Trade in machines for athletic weight training here
If you rely on cable machines in your workouts, you might just be preventing how strong you can really get. Doesn’t matter if you’re doing cable crossovers, cable rows, or cable triceps pushdowns. The problem lies in the physics behind the cable pulley and what it isn’t allowing your muscles to do as you pursue a bigger chest, back or arms!
In this video, I show you how cable pulley machines change the mechanics of an exercise and therefore the amount of overload that you can achieve. We all know that overload is key to seeing progressive strength and size gains. If the machine providing the overload is making our job much easier than it should be however, we could be seriously holding back the results you can be seeing from your hard work.
I show you an example of a triceps pushdown (performed with a rope pulley) as just one way that this works. But even here, there are many different pulley setups for this exercise. Some have a single pulley (and make the exercise much more reflective of your own strength) and others have multiple pulleys (and make your strength much more exaggerated).
The same reasoning can be applied to any exercise that you use cables and pulley machines to perform. As I said earlier, the cable crossover and cable row are two more classic examples of this. Sometimes you will perform one of these exercises on one machine and feel like it is easier than when you do it on a different machine. This is determined by the number of pulleys.
I know it sounds like a bit of micromanaging, but if you truly want to see the most muscle gains in your chest, back or arms you have to start counting your pulleys. Aim to complete your workouts with exercises that are performed with either free weights or machines that only have a single pulley. You will get a much more accurate representation of your true strength and therefore a good gauge on your potential.
If you would like to use a complete workout program that does not rely on machines to help you get your gains, and instead trains you with functional workouts like an athlete, then head to and get the ATHLEAN-X Training System.
For more videos on how to perform cable chest workouts the right way and how to get the most out of the cable crossover by changing how you do them, be sure to subscribe to our youtube channel at
36 comments
Can u share a video about. How to lose side and back fat and have a perfect side and back
Why go to a gym Jeff when you appear to have everything you could need?
Pullies and other simple machines make work easier so it is easier to pull the weight up.
I usually wear tanktops to the gym. I don't see any in your shop. Unfortunate…
no wonder different machines feel heavier/lighter despite doing the same weights, thats y every new gym/machine i need to re-evaluate the plates to get the proper weight. but i still dont understand why would it be easier when you have more pulleys from a physics standpoint. shouldnt the extra friction make it harder instead?
I wish I had a pulley machine. I only a power rack and free weights. I want a pulley machine for some ab exercises and tricep pull downs.
How do I get a t-shirt with the saying, "It's physics bitch!" on it. I love it!
its not the number of pulleys but rather where they are placed.
If the cable ends at the weight stack and none of the pulleys in the machine move when you do the movement, then you have a 1 to 1 ratio and the weight stack should move the same distance that you pull it.
If the weight stack has a pulley attached to it and the cable is then anchored to some part of the frame, then typically you are only lifting half of that amount and that actually weight stack will travel a shorter distance.
Summary: if the weight moves the same amount of distance that you pull, then you are lifting the full weight. If the weight moves any less than that then some of the weight is being overcome with mechanical advantage rather than straight force.
how do you get a free t shirt
I have been really impressed with all your videos. Thanks for taking time to help put the science behind all the explanations. Really valuable insight. I'm curious, if I sign up for AthleanX, do I receive any personal advice from you or are all the programs pre-structured (one size fits all) for the 90 day cycle? I ask because I have a number of injuries from past exploits that generate a fair bit of pain when I train (doesn't stop me, but certainly limits what I'm able to complete) in those injured areas of my body and would really love to be able to tailor my 90 day program around those areas to strengthen them and ultimately overcome them.
I always felt pulleys greatly lessen the the isometric load to almost zero ,and there is only resistance when it is moving.
Yes he's correct with regards to pulleys. With that said machines don't make you week you just have to add more weight. I use machines to stay in shape and I'm not necessarily looking to get bigger with that said the more I do the stronger I get the more toned and bigger my arms get. It all depends on your goal. Machines are also great to do rehab because they isolate to one muscle group. I used them to rehab my shoulder and it worked. If I would have used free weights the chances of injuring myself would have been greater. You young guys can still work out however you want but as you get older injuries from working out are more likely and you'll have to modify the way you work out. Some parts of the body just don't work like they use to.
-Misleading title….
-And also … more pulleys doesn't necessarily mean less load! Even if there's a 100 pulleys, but none of them are moving (up&down etc), BUT ONLY ROTATING, the load isn't any different! (there's friction though -> higher concentric load & lower eccentric load……)
It's physics, b!tch!
This is the only basically worthless video among the gold-mine of information that these folks offer. Seriously, does anybody take the numbers on the plates seriously? We know there are pulleys. We know these aren't dumb-bells or barbells. The numbers on the plates only serve as landmarks for other numbers on the same plates. Thought this was obvious. Other than this one, these Athlean X videos are only source I trust anymore.
Good Afternoon from Greece…for humans like me who have a few problems myoskeletal on lower back knee and shoulder i belive machines is a good way….i wish he best Jeff
I really like your channel, but I don´t like how you made the title deliberately misleading 🙁
I want a t-shirt!
