Plate Loaded Gym Exercises

When choosing a weightlifting regimen, you can opt to use free weights or machines. Free weight exercises often provide a tougher workout that requires you to stabilize muscles for support. Machines help you learn ideal form for each exercise, while letting you concentrate on just the target muscles. You can get the best of both at your local gym by exercising with plate-loaded machines.

  1. Plate-Loaded Machines

    • Plate-loaded machines are different from more common stacked weight machines in an important way; stacked weight uses a series of pulleys and cables that provide a mechanical advantage during the exercise. A plate-loaded machine uses free weight plates for resistance rather than stacked weight. Most plate-loaded machines operate using a simple lever; the weight is loaded on to one side of a beam, while you raise and lower it using the handles on the other side. The lever hinges at one specific spot in between you and the weight. While this also provides some mechanical advantage, for most plate-loaded machines, the advantage is far less than that provided by stacked weight machines.

    Upper Body Exercises

    • Plate-loaded machines come in many different forms, each providing an exercise that is comparable to a free-weight standard routine. For example, the shoulder press plate-loaded machine works the anterior and lateral deltoids just like the free-weight version, except with lower engagement of stabilizers and using a different form. Instead of sitting upright and pressing the weight on a complete vertical path, the machine seats you at 45 degrees, and you press the weight in a curve that goes out then up. Other exercise machines for the upper body include all three styles of the bench press, the lat pulldown, the biceps curl, triceps pushdown and the bent-over row among others.

    Lower Body Exercises

    • In contrast to the upper-body machines, plate-loaded lower body exercises are less numerous. The most common machines is the sled leg press, where you load up the platform with free weights, then you sit at a 45-degree angle and press the platform all the way until your legs are fully extended. Don’t lock your knees, but extend to a point just short of that. Control the platform back to starting position. Other plate-loaded machines include the leg curl and the leg extension.

    Considerations

    • While plate-loaded machines can give your body a much-needed change of pace from stacked weight machines, confining your exercises to them exclusively will eventually lead you to a similar performance plateau. The key to surpassing a plateau is variability. Include a mix of stacked weight, free weight and plate-loaded exercises in your weekly routines, and rotate exercises that target certain muscles between each of the three styles from week to week. You’ll be able to lift more free weight plates with the plate-loaded machines than you will with free weight exercises. Use a spotter for any free-weight version of an exercise that you regularly perform using a plate-loaded machine.