Chain driven machines vs cable

[the goose]

Went to a friends gym in his garage today and he was showing me a ” new to him “ piece of gear he acquired. It was a 1970 ish chain and gear driven pull down machine, very cool, but I was very surprised how different the weight felt when compared to cable based machines.

The same weight almost felt heavier and more direct to your body, it was weird.

It almost felt like I had to control the weight more in some respect, especially when lowering the weight.

Just wondering if anybody here has used chain driven machines and would like to make a comment on your perceived differences, or am I crazy for thinking there is such a difference

Comments,,

 

[TPM_81]

Went to a friends gym in his garage today and he was showing me a ” new to him “ piece of gear he acquired. It was a 1970 ish chain and gear driven pull down machine, very cool, but I was very surprised how different the weight felt when compared to cable based machines.

The same weight almost felt heavier and more direct to your body, it was weird.

It almost felt like I had to control the weight more in some respect, especially when lowering the weight.

Just wondering if anybody here has used chain driven machines and would like to make a comment on your perceived differences, or am I crazy for thinking there is such a difference

Comments,,

Sounds like you used a Nautilus machine for the first time. I'm a huge fan of them, unfortunately finding them in a commercial gym in 2022 is probably not going to happen. Dorian Yates was also a huge fan of the Nautilus Pullover and you can watch him annihilate his lats in his "Blood and Guts" movie. The deltoid machines were unbelievable, I used to train at a gym that had the complete Nautilus line and unfortunately closed down about 5 years ago.

 

[CoolRick]

Sounds like you used a Nautilus machine for the first time. I'm a huge fan of them, unfortunately finding them in a commercial gym in 2022 is probably not going to happen. Dorian Yates was also a huge fan of the Nautilus Pullover and you can watch him annihilate his lats in his "Blood and Guts" movie. The deltoid machines were unbelievable, I used to train at a gym that had the complete Nautilus line and unfortunately closed down about 5 years ago.

The gym i went to for years had pretty much all the old nautilus machines. I loved those machines they just targeted the muscle so perfectly. Mentzer apparently came there as part of the promotion. There were autographed posters of him and Ray on the walls too. Sadly being shut down because of the pandemic put them out of business, so sadly im looking for a new home.

 

[Negan]

The first gym I went to had old chain equipment, I remember using a pullover machine with really crappy padding over wood. I can't really remember much more about the equipment though.