Machine exercises

A machine replaces three things at once: the training partner who spots you, the balance a free weight demands in the air, and the constant judgment call of whether to grind out one more rep or rack it once energy runs low. On the leg press, that shows up concretely: if the legs give out mid-set, the weight stays contained by the rails with nobody needing to step in, something a barbell back squat simply can't offer under the same failure. A machine row rests the chest against a pad, and that support does the job the core and spinal erectors otherwise have to do on a barbell row, holding the posture for the whole set. The leg curl isolates the hamstring without asking anything of the lower back, which a Romanian deadlift does have to hold in position through the entire hip hinge. That fixed path — the seat, the backrest and the lever arm decide the one direction the weight can travel — is exactly what makes it the right call for isolating one muscle or training tired or alone, not a consolation prize for skipping free weights: it's a real service, with a real limit, since it never asks for the stability a free movement demands by nature.

Exercises

  1. 1. Leg curl

    hamstrings · machine

    The prime mover is the full hamstring group — biceps femoris, semitendinosus, and semimembranosus — flexing the knee against the machine's resistance.

  2. 2. Leg extension

    quads · machine

    The sole prime mover is the quadriceps, the group of four muscles on the front of the thigh: the rectus femoris, vastus lateralis, vastus medialis, and vastus intermedius.

  3. 3. Hack squat

    quads · machine

    The prime mover is the quad — rectus femoris and the vastus muscles — extending the knee through the whole range; fixing the back to the pad takes the hip mostly out of the equation and concentrates nearly all the work on the knee, more than a free squat does at the same depth.

  4. 4. Machine row

    back · chest-supported row machine

    The prime mover is the lat, pulling your arm from in front of you back toward your body, with the machine fixing the path so you can focus on squeezing the muscle instead of holding the line of the pull.

  5. 5. Leg press

    quads and glutes · 45° leg press machine

    The prime mover is the quad, extending the knee through the whole range and taking on more of the work the lower and narrower the feet sit on the plate.

  6. 6. Chest press machine

    chest · machine

    The prime mover is the pec major, mainly its sternal head, once the seat is set so the handles come out at chest height.

  7. 7. T-bar row

    back · machine or landmine

    The prime mover is the lat, pulling the arm from in front of the body back toward it, along a path the bar or the machine guides.

Workouts with these exercises

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Other equipment

Exercises by muscle

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