Squats, Presses, and Deadlifts: Why Gyms Don't Teach the Only Exercises You Need

I have another reason that is less orwellian. Weight machines can be used by someone with no training other than the pictures on the side. Squatting (of whatever variety you prefer) requires coaching.

If a new gym member (NGM) comes in and has an initial training session with a trainer, imagine two scenarios:

1. The trainer explains that NGM will have to see them for extensive training for the next 3 months to really get a handle on the 6 exercises (and to work out/work around the mobility or injury issues that can arise).

2. The trainer shows NGM a dozen machines, walks through how to use them, and gives them a handout with two "workouts" on them, and tells them to come back in a month for a re-evaluation.

Which scenario is more likely to result in the NGM signing up for the gym, and continuing to see a trainer once a week to once a month? I'd argue that it's the latter, in most cases. People who even know what the normal weight training exercises are (except for bench press) are in the minority, and are unlikely to use a random gym trainer. If they do, they will come in laying out an agenda for training, and the trainer will probably adapt and train them as they wish to be trained (regardless of how skilled they are in basic barbell exercises).

There are a number of terrible disincentives for the trainer-NGM relationship, and I suspect that this is just one of them.

Shout out to /r/fitness and their faq. Kids today have no idea how hard it was to get good information when I was a kid.

Starting Strength is a great book and program. While this post isn't necessarily indicative of the quality of the book, he does bring up some interesting points. His reasoning on the proliferation of corporate gyms using specialized equipment is intuitive but I wonder if there is any actual evidence versus marketing which I always assumed was the answer.

It does suck that it's such a pain in the ass to get basic barbell training equipment at a gym. I'd love to have my own rack or share one, but it would never work in apartment life.

I never was really a fan of SS, prejudiced by /fit/ I guess :). I found 5x5 [1] a really good resource for learning basic powerlifting techniques as well as body mechanics, something that has contributed greatly to my overall fitness over the past 10 years or so. I always encourage any of my friends who want to start getting fit/lose weight etc to start with this program.

[1] - https://stronglifts.com/5x5/

If your fitness goal is to lift heavy weights, then sure, these may be the only exercises you need. But if your fitness goal is to freeclimb a sheer rockface, or dunk a basketball, or run a 7-minute mile, or be a great skier, then they probably aren't enough, and may actually be detrimental to those other goals if you overdo them. People go to the gym for a variety of reasons, and pure strength is only one of them.