Hi, its my first post on the site. The main thing is im probably going to start training in a gym wheres next to none machine equipment. im currently doing a powerlifting program that has some machine “accesories” in it, i guess i can just change them to barbell and dumbbell variants, but i have little experience in using SDEs and SPEs in my training.
So will there be a noticeable difference in improvement rate (powerlifting lifts) when having access to all machines in a gym than just dumbbells and barbells?
Sorry if this is a silly question, there exist no powerlifting gyms in my city but ive glimpsed on social media that they are not equipped the same as commercial gyms.
Daniel,
It’s not a silly question. First, don’t worry, there’s plenty of people who don’t use machines at all and have gotten really really strong. I would expect most Olympic Weightlifters rarely use anything but a barbell.
Having enough variety in your exercise selection over the course of several years will most likely help your long term progress. But I would guess you can get all the variety you need without machines. Plenty of ways to do modify exercises (single limb, speed, range of motion, etc.) across all sorts of rep ranges of you just have a barbell. Bands, like from Rouge or EliteFTS, are a pretty cheap way to do accommodating resistance and get some different resistance. While having a leg press, a safety squat bar, a Swiss bar, and a lat pulldown are cool, there’s plenty of ways to get strong.
Getting on to the improvement rate, I don’t know dude. I would expect that it wouldn’t change much.
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