For Bhank to not realize the benefit of just plain old fashioned "work" speaks volumes. Sad honestly. He is looking for a way to do the least amount while looking a certain way, essentially a "hack" to get to an end point.
The Journey is the victory.
Right now after a 5 year complete and inactive layoff eating motly crap,I only use barbells and dumbells as I rebuild my physique.
I did some thinking (very rare for one such as I) LOL
![Grin ;D](http://www.getbig.com/boards/Smileys/classic/grin.gif)
........and I came to the conclusion after much analysing that mot of the machines suck no matter what the brand name......not all ofcourse, but I never felt them in the targeted musclegroup.
For instance........pulldown
s....never felt them in my lats.... same as cable rows and I know how to etablish a strong mind/muscle connnection....but did them both forvdecades.
Leg Press and Hacks are great,as are Leg Exts.,and to a degree pressdowns..........but for the most part I was just doing them for variety and becaue everyone else did.
Making great progres now with just weights and will start doing chins soon.....honetly dont think I could do many right now at first.
I took off three weeks soon after I started back again asking myself why I do this shit.........then I looked in the mirror and knew the answer.
I could only do 5 shaky pushups at the start and my gut hit the floor before my chest did.....nowI am doing 55 pound flyes for sets of 12 and 70 pound DB benches for around 8.....far from my former best but I`m forging ahead.
Oh yeah,lost 6 or motre inches on my waist just by cutting junk out of my diet entirely.
I could always drop down and do 60 -70 perfect textbook pushups when I did that shaky 5 rep set,I knew it was time to get busy again.