Effectiveness
Within the safety limitations all exercises should be as effective as possible. This has been always the primary goal in our equipment design. To achieve this David has participated and initiated research on various areas for a quarter of a century. The core of the know-how lies in biomechanical and physiological studies from the 80’s continuing in current studies in Finland, Germany and Austria. For us it is not enough that we think we have the right technology or concept, we also want to prove it. It is a long road, but eventually it pays off as the example with NICE guidelines in the UK shows. It took 17 years from the publication of a study with David back devices before it was used as in the guidelines of how to treat chronic and recurrent back pain.
The specificity of training
It is a well proven fact that human adaptation is highly specific. What you train is what you get. It is often claimed that training with machines with guided movement patterns are less effective than exercises, which develop also overall coordination, like training with free weights. There is a fundamental error in this thinking. Each and every exercise will teach exactly what that exercise requires, not much more. A bench press adapts the muscles and nervous system to do this movement as efficiently as possible but this specific skill provides few benefits in real life. A question to be asked is if this exercise is the best to effectively and safely train the chest, shoulder and arm muscles and the corresponding joints.
In fact there is a reverse correlation between coordination requirement and intensity of safe training. The more coordination is required; the lower is the training intensity of safe training. A good example of this is a squat exercise, which can be highly effective at high intensities but at the same time poses a high risk of injury. There is hardly anyone, who has not injured somehow their back with this exercise when young and enthusiastic.
Amount of coordination required in exercise
Our philosophy is the latter and therefore our sole motivation is provide safe, effective and comfortable exercises for all relevant muscle groups and joints in the human body.For this reason we must ask ourselves what is the primary motivation for a particular exercise, is it to become skillful in this particular movement, like a bench press, or is it to strengthen the muscles and joints “the tools” in the body to manage in daily life or to practice sports of choice safely.
