The new gym I'm joining is very good value for money and quite well equipped. It has everything I need except cable pulleys.

The only things I use cables for is cable crunches, cable crossovers and lat raises. I really like the pump you get from doing a few sets of cable lat raises after using dumbbells.

My question is, can I make do without them? I find them very good for isolating certain body parts. I can do dumbbell lat raises obviously, but would the muscle be stimulated in the same way and would gains be the same if just dumbbells were used for this exercise?

I'm a wizard of the word, that's what you heard
And anything else is quite absurd

Isolation work wont make a noticable differance unless you already have a solid foundation already in place.

*I think you will be fine without the cables!

"When i let go of what i am, i become what i might be"

Alasttair .. no disrespect mate but judging by your pictures you should be focusing on big compounds .. leave the cables for now.

Out of interest what gym is it?

if you really need cables look into iron woody bands, you could take them to the gym with you easily enough.

you can do anything you can do with cables using them and there will be more than enough resistance.

i use them extensively for knee rehab work in my home gym

pullumsports.co.uk (i think?) has them

ORIGINAL: Marsbar

Alasttair .. no disrespect mate but judging by your pictures you should be focusing on big compounds .. leave the cables for now.

Out of interest what gym is it?

Umm... thats actually a rapper called Biggie Smalls / Notorious B.I.G

Cable cross over - Pec dec/ db flys, etc.
Front/side raises - db's
cable crunches - highest decline crunches holding db for extra weight

Trust me about the crunches, you will never know what a real ab workout is until you try decline (high decline, 55-65* id say) with 90+LB DB's supersetted with heavy db sidebends.

ORIGINAL: Ouch

ORIGINAL: Marsbar

Alasttair .. no disrespect mate but judging by your pictures you should be focusing on big compounds .. leave the cables for now.

Out of interest what gym is it?

Umm... thats actually a rapper called Biggie Smalls / Notorious B.I.G

That is honestly the funniest thing I've read all day!!

No offense taken mate. My routine is based mainly on big compound movements. I use free weights wherever possible, but I just like to finish up my shoulder workout (after three sets of dumbbell lat raises) with a couple of sets of cable lat raises for the pump.

Trust me mate, I deadlift, squat, bench, military press etc etc. I barely use any machine, but I do like a wee bit of isolation work

I'm a wizard of the word, that's what you heard
And anything else is quite absurd

ORIGINAL: jim2406

if you really need cables look into iron woody bands, you could take them to the gym with you easily enough.

you can do anything you can do with cables using them and there will be more than enough resistance.

i use them extensively for knee rehab work in my home gym

pullumsports.co.uk (i think?) has them

Good advice mate, thanks for that

Cable cross over - Pec dec/ db flys, etc.
Front/side raises - db's
cable crunches - highest decline crunches holding db for extra weight

Trust me about the crunches, you will never know what a real ab workout is until you try decline (high decline, 55-65* id say) with 90+LB DB's supersetted with heavy db sidebends.

Thanks a lot mate, also very good advice. I know I'll be fine without them, but I just started doing them again and really like the pump and lack of ability to cheat.

Didn't you used to have another name on here mate?

I'm a wizard of the word, that's what you heard
And anything else is quite absurd