Free Weights Versus Machines, Which is Better?

A hot topic I used to deal with when I worked at Nautilus Plus, Gold’s Gym, and Balleys was how much of a difference is there between free weights and machines? The difference is more significant than many people realize. The common answer that many trainers give is that with the free weights your body has to do most of the stabilizing so it is more challenging to the muscular system. They are totally right but it goes much deeper than that.

Typically you think of the free weight exercise and you focus on just the move itself for instance doing a kneeling military press where you press dumbbells straight up over your head. The machine version of this has you in a seated position with a pad against your back and handles in a fixed position. So going back to the obvious difference is that with the dumbbells in your hands you are now totally responsible for the movement. With the handles of the machines the plane and motion is a fixed motion. This is what most people see as the difference, the dumbbells provide more stimulus to the muscular system so overall you will get a better workout.

Lets look at a few other key points from our perspective. Like we say time and time again the key to understanding everything about an exercise is to look not at the positives but rather all the negatives involved. The machine world of exercise is packed full on negatives. It starts with what the manufacturers are trying to convince you of and that is by isolating a muscle using their machine you will be able to more easily develop each individual muscle. They may advertise otherwise but really if they did not think that this was a good thing, why build the machine in the first place?

So with the machines the biggest negative is that you are isolating a single muscle or muscle group. The problem with this is can you name another thing you do in your life where it only requires a single muscle or single muscle group? Mowing the lawn, no. How about washing your car, again no. The premise to doing any form of physical activity is the coordination of the entire muscular system to promote proper movement of the skeletal system.

Next all of us have various imbalances in our bodies. Muscular strength imbalances, various forms of muscular tightness, and injuries. All these things can change the way our body moves. Machines are built assuming that your body will naturally move the way it was originally designed to. In a perfect world maybe but not our world. This also makes the machines very dangerous because you may try to force a joint to go through a fixed range of motion that it may not be able to do. This can lead to pain and injury.

Our opinion on machines is not a good one. While there a re a select few that we would use if we had to, most simply do not allow for any increase in muscular efficiency but rather they destroy it. Free weights not only give you a better workout, they also are able to help promote better muscular efficiency when done as part of a total program.