Apr
14
Free Weights Vs. Machines, The Gym’s Eternal Argument
Filed Under Building Muscles, Exercise, Gyms, Illness and Injury, Work Out
It never fails, get three people together in a gym and ask them to discuss their workout and inevitably the conversation will eventually turn to machines vs. free weights. If you’re completely clueless about this argument, it comes from the fact that some people prefer free weights like dumbbells and barbells while others like to workout on specialized machines that offer a narrow range of choices for exercises per machine.
In fact, most gyms are set up to have one area in which people work out on machines and another area in which people use free weights. for beginners, this can be a little confusing. After all, it seems like these two options are identical. I can get on a machine and do some curls or I can use dumbbells. I could use the leg press machine or I could do some squats. What’s the difference?
Form Is Better On Machines
As I’ve said before many times, form is very important when you workout. You want good form in which you slowly and gradually move the weights around. You want to primarily use the muscle group which you intend to workout. That means if you’re doing curls, you shouldn’t be swinging your entire body around trying to lift those weights.
For the purposes of good form, machines are better. Machines force us to have good form by stabilizing our whole body. For example, when I do a curl on a machine, I’m sitting and my upper body is relatively immobile due to the various supports on the machines. That means it’s only my biceps which are doing the work. With free weights, I’m free to swing more body parts around which could contribute to bad form. In fact, you can see that if you click on the free weights curls link here. The person working out is swinging back and forth, which is bad form. By way of comparison, look at these machine curls here. You can see that the whole body is much more stable and only the biceps are working. Do free weights have to mean bad form? Not at all. It’s very possible to achieve good form with free weights, but it’s somewhat easier with machines.
Muscle Recruitment Is Better With Freeweights
What the heck is muscle recruitment? It’s that thing your body does when you lift something and need to maintain your balance. Think of it this way. When you do a squat, you’re lifting a weight up with your legs. Your leg muscles are doing most of the work lifting straight up, but your body also recruit quite a few smaller muscles groups to maintain stability, to keep you upright and to prevent you from falling over. If you did the same exercises with a machine, less of your body would be involved.
Muscle recruitment is a little like form. It means more muscles are involved in the exercise than just the ones you wanted involved. The difference is that bad form means you’re making things too easy for those primary muscles. You’re replacing the work they’re supposed to do by doing it with other muscle groups. Muscle recruitments means you’re adding more work which is being done by other muscle groups.
Take a look at a free weight squat here, vs a machine press here. Both have very good form and in both, the legs are doing the same amount of work. However, with the free weight squat, the user is also recruiting other muscle groups to keep himself upright and stable, which the machine press does not do.
Less Injuries With Machines
By their nature, machines limit the potential for injuries. You’re not going to drop a weight on your foot, you’re not going to move your arm into a weird position and tear a tendon and you’re not going to find yourself pinned to the bench with too much weight on your chest. Machines are in fact safer to use since they limit the range of things you can do.
More Accurate Progress With Machines
It’s easier to measure progress with machines since the movements and weights are always the same. For example, if I use the example of the machine press vs. the squat I showed above. The machine press is easy to adjust for less or more weight, but what about the squat? My body weight ranges up or down a few lbs every day. Since I’m also lifting my body weight, that could make things harder or easier. Also, as you lose weight, exercises with freeweights could feel easier because you’re lifting less weight. Finally, you could adjust your form or grip to make things harder or easier, something that’s more difficult with machines. For example, if I’m doing a bench press, a narrow or wide grip on the bar could make things harder or easier. With a machine press, there are places for you to grip, which means you always grip in the same spot. All of these things combine to make machine workouts more precise.
Even Workout For Both Side With Free Weights
With machines, you typically workout both sides at the same time. For example, when you do curls, you’re doing them with both hands at the same time. This is not always true, but in general, that’s how most machines are set up. That means one side could be doing more of the work and you might not notice it. In fact, many people, when doing two handed exercises, will let their dominant hand or leg do most of the work. With free weights, and specifically with dumbbells, it’s impossible to let one side do more of the work. So you end up with a more even workout for both sides.
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So have we solved the argument? Well, not really. Personally, I’m a free weights fan. However, I believe that most people who are new to the gym start out with machines before they use free weights. That will help you learn good form and how to avoid injuries. In the end, the best workout is the one you feel comfortable with. The differences between free weights and machines are relatively small and both are far better than not working out at all.
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4 Responses to “Free Weights Vs. Machines, The Gym’s Eternal Argument”
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Another point about machines vs. weights: Machines are built with the “typical gym goer” (i.e. 6′ man) in mind. If you are not a “typical gym goer”, trying to use the machines may actually force bad form on you and cause injury. Score one for free weights.
That’s an excellent point that I didn’t think of, probably because I’m 5′11″.
Although almost all of the machines at the gym I use are adjustable to a degree. Still, I can see how a smaller or larger than average person would have issues with a machine.
Score one more for free weights.
Gal
Wow, that’s the best summary I’ve seen on the differences between free weights and machines. And so balanced! Think I’ll bookmark this for later.
Very good post, especially easy for a clueless person (like myself) to understand both sides of the argument.