When it comes to isolation machines, the Body-Solid GPM65 Plate Loaded Pec Machine is the best pec deck machine available today.
Affordable, durable and well-designed, it provides you with a solid pectoral work out on top of a good upper arm pump.
It is easy to assemble, quiet when used and specifically designed to target all of the major muscle groups that compose the chest.
Body-Solid GPM65 Pec Deck Machine
Pros
- Compact and lightweight
- Uses free weights instead of weight stack
- Great way to isolate chest muscles
- Perfect for all heights
- Limited lifetime warranty
Cons
- Requires you to buy weights
The Body-Solid GPM65 Plate Loaded Pec Machine is arguably the best pec deck machine on the market today. Complete with great reviews, an affordable price and versatility, it’s a compact machine that will yield great results. A study in 2012 even found that it is nearly as effective in activating the pecs as the bench press.
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What Makes the GPM65 Different?
Unlike competitor machines that come with weight stacks, by far the best aspect of this pec deck is the plate loading. This means that so long as you have plates you can add, you can throw on as much weight as you need to get the workout you want.
Each lever operates independently, further allowing you to change weights based on your body’s needs. This freedom also lends the machine a few other workouts, the main alternative being sitting sideways on the machine to work the delts individually.
Some customers even report success sitting on the machine backward and pulling the levers rather than pushing them.
Perfect Compact Home Gym Addition
The entire machine measures 28 x 65 x 32 inches, making it perfect for an in home unit that can be easily situated in a corner of the house. It is balanced and made with a steel frame. Its DuraFirm seating pads for the seat and back are fully adjustable to fit every body shape.
Customers all the way up to 6’4” find it to be a comfortable fit with little to no contortion required. Coming in at around $400, it’s one of the most cost effective pieces of equipment on the market today. In addition, the fact that it does not come with a weight stack means it is lightweight as well.
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Freedom to Choose Your Own Weights
This does bring up an important point in that the weight must be provided by you. When shipped, you will only receive the machine. Luckily, weights are extremely easy to get and affordable. It’s this fact alone that allows the manufacturer to put more emphasis on a great design.
Where money would have gone to weights, it instead went to producing the best pec deck machine. As for the size of the weights needed, both Olympic and standard sizes will work. These can be bought new or purchased from a used sporting goods store.
Muscle Isolation
Another important aspect of this machine is that the arms work independently of one another. This makes it so that both sides of the body develop strength at an equal rates, something that can become an issue when training with machines that don’t provide such isolation.
In addition, such a design demands perfect form in order to see progress without injury. Though this undoubtedly keeps weight amount progression slow, result progress is much more prominent and much faster. As the adage goes, perfect form trumps weight amount every time.
Brief Guide to Pec Deck Machines
Here we address some of the most common questions as to what they are, which muscles they work, and the types of exercises that can be performed by owning one.
What Are They?
As the name implies, a Pec Deck Machine is one that incorporates weighted exercises that target the pectoral muscles as well as a few of the surrounding muscle groups. Because of how focused it is on one muscle group, this machine tends to be far smaller than other options that are aimed for more of a full body experience.
In design, it comes with a seat that can be height adjusted and two levers on either side of the body that are pushed forward using the upper chest muscles. This specific machine can also be used to work the upper arms with a simple alteration of your sitting position.
Muscles Used
First and foremost, this machine targets your sternal pectoralis major, the main muscle that we identify as the pecs when they are large enough to be visible on the human body. However, this isn’t the only muscle. There are three synergists, or muscles that assist the pectoralis major in accomplishing the movement.
These include the clavicular pectoralis major, the pectoralis minor and the serratus anterior. It is also designed to provide users with the option to work their deltoids, the muscles that make up the shoulders.
Pec Deck Exercises
After adjusting the height of the chair so that your arms can grab the levers at about a 90 degree angle from the body, use your chest muscles to push the weight forward until your arms are directly in front of you. Slowly let the weights go back to the starting position and repeat.
Always remember that slow, controlled movements result in the safest and best way to build strength. For the shoulders, sit down facing one of the arms. Grab the lever using the outside arm and use your shoulder muscles to move it back and forth.
Pec Deck vs. Fly Machine
In the exercise world, you’ll find a myriad of machines that seem to do the same thing, like the pec deck and fly machine. While similar, though, they do affect the muscles in different ways. Pec Decks keep the arms bent and use a motion that directly focuses just the chest.
Fly machines, however, keep the arms extended, resulting in a workout that activates more muscle groups. Luckily, this machine is a combination of both, giving you the perfect blend of pectoral focus and a decent upper body workout.
Final Verdict
If you’re on the market for an isolation machine that does its job and does its job well, the Body-Solid GPM65 Plate Loaded Pec Machine is undoubtedly the reigning champion of workout machines.
Small yet powerful, users from across the world praise this machine for its simple design and high efficiency.
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