As you get more advanced with your workouts a good goal to shoot for when doing machine exercises is to “Beat The Machine”.
Now what I mean by this is to stick to a particular weight stack machine exercise as a regular part of your workouts. Each week strive to better what you did the previous week by increasing the weight by 5 or 10 pound increments. And eventually work up to the point where you can rep out with the entire weight stack of the machine. This is what I refer to as “Beating The Machine”.
I cover this technique in more detail and actually demonstrate it in the video.
I’d love to hear your feedback about this one, have you ever “beat a machine” at your gym?
If so tell me about it by leaving a comment below…
Note: if you can’t watch the embedded video clip above, you can see it directly on my YouTube Channel at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F720sN2XIAQ
Now after watching that video you’ll notice that I’m using “Power Reps” to complete the set. That simply means I’m using a bit of “Body English” and explosive force to move the weight. This is typically how your form will be when you first Beat The Machine. The next goal would be to work on slowing down those reps and perfecting your exercise form.
Beating The Machine using Power Reps is an impressive goal in itself, but doing it with controlled reps is an even more impressive feat. Granted it’s a very advanced goal, but something you should strive to work towards in your training.
When working towards the goal of repping out with the weight stack, Do NOT Rush it!
Take your time and progress gradually in 5-10 pound increments.
When a lot of people first hear about this they want to Beat The Machine within a few workouts… Sorry, but that’s NOT going to happen. It may take several months, or even a year or more to work up to that level. But when you do reach it, you’ll have built some solid size and strength in the process.
And if you are looking for a serious mass and strength routine that will help you reach those goals, be sure to pick up your copy of my “Hardcore Muscle Building Workout DVD.”
This covers some advanced training techniques that will help you to train beyond muscular failure for maximum muscle gains!
49 Comments
Shane
LOL lee,
grats on Beatin the Machine man!!! Lee Hayward the BEAST
william
Hi Lee,
I love your slow motion squeeze the muscle set, ha ha ha take the piss every time on every video that make me laught everytime… keep it on man!
leehayward
Thanks. I know all about using perfect form and going “slooowwww & controoollleeddd”. How else do you think I’ve built such a ripped chiseled body that is perfectly sculpted just like a Greek statue 😉
ace
Lee, This is a great idea because it truly gives ya something to strive for as your building, witch breaks up the monotony in the gym..recently I “beat” the gyms tricep pulldown as well as the lat machine…I was so “stoked” to be able to do it! Im still sore and should probably back off a plate until Im more used to that much weight tho..but damn bro it felt great to see em’ all go up!! Thanks for another great vid!! ( I see your appealing to even the haters now) ha, ha..
Jim Davis
I’ve managed to beat their seated leg press, which, if I recall correctly, only went to 495, and I blew past that last May, less than a year after I started back to the gym after my back surgery. I’ve also maxed out the triceps pressdown pulley and the knee/hip adductor. Those aren’t HUGE records, but I did beat the machine. I’ve also ALMOST run out of room to add plates on the Hammer Low Pulley Row, and only have room for 1 more on each side on our Leg Press sled (that’ll make 9 on a side, and that’s going all the way to the end of the spindle.) I was very proud last year when I first hit 555 on my 55th birthday for reps.
John Perry
I love the tribute to the youtube form fanatics, lol, makes my day 🙂
Matt
Ahh Arguementum absurdum…..
Anjohl
I have “beaten” the seated leg curl, the inside and outside hip abductors, as well as many pulley machines. It’s fun, but then you have nowhere to go.
Robert Valdes
Great info Lee… and now i’m ready for my strick form routine. I think i’ll start with 10 lbs bench press then work my way to 20 lbs in a months time LOL.
Sean
Nice! You can also add plates if the machine has a long enough pin(s). We used to do this on lower-pulley row machine.
nik
lol love it when you wack those spoofs in.
Beating the machine thats a pretty cool way of thinking thanks Lee.
anup
lee u rock man……….awesome idea
Sam
ive had the machine beat for bicep curls for a while now im 18, and i was wondering after you have the machine beat what do you do? up your reps? or just go slower?
Kane
I am surprised that on a strict diet you can still achieve your personal best in strengthwise particularly in pull down machine which is clearly body weight dependent. I would not have been surprised had you been doing pull ups since your body weight must have gone down quite significantly lately.
