September 20 2008
Should I use free weights or machines? Simple question, but the debate has been going on forever. Here is my take on the debate.
Transfer of strength: You don’t sit on a chair when you lift your grocery bag; you don’t use a back support when you load your luggage in the over head cabin, then why sit with a back support when you lift weights?
Athletes using free weights, training concepts called functional training and movement training are all based on one single theory called Theory of Specificity. The theory says loud that strength, speed, balance, & coordination are very SPECIFIC to the movement.
Simply put, the more similar the exercise to the movement or skill you are trying to improve, the better the carry over or transfer. So if you want to transfer the strength you gained in the gym to the outside world, then use free weights or exercises which are similar to what you do in real life. It is usually called “functional strength”.
Variety: With 2 dumbells, you can do 100’s of exercises. On a machine, you are just stuck with one exercise. If you have been using machines all your life, there is some pretty good evidence to show that you are a boring person (just joking).
Add some free weights and spice up your workouts.
More muscles: When you use free weights, the body is using a lot more muscles to balance and coordinate, especially your core. So you are getting more bang for you buck or something similar.
Isolate muscle: The benefit of “more muscles” with free weights comes with a price. The more muscles you use to balance and stabilize, the less you are able to isolate a muscle and use more weight.
Leg extension machine (the machine shown in pic), for example, can isolate and load your quads better than you can ever do with free weights. And the more the loading, the better it is for muscle growth.
In short, the more the balancing and stabilizing required, the less the loading. Keep this in mind when you do all those cool exercises on the swiss & bosu ball. Life is full of compromises, isn’t it?
Safer: This is pretty straight forward. Machines are much safer than free weights for a beginner and older individuals. That been said, anyone can learn to use basic free weight exercises in a few weeks.
As is often the case with most training debates, there is no right or wrong. It all depends on your goals and other factors.
If you are an athlete, I would stick with mostly free weights. If you just want to get in shape, it doesn’t matter what you use. If you are older, I would recommend you to use more of free weights because of all the improvements in balance and functional strength.
A general recommendation would be to exploit both free weights and machines.
How Many Reps & Sets for a Beginner?
Why & How To Warm Up for Weight Training?
Angela | Wed September 24, 2008
Hi Anoop
Nice site and great articles.Some of the advanced articles are way over my head.
So do you think using free weights is better for toning than machines. My trainer used to make me do all the exercises on the ball because he beleived it will help me loose fat. Is it true?
Thank you
Angela
Anoop | Thu September 25, 2008
First, weight training will not help you much in losing weight. Or atleast the way you and your trainer is thinking.
The most important benifit of weight training during a diet is to hold onto some of muscle tissue. You will lose muscle during a diet;there is no question about it unless you are jacking chemicals in your ass. The best diet out there will be the one which can hold onto the maximum amount of muscle while you still losing fat.
So your weight training program on a diet or off a diet should always be for maximum muscle growth.
Using a ball will get you different muscles in the core than without it. But the compromise is load. You will be less loading the muscle and hence less stimulus to the muscle. Even if you want to load more, you cannot since it becomes really unsafe.
And I am not surpised about the trainer. 95% of the trainers never try to learn past the basics or critque ideas or read journals.I have seen a few and even have a few working for me.
Angela | Fri September 26, 2008
Hi Anoop
Thank you for replying. I can assure you that I am not jacking up anything in my arse :lol: . It makes sense. I will think more when I workout now.
When is the next article?
I am trying to figure out if I should machines or Free weights.
I want to get bigger, but I want a lot of tone. I keep reading that free weights work faster and better. It also works out more muscles.
Can I just do a lot of machines, work all areas by machines, will I get the same results as free weights?
Anoop | Sun December 07, 2008
Hi Chris
You can use machines and still get the same results. Muscles grow if it is overloaded. It doesn
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