Weight Labels

MelanieCN77

My gym has a bunch of Life Fitness weight machines and several of them have weight stacks labeled like so:



This particular one is the lat pulldown, and although it has two cables, the weights don't move independently so what is the weight resistance at any given pin and why is it labeled like this? There are other stacks with the sticker on that are just one handle, which makes even less sense. So next to this is the cable and stack where people do tricep pushdowns - one cable and the same labelling. Halp?

heybales

Hanging on the side of the machine should be a 2.5 and/or 5 lb flat rubber coated weight that lays on top of the stack when you want a between weight.

I think they want people to refresh their math skills by there being 7.5 lb jumps at first.
Once you get stronger you can get dumber. ;-)

From recall they have taken into account the single or double pulley effect already.
The labeling is merely for the cable being in the way perhaps.
Though moving it farther out would seem to be smarter.

IIRC there was one station that did have double pulley, and you could compare size of weights and the jump in weights for same sized block and see the difference.

MelanieCN77

Yeah there are flat 5lb weights with cutouts that slot over the stack. So it being labeled twice is just that? 27.5 is just 27.5? I truly don't think I am pulling down in excess of 50lbs at this point, I'm still kinda weedy in the upper body, but this fried my brain lol. The tricep station and others aren't in these increments, but they still have that tag on top.

MikePTY

MelanieCN77 wrote: »

Yeah there are flat 5lb weights with cutouts that slot over the stack. So it being labeled twice is just that? 27.5 is just 27.5? I truly don't think I am pulling down in excess of 50lbs at this point, I'm still kinda weedy in the upper body, but this fried my brain lol. The tricep station and others aren't in these increments, but they still have that tag on top.

I think they you are supposed to double the weight. So 27.5 would be 55. Looking at the size of the plates, the 7.5 plates look like 15 pound plates, and the 10 plates look like 20 pound plates.

Azdak

MelanieCN77 wrote: »

My gym has a bunch of Life Fitness weight machines and several of them have weight stacks labeled like so:



This particular one is the lat pulldown, and although it has two cables, the weights don't move independently so what is the weight resistance at any given pin and why is it labeled like this? There are other stacks with the sticker on that are just one handle, which makes even less sense. So next to this is the cable and stack where people do tricep pushdowns - one cable and the same labelling. Halp?

The label on the weight stack in the picture tells you. If the machine is set up with dual cables, then the resistance listed on the plate is for one cable only. If you are doing the Pulldown with the handle that attaches to both cables, then the actual weight you are lifting is TWICE the number on the weight stack.

If you using a Life Fitness multi jungle and the station has only one cable, then the weight you are lifting is the actual weight on the sticker.

It’s done this way because the dual cable stations are designed for independent arm movements—they wanted the weight on the stack to reflect the weight being used by the single cable movement. Even though many people do exercises on the stations with both cables at the same time. They had to pick one system. That label was added a couple of years after the machines came out in 2004 because people were even more confused.

I worked for LF in sales for a while, along with working in fitness center for years that had this equipment. So I have had to explain this dozens of times.

Azdak

heybales wrote: »

Hanging on the side of the machine should be a 2.5 and/or 5 lb flat rubber coated weight that lays on top of the stack when you want a between weight.

I think they want people to refresh their math skills by there being 7.5 lb jumps at first.
Once you get stronger you can get dumber. ;-)

From recall they have taken into account the single or double pulley effect already.
The labeling is merely for the cable being in the way perhaps.
Though moving it farther out would seem to be smarter.

IIRC there was one station that did have double pulley, and you could compare size of weights and the jump in weights for same sized block and see the difference.

The resistance is based on the pulley system. The resistance for the single cable is a 1:2 ratio.

The small plates are 10lb, the medium ones are 15lb and the large ones are 20lb. If you are using one cable, the actual resistance is 1/2 the plate weight (that’s the stickered number). If using two, you are pulling the entire weight of the plate.

The Dual Adjustable Pulley machines have a 1:4 ratio. So even though the weight stack on each side weighs 380 pounds, the max resistance is only 95 lbs.

MelanieCN77

Wow I just doubled in lat strength overnight! Thanks, everyone. I'll have a closer look at all the stations and do some experiments so it can get straight in my head.