Once upon a time when you walked into a commercial health club you saw row after row of treadmills and strength training machines. The only constant is change (someone smart said that, but I'm not sure who), nowadays when you walk into many health clubs or fitness studios you see a lot of open space and very few, if any strength training machines.
That was then: commercial fitness used to be machine driven
The original health clubs and fitness facilities were influenced by the bodybuilding culture so the focus was on equipment for muscle isolation so users could get their swoll on and hit their GAINZ. Over the past fifteen years or so there has been a tremendous shift and while many commercial gyms still have some strength training equipment they have gotten rid of extraneous pieces to create open spaces for members to move.
Episode 39 of All About Fitness talks about how this change came about, who influenced it and, most importantly, how it benefits YOUR fitness program!
This is now: many modern facilities feature plenty of open space and lots of different types of free weight equipment to challenge ALL of the muscles in your body at the same time
(This is from Mike Boyle Strength and Conditioning; Mike was a guest on episode 34 and his facility has repeatedly been voted one of the top gyms in the US by Mens Health)
Thanks for tuning in!
Twitter: @PeteMc_fitness
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