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One of the biggest mistakes people make when they workout - and a lot of exercise "experts" are guilty of this as well - is to use machines in their routine.  Exercise machines are inefficient and ineffective.  

Walk into any gym these days and what you'll find is rows and rows of equipment piled on top of each other.  If - like me - you want to find the squat rack or some open floor area you are out of luck.

There are many reasons that most people view exercise in terms of using pieces of equipment for everything, but the bottom line is that if you sit, lie, squat, press, curl, extend or move on any piece of equipment you're getting a lot less out of exercise than you should be.

Exercise should be performed - the vast, vast, vast majority of times - while you are standing on your two feet or positioned on the floor.  Execises performed while you are affixed to terra firma are called "Ground Based Movements."

Squats and lunges are ground based movements.  Push ups and sit ups and calesthenics are ground based movements.  Standing overhead dumbbell press is a ground based movement, but seated military press is not.

The concept is that because you are on your feet you are responsible for providing balance and stability, not a machine.  The complex workings of the body are used to provide balance, stability and movement.  Also, with ground based movements you are exercising in the same way, in the same environment, that you move in the real world.

Not only are these ground based movements, they are also compound movements.  Compound refer to the fact that more than one muscle group is involved in performing the exercise.  Compound movements are always preferable, because in the real world you never produce movement by using just one muscle group.

Using squats and lunges as an example, in order to perform these exercises all of the muscles in your body work together to produce movement, while also providing balance and stability.  The prime movers - every muscle from your lower back down to your toes - all exercise together.

If you were to perform squats on any kind of machine, the machine provides most of the means for you to be balanced and stable.  Plus since all machines have you work in a fixed plane and axis of movement, you are not moving in a natural manner, which could lead to injury.

If you were to use different machines for every muscle group in your lower body - leg extension, leg curl, leg press, hip extension, etc. - you would be spending a lot more time than is required to address the needs of your lower body.  And all without doing anything to improve the all-important stabilizing and balancing muscles of the body.

Heck, the reason people can do 4 or 5 sets each of different lower body machines is because they are easy enough to do. Properly performed squats and lunges - even modified to allow for capability level of the individual - are superior to any machines.  This is why no more than 6 or 8 total sets of these two exercises are all that you need to do.

The typical excuse used to defend the use of these machines is that beginners don't have the ability to do these ground based movements.  This is nonsense.  Any fitness professional who uses machines for their clients - old, young, infirm or firm - is intellectually and physically lazy.

In my facility we have people of all ages, and levels of ability train exclusively with ground based movements, including our physical therapy patients.  This means our staff members have to work during every session; we don't sit and watch our clients do pulldowns or run on a treadmill.

We adapt the ground-based movements to allow for each individual's capability so the client has the opportunity to develop balance.  Rather than sit them down  and have them not have to work to maintain balance, we have them stabilize themselves while standing and progress away from holding on to something as they improve.

Everyone should exercise while standing. 

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