perform x5 reps with a slow tempo (I like 5 seconds up and 5 seconds down) before heading straight into x25 regular reps.
A Guide To Each Exercise
- Seated Row Machine
Most people I’ve met in gyms during my 22 years as a PT struggle to feel rows in their back, so before you begin each rep I want you to pin your shoulder blades back, and then focus on pulling your elbows (not your arms) back behind the line of your midsection.
This will greatly increase your ability to focus on the target muscles of the mid-back.
- Chest Press Machine
The position of your shoulders is the key to a good, solid rep on this exercise. We want to pin them back against the bench and puff your chest up, and they should remain in this position throughout the entire rep.
This minimizes the involvement of the front delts, and will save you from the niggling shoulder pain most people accumulate from years of bench pressing incorrectly.
- Lat Pulldown Machine
We can maximize how much you feel this in your lats by using a similar technique to that of the seated row machine.
By drawing your shoulders down you minimize momentum and the involvement of the biceps, so you might not be as strong, but you’ll feel it a heck of a lot more!
- Shoulder Press Machine
Constant tension is the key to success here, so we want to “float” between the top and bottom of the rep without fully hitting either position.
The bottom position of most machines is just a little bit too low, so it can be uncomfortable to drive from, whereas the top is usually a lock-out position, which takes the stress off the muscles. Fuck both of those, we want the action in the middle!
- Leg Press Machine
You can place your feet anywhere on the pad, although I’m partial to “high and wide”.
Imagine your feet have four corners, this will help you to keep them flat throughout the rep. We’re going to lower the machine to a 90 degree angle and then drive it back up, stopping just shy of lock-out. Ignore anybody who says you need to go lower, it really doesn’t work any part of your legs to a greater extent.
Give this workout a try!
| Exercise | Sets | Reps | Rest |
|---|---|---|---|
| Seated Row Machine | 4 | 5/25 | 60 sec |
| Chest Press Machine | 4 | 5/25 | 60 sec |
| Lat Pulldown Machine | 4 | 5/25 | 60 sec |
| Shoulder Press Machine | 4 | 5/25 | 60 sec |
| Leg Press Machine | 4 | 5/25 | 60 sec |
