You guys might remember David Feathers who use to post as "Ergo" on this board. He now has a youtube thing going where he features all the machines he owns, which is quite extensive. He's a collector of various equipment and his gym on Kauai (a side business, he's in the oil business and is loaded) isn't big enough to house all the machines he has so he also has quite a collection at his home and also some he donated to a YMCA in another state that he travels to a lot of business. He even imported a whole line of "David" equipment from Germany. Really state of the art stuff and very high end. I can only imagine what he paid for the line of machines not to mention the shipping and trucking costs. Some guys collect guns, he collects high-end exercise machines. I've even considered moving to Kauai just to train at his gym (also Kauai is beautiful and I have family there).
He was a serious competitor in his twenties and through his early forties. As all bbers from his generation, he cut his teeth exclusively on free weights with the calf, leg extension and leg curl --and maybe the Smith machine being exceptions. There are some movements that simply can't be done effectively using just free weights.
While in his early fifties he decided to turn it up again and see if he could improve on an already advanced competition level physique. Using only machines and following a modified HIT program, high intensity/low volume, he added an additional twenty-five pounds of muscle. Again this was on an already advanced physique, using only machines, and in his fifties.
Although I believe that good machines based on the designs of Arthur Jones are superior to free weights, I am not as extreme as Basile and Ergo who both seem to be anti-free weights. Even Jones recognized the usefulness of free weights. Ergo has stated that, despite decades of squatting, he now believes it is the worse compound movement anybody can do.
Agree or disagree, the results are there. Again, this guy is in his mid fifties when these pics were taken. Machine only training on an already advance physique.
