I generally criticise people who simply use machines as I’m crazily into free weights and body weight movements but i feel there are some great uses in getting onto machines when it comes to building muscle and getting a pump

The reason is it is designed and levered in a way to work on your anatomy so that you can focus 100% on pushing the weight and hardly any on form and using the hips and correct movement. so in this sense its an awesome way to build muscle because you can focus on reps and the pump and burn of the muscle rather than in the kinetic chain of the body. so unlike a compound movement you don’t have to focus on many joints and muscles but simply one muscle and joint.

It’s funny because a lot of bodybuilders work the isolated movement before the compound movement and yet i would completely disagree with this method for my body i would do the opposite if trying to build a certain muscle. so lets take the chest a very popular body part for guys, they would usually do pec deck and then bench press, that wouldn’t be my choice for growth and that wouldn’t work for me from experience on knowing my body.

For me i would work on strength first, then on a weak point and then on the pump. chest is a body part that i easily build so personally its not something i would train more than once a week, if it was ok, i would train it twice a week, and if it were a weak point i would work on it three times a week with the appropriate back drills to help posture. to me, posture, alignment, dynamic movement and a healthy spine would come before a massive chest, I’m 37 years old so the ego has dropped, a little..

So for compound i would pick a power lift for the chest, the barbell bench press, for a weak point, i would go for the upper chest, so incline dumbbell press and for the pump i would use the pec deck machine, and its the machine thats going to help me get the blood pumping into the muscles directly and making me burn, but because its the easiest the machine movement would be picked last, and would have the highest reps as the aim is to get a burn.

So here are some ideas using machines to pump body part with compound movements and weak point movements

Bor chest the routine would be

Barbell bench press 1-6 reps x 5 reps
Incline dumbbell press x 8 reps x 5 sets
Pec deck machine x 15-20 reps x 4 sets

For the back

Deadlifts x 1- 6 reps x 6 sets
Bent over row x 8-10 reps x 6 sets
Seated row x 12 -15 reps x 6 sets

For the butt

Sumo squats x 1-6 reps x 5 sets
Back squats x 8 reps x 7 sets
Abductor machine x 7 sets x 20 reps

So as you can see the machine is a great complement to your workout and can really help you focus on and grow the muscle as well as build a healthy fitness regime.