Tuesday, August 12, 2025

Total Gym for ACL therapy: "Early partial weight closed chain functional squat" Tom Campanero founder 50 years ago!

 People claim volume of sets without enough reps as increased resistance within the sets will NOT build muscle but it will build strength in terms of tendons. Total Gym has great stretching exercises - I think this is key to combine with squats, chest press, etc. If you work one muscle then it causes soreness in the other muscles, etc. So then I just stretch what part of the body that is sore. I do "impulse exercising" - I guess these are micro-reps. Power reps - double "extra heavy" 3.25" wide bands for squats are great for a quick testosterone activation! Tyson did 1000 squats a day. So I'm not too worried about reps/wasted volume because Total Gym works so many muscles at the same time. More of a concern is overall health and Total Gym helps to ensure health by stretching and also by not compressing the spine. So with the Total Gym you can work hard without worrying about spine compression or tendon injuries, etc.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5ujjga_RRw

So the Total Gym keeps your spine aligned without compression on the spine... key for therapy. 

 the Elite Pro that was supposedly "refurbished" on ebay for $215 (that's including the shipping and tax) - arrived BRAND NEW.

That's my comment from over a year ago! I forgot what a great price I got but Total Gym then shut down their "outlet" store. hahahaha. It was "refurbished" but brand new! So probably just returned but never opened.... 

 Chuck Norris first used Total Gym to heal his rotator cuff so he didn't need surgery. That was when Total Gym first started - so it originally was always focused for rehab therapy and that was its biggest market via selling to fitness dealers ten years later in the mid-80s...

Then it moved into the home fitness market with Infomercials and then into the exercise functional training gym market in 2003 with Gravity.

This was combined together ten years ago.

 Both Total Gym and Wheel of Fortune are 50 years old this year and both capture complete Americana culture that I have lived my whole life! 

 how many model names has Total Gym had in 50 years? Here's all the manuals available.

There's "small frame" (what I have), "large frame" and "commercial" models - as about 50 different models!! 

So there's 36 different manuals available!!  

1) Xtreme, 2) Elite, 3) Shaper, 4) Supreme, 5) Elite Plus, 6) Apex, 7) GTS, 8) Gravity, 9) XLS, 10) Evolve, 11) Elevate Encompass 12) Ultra 13) Fit 14) Platinum Plus 15) Pro (recalled with free repair kit issued for cables and handles) 16) Power Tower 17) Electra 18) 1000 (recalled with free repair kit issued for cables and handles), 2000, 3000, 1100, 1400, 1500, 1600, 1700, 1800, 1900, 2000, 2200, 2500, 3000, 19) Flex, 20) Force, 21) Premiere 22) Summit 23) Ultima 24) Gold Plus 25) XL7 26) Pinnacle 27) Titanium, 28) 14000, 26000 (see the manual here) and the patent for the Total Gym 26000 is here. 29)  Total Gym Supra Pro

Wow so that was the start of the Total Gym Rower concept. 2016-7. 

  The Total Gym advertises that one can do "pullups"
with the unit. Well, technically, you can simulate the pullup motion - just
as one would perform a real pullup using a regular chin-up bar. But there's
very little exertion in doing a Total Gym "pullup." You'd have to perform
about 100 of them just to give your muscles any sense of a workout. You'd
be better off just performing a regular, real pullup instead.

That's true unless you detach the middle pulley - then you are lifting half your weight. If you increase the angle by using the pulley foot bracket you can lift 2/3rds of your weight. 

 Pull ups with a lower back spinal fusion - still healing - Stevie Richards professional wrestler

 

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