The Poliquin Principles

QUESTION: I can probably bench about 350 pounds on a Hammer Strength machine, but if I were to attempt to bench 350 pounds of free weights, it would probably decapitate me! What’s going on here? Are my stabilizers pathetically weak?

ANSWER: No, not necessarily. It’s not so much your stabilizers but the fact that most Hammer machines provide you with advantageous leverage, which is why you can handle way more weight than with the free-weight equivalent. As a rule of thumb, if you can use five plates on each side on a Hammer bench press machine, you’ll have a hard time doing three plates on each side on the bench press. Likewise, if you lift 150 pounds on an Atlantis leg curl machine, you may be able to do about 220 on a Bodymasters leg curl machine. If you spend enough time around different brand names, you can convert lifts from one brand of apparatus to another. Of course, it’s possible that your stabilizers are poor, too. If they’re up to snuff, you should be able to do 90 percent of the barbell bench press weight when doing semi-supinated dumbbell presses. In other words, if you bench 200 pounds, you should be able to press a pair of 90 pounds (2 x 90 = 180 pounds, which is 90 percent of 200 pounds).

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