Doc
I like this idea. I have been seriously training about 6 months, and following the advice I obtained from Lee’s site, and others, I have enjoyed unexpected success. I am an old guy at 56 but have really transformed my body. I weight about 190 lbs and my body fat scale says I am between 11 to 12 % fat. Last week I benched 250 #, albeit on a Smith machine (no spotter and no power rack at the gym). The video Lee posted a couple of weeks ago, where he maxed out with 6 plates per side on the hammer row machine inspired me. This week I maxed out with 5 plates per side on the same machine doing 5 reps per side. I pyramided up to that, then finished off with a high rep set with 3 plates per side. The people at the gym are starting to look at me like I am a freak, which might be true, for other reasons (Ha!). Thanks for all the great information and inspiration Lee!
DOn
yh lee squeese the shit out of the 5lb weight hahaaa lol 2 funny (just like u were avin a poop). SQUEEEZEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE/ fk i pulled a muscle i squeezed 2 hard hAAAA
Gary
Lee, I hear people say the same thing: “Body Momentum” But these people have got to ask themselves…”What creates the MOMENTUM?” YOU! Your own body creates the momentum, your own power, your own muscles, so I personally don’t worry about momentum, as I’m creating that momentum with MY MUSCLES, not my next door neighbours, MY OWN MUSCLE.
Hell, even Arnie practised cheat curls. And how did he cheat? By using Momentum…And who are we to criticize the Austrian Oak?
I do like your sarcasm with the ultra light, ultra slow reps lol…kinds puts things into perspective.
Congrats on beating the machine, Lee.
Lee Hayward
Thanks again for the feedback folks, glad you enjoyed the video.
And congrats to those who have “beaten the machines” at your gym! That’s awesome and some impressive numbers for sure.
Once you do beat the machine you can focus on getting better with that weight. Such as doing multiple sets, tightening up your form so you are stricter with the heavy weight, and on some machines you can even add additional weight plates to the stack and make it heavier.
One of the guys at the gym I train at has maxed out the standard lat pull down station, which has a 300 pound weight stack and he also worked up to adding a extra 45 as well. So seeing him rep out with 345 pound pull downs is friggen impressive! He’s also a big dude currently weighing around 280 pounds.
Dave
Lee, I am 32 and have been training for as long as I can remember and I am a huge fan of using momentum to move heavy weight. People ask me all the time about my workouts and programs and I tell them low reps and high weight are essential to muscle growth. Of course, I don’t stay with the same routine (every 4 to 6 weeks it will change) and often do sets of 8-10 and even some up to failure say 25 reps to finish an exercise. Anyhow, I have always thought of it this way. How come all your football players are pretty big and most of your gym goers are small? Its because football players use heavy weight and do quite a bit of core heavy lifts (bench, squat, deadlift, powerclean, hangclean) and those type exercises develop muscle and strenght.
Mike
i “beat the machine” of a free weight leg press machine lol. It only had enough room for about 700-800 pounds of 45 plates, so then i just had my friend stand on it, and did 4-5 reps with it maxed out and him on it (he’s about 160 pounds) lol. I felt pretty awesome.
Lee- keep up the great work man, i actually look forward to your little tips and useful no BS advice. I really appreciate it, best of luck 🙂
Dale-52
Right on! Beet that thing!
John
Hi, Lee.
It’s a great feeling when you beat the machine – have done it with the seated cable row – am now up to added extra weight of 45kgs [wondering how long it will be before the cables give out!] – and with the leg press [one of the trainers is often kind enough to sit on the sled.
Keep ’em coming man!
Alfredo
Hey Lee, I have been working out for a long time and agree with you that sometimes you have to pass up the strict way to gain muscle. Good job on your “beat the machine” set. Love to see you win the next competition.
John
When your using strict form “slow and in control”, it’s not proper unless squezzzze………….out a fart. 🙂 lol
ricky
i beat the leg press machine that goes up to 450lbs. and i did the whole stack on the bench machine (it only goes to 200lbs which is pretty easy).
TinyTim
Last night I did the whole stack on v-cable rows for 8 reps. I have beaten a lot of machines which is really cool the first time but some machines just don’t go heavy enough. The donkey raise calf machine goes only to 400 lbs so I have added up to 4 45lb plates on top of it. I don’t cheat by bouncing but use slow controlled form.
Lee you need to be careful with your slow reps you may either hurt yourself or lull us viewers to sleep. lol
joe
Nice job Lee! Looks like you got a little winded doing those slow controlled reps, maybe you better ease up a bit on those before your contest (haha).
