What are your all-time favorite machines?

[IronInsanity]

Well I began lifting back in the mid 70's.I know I'm going to sound old and out dated but if I had the space and could find one in good condition I would love to have one of the old universal weight machines with all the stations and weight stacks.Like what all small high schools had.

I have a universal piece in my home gym. We bought it off the local college. It probably dates to the 80s.

 

[ThinDiesel]

Arsenal Standing Chest Press

I used to go to a local gym that had Arsenal equipment. This was probably the only piece they didn't have.

What makes it better than other chest press machines?

Arsenal Lat Pull Down aka The Humbler. I love watching guys who are used to Hammer Strength load a couple plates up and they cannot even get it to budge.

I always felt weak as hell using that machine.

Nautilus Pull Over (chain driven)

I have yet to go to a gym old school enough to have this.

 

[CJ Smalls]

My gym has an old Cybex Hack Squat that's as smooth as butter, feels like every angle on the machine was designed for me. I love it.

There's also an old Icarian chest supported 45° T-Bar Row that is pretty sweet. The force curve is correct, harder at the bottom and slightly less so at the top, the way it should be. The Hammer Strength machine at my gym has it backwards.

My old gym had a Body Masters squat machine that looked identical to the one in the original post, and I'll agree that it was a really good machine, especially facing inwards. There's a Hammer Strength V-Squat at my gym now that tries to mimic that machine, but it's just not the same.

 

[Tuffoldman]

Probably my all-time favorite machine was the OG Nautilus chain driven pullover machine.

I don't know I think it was just the sound of the chain and the gears moving and it made me feel like I was moving a lot of weight. That's when I first got into weight loss and bodybuilding. I miss those old chain driven machines

 

[Bricks]

All of my equipment has been carefully selected to my preferences. Some of my favorite toys are:

Hoist leg press

Kneeling leg curl

Old school Nautlius chain drive pullover

Chest supported Tbar

The best seated calf ever made (Hoist)

My go to for chest is my Hammer Strength incline press (plate loaded) and my Hoist pec deck/rear delt (310 lb stack).

Mrs. Bricks legs go to is our Cybex hack squat and our Rogue belt squat.

Im gonna throw this not so subtle brag in here. While Mrs. Bricks is training not as heavy as she used to, she has, at 5'1" 128 lbs squatted 315. She dumped the bar going for the double. Little beast.

 

[Bigtex]

Been thinking about this one.......because I spent 27 year competing as a powerlifter, I NEVER used machines. This is all new since I retired from the sport in 2010. I only used free weights and still to this day think they are going to give you the best bang for the buck. I use machines now because of all the injuries I have but can't say I am really fond of any of them. I use them out of necessity only. But if I had to pick one, I would say the Smith Machine is the one I use the most. However it is usually a pain in the ass to get to because the women do hip thrusts there and have a whole truckload of dumbbells and curl bars all around the machine. They usually take up both of them for 30-45 minutes at a time.

 

[genetic freak]

I used to go to a local gym that had Arsenal equipment. This was probably the only piece they didn't have.

What makes it better than other chest press machines?



I always felt weak as hell using that machine.



I have yet to go to a gym old school enough to have this.

It feels like an actual bench press. Even the weight is very similar. If you are benching 315x10 and you put 3 pps on the it, you are likely going to fail around 10 reps.

 

[ThinDiesel]

However it is usually a pain in the ass to get to because the women do hip thrusts there and have a whole truckload of dumbbells and curl bars all around the machine. They usually take up both of them for 30-45 minutes at a time.

We had to get hip thrust machines at Gold's partially because of this.

Despite that, women still use the Smith machines for hip thrusts. We also have a turf area where women will do hip thrusts (with barbells they stole from the bench presses). It's funny because when I first started at Gold's in 2018, this exercise was not very popular.

 

[rawdeal]

Probably my all-time favorite machine was the OG Nautilus chain driven pullover machine . . . .

I don't know I think it was just the sound of the chain and the gears moving and it made me feel like I was moving a lot of weight. That's when I first got into weight loss and bodybuilding. I miss those old chain driven machines

Whoa, the original Nautilus machines had open faced pulleys, shaped just like a Nautilus shell but with a few struts inside for structural strength. I was draped on the side of one, urging a buddy to get one more rep, and not noticing one of my fingers was sticking out a little too far as he struggled. He did get that rep, and my middle finger got mashed by one of the struts. Must have happened to a few other people, cause all Nautilus machines after the originals had enclosed pulleys for dumbasses like moi.

 

[Tuffoldman]

Whoa, the original Nautilus machines had open faced pulleys, shaped just like a Nautilus shell but with a few struts inside for structural strength. I was draped on the side of one, urging a buddy to get one more rep, and not noticing one of my fingers was sticking out a little too far as he struggled. He did get that rep, and my middle finger got mashed by one of the struts. Must have happened to a few other people, cause all Nautilus machines after the originals had enclosed pulleys for dumbasses like moi.

Some of those Nautilus machines you had to be very careful you could lose a finger. They were amazing and way ahead of their time when they worked well but they didn't age all that wonderfully. The last one that I was in I was doing the pullovers and it was just so amazing until I got it all the way in front the chain came off the pulley and I was pretty much wedged inside the machine and they had no way to free it I had to just basically crawl my way out. That machine disappeared a few days later. I don't think anybody even worked on them anymore

 

[BD Cool]

My gym has an old Cybex Hack Squat that's as smooth as butter, feels like every angle on the machine was designed for me. I love it.

That's the one where the sled itself is heavy... damn good machine!!

 

[JonJon]

@Bricks is my hero.

I envy you guys with access to good machines. I live out in the country and our gym is a bench, squat rack, dumbbells and a cable pull down/ seated row in one machine… that’s it.

I do a lot of squats but I hate em and my knees take forever to warm up and sometimes just won’t warm up. But I love the plain old vertical leg press. No pain in the joints. I’m gonna just buy one for the house eventually. My gym owner says it won’t fit and the old folks can’t get down to get in it lol. I even offered to cover half of the cost.

that and i would like a standing calf machine. Other than that, ive done well just keeping it simple with basic free weights