The 5 exercise machines you should never use at the gym

Exercise machines are simple—too simple, in fact. According to metabolic training expert BJ Gaddour, C.S.C.S. owner of StreamFIT.com, "They've been dumbed down to the point that they just don't do your body much good." Besides parking you on your butt, most machines isolate a single muscle, meaning you'll burn fewer calories and gain less muscle mass rep for rep.

Most importantly (at least as far as medical bills are concerned), exercise machines can lead to injury. Even with their adjustable seats and pegs, finding the proper position can be close to impossible—and even then the movements just aren't natural. "Free weights and bodyweight exercises allow your body to move in a natural range of motion," Gaddour says. "When you fix it, it results in a limited and improper movement pattern that can be dangerous."

Here, Gaddour shares five exercise machines you should swear off—and all-star alternatives that will give you better, faster fitness gains.

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1. The Machine: Lying Leg Press

Your legs are strong (after all, they carry your body around all day), so if you lie down with your legs above your head for a leg press, you have to load more than the equivalent of your bodyweight onto the machine to achieve significant resistance, Gaddour says. Problem is, all that weight goes straight to your lower back, which flexes under the pressure. The risk? A herniated disk. Plus, the move doesn't even work any of the stabilization muscles in the hips, glutes, shoulders, or lower back. The result: All pain and barely any gain.

Try This Instead: Goblet Squats. Apart from working just about your entire lower body in a single move, this squat variation involves holding a dumbbell or kettlebell in front of your chest to keep your form in check and the weight off of your lower back. Sometimes, a lighter load delivers a better burn.

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2. The Machine: Seated Leg Extension

Since the weight is placed so close to your ankles, the machine puts undue torque on the knee joint, which can wear down cartilage and cause knee pain, Gaddour says. Plus, the common gym contraption is built around a motion that has little real-life benefit.

Try This Instead: Step Ups. Besides working your quads far better than any machine, step ups also train your glutes, hamstrings, and calves. By calling up more muscles, your knees are actually strengthened, not worn down.

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3. The Machine: Seated Chest Press

While sitting is less than useful, the bigger problem here is that the machine can cause lopsided muscles. How? If one arm is weaker, the stronger one can end up doing all the work—and getting all the benefit, Gaddour says. To make sure both sides of your chest are strengthened equally, you need to load them separately.

Try This Instead: Pushups. An oldie but a goodie, pushups equally engage both sides of your chest. If it didn't, you'd fall right over onto your side. What's more, they tap your core for support and balance. After all, hot bodies aren't built on chests alone.

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4. The Machine: Hip Abductor/Adductor

If it looks ridiculous, it probably is, Gaddour says. And squeezing your thighs together—or pushing them apart—over and over definitely counts. Besides actually working very few muscles, it also strains the spine and can make the IT band so tight it pulls your knee cap out of place—not a good look for anybody.

Try This Instead: Single-Leg Squat. When you're not in the gym, your inner and outer thighs largely work to maintain stability. So they should do the same thing when you're in the gym, right? Single leg exercises—like the single-leg bodyweight squat—require those muscles to brace your body and keep you upright, all while putting your quads, glutes, and hamstrings to good use.

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5. The Machine: Loaded Standing Calf Raise

While the idea here is to lift weight with your calves, the machine's setup—specifically the shoulder pads—means that all the weight presses down on your spine before it ever reaches your legs. If it doesn't turn you into a hunchback, it'll at least cause you some back pain.

Try This Instead: Bodyweight Standing Calf Raise. If regular standing calf raises don't have the resistance you need, try standing on one foot during your next set. Besides doubling the weight each calf has to lift at a time, it also puts your legs' smaller, stabilizing muscles to work.

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‘Pedal pubs’ catching on; should you be able to imbibe and ride?

Two Pedal Pubs in action in downtown Minneapolis (AP)So-called “pedal pubs” are popping up in more than two-dozen cities across the country. And in some of those places, riders can sip on an alcoholic beverage while sitting across a bar from fellow cyclists.

What exactly is a pedal pub? USA Today reports they are sort of like a modern day trolley meets the Flinstones. Up to 16 riders sit across from each other, using peddles underneath their seats to slowly power the quadracycles across city streets. A driver sits at the front of the vehicle, steering it along to its next destination.

"It's like being in a parade," bachelorette party attendee Jen Johnson told the paper. Her friends rented one in Madison, Wisconsin and used the vehicle as part of a pub crawl. Or, in this case, they embarked on something more akin a bar bike, pub pedal, or drink drive. Regardless, "We're smiling, they are smiling," she said of how their pedal party was received by onlookers.

