Work with the machine, so the machine can work with you.
The machine is designed to maintain mechanical tension - it is how we should train in order to build muscle or increase strength.
If you’re experiencing a jerk in your workout, chances are you’re using momentum while in an Adaptive mode (ie Time Under Tension or Pump). When you move the weight fast - or use momentum - the machine will recalculate and find a heavier load for you, due to your speed.
When you select an Adaptive mode, you're essentially asking the machine to be in-charge of loading you up with a suitable weight.
If you mind your movement is jerky, it can be 1 of 2 possible reasons:
- Your pace doesn't match the speed requirements of the mode; and/or
- You've picked up the pace mid-rep, essentially asking the machine to increase the weight.
Why does it do that mid-rep?
It's to do with basic strength principles.
If you were to pick-up an extremely light dumbbell, you might find you can move it around quite easily - you could probably even throw it across the room! We don't endorse this through.
Now, let's say the weight of the dumbbell increases - closer to your max. You might notice your body needing a little extra time to move the weight; overall slowing your movement. Throwing the heavier weight, feels near impossible - especially compared to the light dumbbell.
When you move fast (similar to the dumbbell throw), this tells the machine the weight is too light and essentially ramps up the load to meet your strength.
When the machine senses a pause somewhere in the middle of your range-of-motion, it will assume you cannot move the load and will lighten. Then when you try to use momentum again, you may find yourself stuck in this jerk-like cycle as you’re moving.
This is why it's important to pay attention to how fast or slow you need to move for a given Adaptive mode.
Refer back to The Training Modes Explained to find out what your ideal pace should be for a given mode, or use a Non-Adaptive mode, like Old School, if you don’t want the machine to adjust the weight for you.