Everything in sports and fitness swings from one extreme to another… Usually the truth is somewhere in the middle.

In the 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s commercial gyms were stocked with machines that made it “easy” to lift weights and everything was about body building or aesthetics . In the 2000’s the “functional” craze hit. Gyms opened with nothing but barbells (i.e. crossfit) and and “sports specific” trainers tried to mimic every sports movement in the gym… Problem is sports can’t be played in a gym and athletes can’t be built with just machines. The sweet spot is right in the middle.

Barbells are great for developing raw strength, and yes athletes should be spending time lifting bars, jumping, dragging sleds, and sprinting. However, training is also about finding weaknesses and then bringing them up constantly so its like climbing a ladder. With out some machines and various pieces of equipment its impossible to bring up weak muscle groups…. Athletes of all levels can benefit from specific machines. In fact, with out some of our equipment it would be near impossible to train some of the youngsters that we work with.

I discussed this in a video here… (Little hint: I always watch videos in 1.5x or 2x speed)