Just gotto look at the cable pull machine. Lots have the weight rating at the handle on the stack. Some dual cable ones once attached to a single bar will actually be double the weight at the bar vs the stack. So it all really depends on the machine. You should be able know if the weight seems to light or heavy anyways regardless of the reading. Coming to a new cable pull machine I will always try and load it as heavy as possible then work down to find my ideal starting point to do reps, then start working up from there over the weeks. I love cable pull machines for curls and triceps, nothing beats that constant load from top to bottom. Being able to have one cable set high for triceps, and one low for curls is also killer to just keep switching back and forth till you're dying 😆
This was definitely helpful I'm usually afraid to go over towards the single pulling machines because I'm not super confident in my workouts but I went to the gym when It was empty tonight and tried them and I'm never going to use a multiple pulling machine ever again
Title was misleading. Pulleys are good as long as you’re challenged. That’s why, on pulley machines, I like ones where the plates are simply numbered and don’t reflect a weight. Then I just focus on going from plate 13 to plate 14 and not worry about how many #s. I also like pulleys because of the eccentric resistance.
..just make it heavier
The thing I do is simply count the plates (not the weights) and do one set to adjust the weight, so I can go to 12-15 reps with failure, then from there I start doing my routine on that pulley machine.
I don’t typically comment but single change of direction pulleys do not reduce the load. They can if anything add nominal friction but thats it. If you have 100 change of direction pulleys you’ll be moving all the weight plus the friction of the 100 pulleys. To use a pulley to reduce weight you have to set them up in a 2 or more to 1 ratio. This is easy to spot as you’ll have one or more pulleys that aren’t fixed, it will move as you pull. If all pulley’s are fixed as in this video then all the weight is being moved. It should be noted that when you do see a mechanical advantage being applied in a weight lifting machine in all cases you are the anchor and the moving pulley is making your weights work more efficiently against you not the other way around. Some machines do use ratios in their pulley systems and this is where your user manual comes into play. On machines like this the manual will have a chart that explains how much wait is being moved at each pull point as a low pull point and high pull point may be moving different amounts of weight with the same number of plates.
I’m a mechanical engineer who uses cables and pulleys for rigging and rescue professionally.
So for just getting fit and staying in shape cable systems are fine when you don’t care about lifting heavy to begin with. Strength training where you are obsessed by how much you are actually lifting and increasing week in week out is different and maybe cable systems are not for you.
not jeff's best video and it shows. Also what is with that mustache?
This video is……disappointing. but, everyone makes mistakes.
It would be more accurate to make sure people observe how far the handle moves (where you're applying force) versus how far the weight stack moves.
If the handle and weight stack move the same distance, then you are basically applying the same force as the weight stack. If the handle moves further, then the pullies are giving you a mechanical advantage. If the handle moves twice as far as the stack, the force used to move the stack is half the weight of the stack.
I'm really late to this anyway. Cya
I'm really late to the party here, but Jeff is way off on his comments about how pulleys work. They basically re-direct the tension to the load, and he got that right. He went off-track when he started talking about the # of pulleys. The # is not relevant, the DESIGN is. They could be using 10 pulleys in order to get the cable to the stack, but not have a force-multiplying design included. In that case the added friction will actually INCREASE the apparent weight of the stack.
What IS relevant is the distance that the weight is moved as a ratio of how far you've moved the cable. If you move the cable 4' and the stack only moves 2' you're only moving 1/2 the weight. On the machines that I've seen there is re-direction and there is either a 1:1 ratio or a 2:1 ratio, so it's very easy to determine what fraction of the weight you are actually supporting. Just move the grip and see if the stack moves the same distance, or only 1/2 the distance. It's NOT rocket science.
It's like relying on a taster to serve you food! Cmon guys go to a gym and try the same exercise with free weights a machine and pullys! See what what works for you! Move up the weight stack if you must but trial and error is the only way forward! When ever I read or hear something regarding an exercise I try it out in the gym and see if it works for me.. If it does so much the better if not it must be working for someone else!
If the weight is moving the same distance from the rest position that you are moving then the work is the same. Rather than whipping out my old statics engineering textbook to figure out the half dozen pulleys on my bodycraft express pro I just measured the distance the cable moved compared to the distance my arms were moving on a bench press. They were the same, so the work is the same so the weight is the same. I confirmed this with a pull scale used for deer hunting, which was much easier method. Most of the cheap machines are all over the place i bet. The bench press machines that act like levers are the most misleading… my father in laws machine is much lighter than the weight plates because your hands are out 10 more inches than the weights. Its weird to load up 200# of free weights on it and you get 150# at the handles.
Wait, so it IS possible for Jeff to be wrong!
Damn if all those wheels were connected to the weight you'd have next to no force to apply to lift it!
❤️❤️❤️❤️
Its physics, bitch!………..lol. Exactly what my college Physics professor told me.
how dare you?
If it's too light then add weight. I have found that cable machines are much easier on the joints than free weight barbells.