What is a Pec Deck Machine?
The pec deck machine is designed to exercise the pectoral muscles which is basically your chest muscles. This is a seated machine where you sit facing away from the weight stack, in the outward orientation of the machine. The weight stack would be a pin select and you can choose the desired weight to life by simply placing a pin into that weight. The seat will be adjustable to allow for correct height positioning. The section of the machine you grip allows you to bring your arms together while raising the weight stack via cables and a set of pulleys. This movement contracts and detracts your pectoral muscles.
How to use a pec deck machine
- Adjust the seat to a height that allows your extended arms to be parallel to the floor and at 90 degrees to your torso. This position will give you natural movement during your workout without straining your joints or muscles.
- Select the correct weight for you to lift.
- Sit on the machine and grip hold of both the handles, one with each hand.
- Your starting position needs to be with your elbows at the same level as your shoulders and your hands, in other words, your arms are parallel to the floor.
- Maintaining your arm shape, move your hands forward in an arc motion until they almost touch, at the same time, focus on clenching your chest muscles, you will be able to feel this as you complete this motion.
- Once you have your hands in front of you, hold this position for a second or two, then slowly and under control move your arms back to the starting position.
- Repeat this motion for the desired number of repetitions for your workout.
What does the pec deck machine work?
The pec deck works the pectoral muscles, which are your chest muscles, and it helps to know that the pectoral muscle has two sections to it, pectoral major and pectoral minor. The pec deck exercise mainly focuses on the pectoral major, the largest of the pectoral muscle groups.
While it is true the pec deck machine focuses on the pectoral muscles, this exercise will give your upper shoulders and upper back a good workout.
What are the benefits of using a pec deck machine?
The pec deck machine is a weight training equipment that is primarily used to target the muscles of the chest, specifically the pectoralis major and minor. Some benefits of using a pec deck machine include:
Light commercial or heavy duty
If you are looking to add the pec deck machine to your gym equipment, we think you need to consider the ‘level’ of machine you are going to purchase.
Light commercial
The light commercial level machine would be very suitable for any home or garage gym as these are designed for lighter use, meaning it would be used by fewer people, approximately several dozen uses a day, which in the home gym routine would be way excessive. These machines are aimed at the hotel gym or the shared condominium style gym where the throughput of gym users is not very many compared to a higher traffic environment.
The light commercial machines are very well constructed with full adjustment and high grade materials being used in their construction. The weight stack would generally provide a total weight of around 160 lbs, sometimes more or sometimes less, depending on the brand. This is generally enough for the gyms they are targeted towards, including most high end home gyms.
Heavy commercial
The heavy weight commercial level machines on the other hand are designed for hundreds of uses per day for many years and can be found in most membership style gyms. The construction of these commercial level machines will use heavier grade materials such as thicker steel, larger diameter cables and a heavier duty fabric and even the stitching on any padding.
The cost of these commercial machines will be higher than the light commercial versions because of the materials used and, and because they will almost always have a heavier weight stack, often over 250 lbs.
Summary
The pec deck machine is a core machine for any complete gym, including a home gym for those who have the space to accommodate one. Increasing the strength and size of your chect is not only beneficial for your overall health and posture, but it also allows you to get those protruding chest muscle features all bodybuilders have. It is a must for any serious gym goer!
There are different levels of this type of machine; the light commercial machine is aimed at home gyms, hotel and condominium style gyms where the daily use is light, while the heavy duty commercial machine which is designed for hundreds of users per day and is aimed at the membership style gyms as well as university and military and similar training facilities.
There are multiple brands available on the market, however, we at Gym Gear Direct are focused on providing the very high quality options from both light commercial and heavy commercial cable machines from TKO Strength