What do yall think about Total Gym???

[Daniel Hinds]

this question really goes out to Coach Sommers and Roger Harrell....because im really referring to gymnastic tension bodyweight exercises.

like Coach Sommers talked about iron cross training on t-nation.com some of the exercises i found that i could do using the total gym...like the inverted cross and cross i jus added weight to help for resistance and another way i increase resistance and for that feeling of control and stabality i let some of my body hang off the sliding platform like mainly my upperbody

now i do alotta static holds using the total gym...however i was wondering...i know u use your bodyweight as resistance on the total gym but with the use of the machine unlike with stuff like tuck planche u have to control, stabalize and balance your whole body without help of a machine

i found i got gains on my barbell curl (not that i do those often due to CF info..but jus as test) and my biceps increase in size after using the total gym for some of my holds

so do yall think the total gym is feasible for bodyweight tension exercises????

[Roger Harrell]

I use a total gym for ring work pretty regularly. We used to build cross sleds out of plywood, 2X4s and 4" casters. The total gym is a nice machined version of this (too bad I didn't think of making them for the public). A total gym can be used to simulate most strength moves on rings. It can also be used to work the arm motions for giants on rings. The thing is even at it's highest setting the angle is too low to get load high enough so you gotta put weights on the thing to get adequate resistance for many excersizes.

[Daniel Hinds]

yea thats very true about the resistance issue...but i find that moving some of my body off the sliding apparatus allows to increase a little resistance

[Shane Sams]

Originally Posted by Daniel Hinds

yea thats very true about the resistance issue...but i find that moving some of my body off the sliding apparatus allows to increase a little resistance

I am using my total gym as a supplement to the CF Wods. I'm not very good at pull ups yet, so after I burn out on what I can do in the Wod, I have a total gym set up on the highest setting to finish whatever the workout is demanding. I think it is kind of like a gravitron pull up assist machine in that.

I am also doing anything like the rings stuff (dips, etc) to kind of work up to that. I'm also using it to help build up to handstand pushups, it has a bar that goes on the bottom that simulates that pretty good.

Seems good for scaling so far.

[Kevin Simons]

Yeah works pretty well for that stuff. I remember putting one end up on like 3 panel mats when we were working crosses just to increase resistance. I don't know why nobody ever thought to just attach a weight to the stupid thing though.

[Shane Sams]

Originally Posted by Kevin Simons

Yeah works pretty well for that stuff. I remember putting one end up on like 3 panel mats when we were working crosses just to increase resistance. I don't know why nobody ever thought to just attach a weight to the stupid thing though.

I think some of the higher end models have attachments where you can add weight plates.

[Dana Rice]

I think Chuck Norris is one bad mf'er.

[Shane Sams]

Originally Posted by Dana Rice

I think Chuck Norris is one bad mf'er.

Chuck Norris Fran time is -0:04 seconds.

[Donald Rice]

Chuck Norris is just a stupid actor. If he were really a God, he would come to my house and repeatedly slap my face against the keyboahjyffghhvhg hhffdsdgyghgjkjytdd hffcvjjgdsstyuhnkkjfdcg hfddschhbhhhbvhjkk!?.