We tested the first 'multipower' self-charging gym machine. It tires just like the conventional ones. There is no magic. But it promises 30% higher training efficiency.
There's something worse than being signed up to the gym and not going. Stay signed up, go regularly and keep the same physique after a year and a half. At first I didn't tell anyone I was going because it was too soon; now I've stopped saying it because I've been going too long. I thought about turning to a personal trainer, but I was afraid of losing the few followers I have on Instagram for filling it with phrases like “no giving up”. I then decided to move to Crevillent, Alicante, to the company Smarttone, to test the first self-loading multipower weight machine. That gym equipment that consists of a bench and an arc that surrounds it with weights and on which an infinite number of exercises are practiced, but all automatic. Directed from a touchscreen. Someone who thinks that you can't leave your cell phone plugged in all night trusts their physique to technology.
Nexa, the name of this machine with a design closer to a Formula 1 than to a prison bench press, ensures efficient and safe training. It's tiring anyway. There is no magic. Pero guarantees 30% faster muscle progression. The key lies in the eccentric or negative function, that is, in the load that is carried when the bar is lowered. In a conventional machine, the weight is the same —if I already fear that the cable of the headphones will get tangled with the discs, as if to think about changing them—, while Nexa increases the load on negative muscle contraction. Freely, from the two touch screens it has. You can program a weight of 20 kilos, for example, in the bench press (chest exercise) for lifting and that the load is 25 kilos when you contract your arms and descend the bar.
The first time is scary. So much so that I thought I was going to get stuck, that we would have to suspend the test and go ahead of time to have rice with snails. But Nexa has a security feature. It prevents the bar, no matter how much load it has programmed, from imprisoning you. “This machine can be trained by someone who is very experienced or a 70-year-old person,” explains Juan Pedro Alonso, the engineer who developed Nexa and owner of Smarttone, the manufacturer based in Crevillente.
Gym users usually have the help of a partner who pulls the bar in the last few repetitions to push them to the limit. Nexa incorporates this function. If you feel that the force is not enough to reach the end, give it a little push. “Both eccentric contraction and muscle failure are essential for hypertrophy,” explains Alonso.
Rest is another key to gaining muscle. “People waste a lot of time,” he says. In the gym in my neighborhood, I am stunned until they play a volleyball match on TeleDeporte. Nexa assures you that the 30 seconds or the relevant time between series and series is a total rest. “You don't have to get up to change the discs after every exercise. One waits seated. The weight is programmed beforehand,” he says. Discs are sometimes improperly handled, leading to injury. Nexa loads the weight automatically. You just have to wait and rest.
The two touch screens, which allow you to pre-set the exercises, do not prevent you from having the help of a monitor when preparing the tables. “If these machines were in gyms, personal trainers could work with 50 people instead of 10,” Alonso says. “And it would lower the price of these services,” he adds.
Motivation increases when it comes to exercising. The machine incorporates lights on the load side and clocks on the screens that guide the person who is training. Nexa scores each exercise and corrects you. The information is recorded in the profile of the selected user. It serves to evaluate progress. “We have taken great care of the design. The chromed steel cylindrical weights are a big change,” he says. Machine maintenance is not complex. “It's connected to us 24 hours a day. We control any incident from the office,” explains Alonso. What they can't keep an eye on is what users eat. “It is 80% or 90% important in training,” he illustrates. Another year and a half without noticing a change.
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