In Wisconsin, it’s still against the law to actually drink while on one of the pedal pubs, although there is an effort to repeal the ban. But in some states, it’s perfectly legal to ride and imbibe.

Houston-based Pedal Party allows its riders to take a drink with them onboard. But owner Gene Landry said some commonsense rules still apply. "You can bring cans or a keg, easy-peasy," he said. "Texas is very sort of mind-your-own business kind of state and people (here) like to be able to do their own thing."

Pedal pubs are also catching on in cities like Arlington, Minneapolis, Nashville and San Diego.

"Different cities have different rules and different attitudes," said Eric Olson, manager of Minnealpolis’ PedalPub . "There's no federal laws regulating it."

And for the record, alcohol is allowed aboard the PedalPub, which advertises itself as, “the bike with the barrel.”

Olson’s company specializes in guiding tours around Minneapolis.

A Florida-based development services coordinator added that the pedal pub is more than a novel transportation route, giving revelers an alternative to driving while intoxicated along with being environmentally friendly.

"It's 100 percent green,” Gigi Hart told the Sun-Sentinel. “There's no gasoline involved, it's only pedaling. It's really fun to go from bar to bar on it, it shows that you can party, be healthy and green at the same time."

Jeff Stone, a Republican state Representative from Greenfield, Wis., recently introduced a bill that would allow municipalities to allow alcohol on pedal taverns.

"In my mind, it's very similar to a limousine or a commercial bus where people can have an open container,” said Wisconsin state Representative Jeff Stone, Republican, who as proposed a bill to change his state’s pedal pub regulations.

“There's a licensed commercial driver responsible for operating the vehicle."

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Obese airline passengers should pay extra, economist says

(Reuters) - Airlines should charge obese passengers more, a Norwegian economist has suggested, arguing that "pay as you weigh" pricing would bring health, financial and environmental dividends.

Bharat Bhatta, an associate professor at Sogn og Fjordane University College, said that airlines should follow other transport sectors and charge by space and weight.

"To the degree that passengers lose weight and therefore reduce fares, the savings that result are net benefits to the passengers," Bhatta wrote this week in the Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management.

"As a plane of a given make and model can accommodate more lightweight passengers, it may also reward airlines" and reduce the use of environmentally costly fuel.

Bhatta put together three models for what he called "pay as you weigh airline pricing."

The first would charge passengers according to how much they and their baggage weighed. It would set a rate for pounds (kg) per passenger so that someone weighing 130 pounds (59 kg) would pay half the fare of 260-pound (118-kg) person.

A second model would use a fixed base rate, with an extra charge for heavier passengers to cover the extra costs. Under this option, every passenger would have a different fare.

Bhatta's preferred option was the third, where the same fare would be charged if a passenger was of average weight. A discount or extra charge would be used if the passenger was above or below a certain limit.

That would lead to three kinds of fares - high, average and low, Bhatta said.

Airlines have grappled for years with how to deal with larger passengers as waistlines have steadily expanded. Such carriers as Air France and Southwest Airlines allow overweight passengers to buy extra seats and get a refund on them.

Asked about charging heavier passengers extra, Southwest spokesman Chris Mainz said: "We have our own policies in place and don't anticipate changing those."

United Air Lines Inc requires passengers who cannot fit comfortably into a single seat to buy another one. A spokeswoman said the carrier would not discuss "future pricing."

About two-thirds of U.S. adults are obese or overweight.

In a 2010 online survey for the travel website Skyscanner (www.skyscanner.net), 76 percent of travelers said airlines should charge overweight passengers more if they needed an extra seat.

(Reporting by Ian Simpson; editing by Andrew Hay)

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Op should reduce arthritic pain of Tiger of Texas

WYLIE, Texas (AP) — a veterinarian hopes innovative surgery has alleviated the pain of arthritis of the hip of a Siberian Tiger to 13 years at a sanctuary in Texas.

Tacoma is one of 66 Big Cats In-Sync Exotics Wildlife Rescue and Education Center in suburban Dallas.

President Vicky Keahey (KAY '-hee) says Tacoma suffered from hip dysplasia for two years. The pain began to strike him four months ago, when she stopped exercising and his hind leg muscles began to wilt. All I did was sleep.

Dr. Toby Willis operated on Tacoma last week, cut the nerves that carry impulses of pain from his hip to his brain. Willis says the procedure, that never before has been executed in the United States, should ensure that the aging cat has less pain.

Watch the video here: http://bit.ly/1387QMq

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