I repped (6x) a machine at the hotel gym last year where we stayed for a weekend. It was a sit down bench press type with 360lbs. I can’t normally do that with free weights, so I don’t put much faith in some machines.
Keep up the good work and the awesome progress!
muhammad faris hussain
haha…beat da machine…i only can beat flat bench machine ,for chest…
Omar
Looks like you popped something with those slow and controlled reps, careful Lee. Awesome job with the lat pulls, ive done it with v-cable rows and pulldowns too. Good luck in the show. Diet must be on track for you to be setting PRs 6 weeks out, keep at it!
mark
Hi Lee I enjoy looking at your site yes congrats on beeting the machine and the new personal best, my personal theroy on the subject with regards to weight is alway try to beat your last ethier by rep or weight but not to put your self at risk with exsive weight increases because damaged joints come back to haunt you if you understand my meaning
james
your too funny lee! I’ve been following all of your video’s for some time now and I really appreciate all f the useful information you have given me :). I look forward to trying your blast your bench and blast your bicep programs once I get some money!!!! Thanks for everything!
james
denis
yeah its very skillful these days and am perfect to use the tips you send to me and realy make me to change my looking coz i see the little change i my self so thankx lee and am not able to chat has u ask me i can be able to recieve the massege u send and i submitte that onl;y that can only thing i can do .
But m working with out a joke what u sent to me i use it i started get what i want but very soon am gonna get my cpu then we will be chat to be more focused thankx lee.
Stu
lee, u sexy bitch, way to beat the machine LOL , u one funny dude ha ha
Johnny
Hi Lee, Yep,I started doing this the first time you brought this up and managed to beat the pull down stack from the sitting position in 4 months.A really great feeling,at the age of 68 ! Check it out on You Tube “Beating the stack” First video, guy in the red T shirt ….
PS Youre still the Best.
Brett
Great video Lee. Nice set with the full weight stack on each side. Keep up the good work!
Ray
I love how you moved from the highest setting to the lowest one to make your point! It is so funny in so many levels!
Alex
Nice video !!
That machine is awesome man.. separating both sides.. my gym allready has a lot of those and they are great, much better than the regular ones.
I think that beating the machine is, or should be, the goal for all of us, i know it is mine.. altough most of the machines i use stack 300 pounds, but i will get there..
You gotta be strong to have quality muscle..
Keep it up Lee !!
Dick
I beat several machines but I am now rehabbing after shoulder surgery. I think I injured it beating the pec deck.
Frank Zappa
inspiring video! you started to sound like an angry ape towards your last reps!
One Kool Dude
You know Lee i tried beating the machine your way but i got know where so i just did it my way by taking a sledge hammer to it!
denzil
Lee some of the exercises you beat the machine, but not all it would be impossible to beat, i.e exercise that you can never beat the machine on is the side laterals or peck deck fly’s yes you can do that for larger muscles like legs & back. That is all that I’m saying.
leehayward
This is a good goal to shoot for, but again use common sense when doing this. Some machines have a ridiculously heavy stack (for “normal people” anyway).
So for example, if you have a 300 pound bicep curl stack it’s quite likely you won’t “Beat That Machine”, but a lot of advanced guys can rep out with the stack on many of the machines at the gym.
platinum
I’ve heard that the slow concentrated movements help to build the muscle. I’ve also heard that a little moment does not hurt. I usually implement the slower movements and when I increase the weight and it becomes a little more challenging that is when I use a “little cheating motion” to bang out the last reps. I think it is ok to do it as long as you got your first few sets in with proper form.
leehayward
I have a blog post that covers the pros and cons to both fast and slow reps at:
https://leehayward.com/blog/strict-form-vs-cheating-reps/
Ted
Hi Lee, beat the machine today – Feb 03 – seated leg press – 190kg – 12 reps – aiming to topple them all!
leehayward
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Go for it, I’m looking forward to hearing about your progress when you beat the machines at your gym!
Johnny
Hi Lee just thought I’d drop by and show you my personal challenge to beat 5 stacks. I trained over 7 weeks for this. You’re inspirational
By the way I will be 70 years old next birthday. July 1st.
leehayward
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That is awesome, I’m impressed, great job!
If you don’t mind me asking, how old are you?
Johnny
leehayward,
No I dont mind at all,I was born on 1st July 1942, that makes me 69 years and 7 months…..
Since I made that (january 2012) I beat the stack on tri-cep push downs.