While variety can often times be a good thing, it can also leave us feeling a little bit overwhelmed or even confused. If you’ve ever walked into a large gym you might have felt totally inundated with the crazy amount of exercise options. You’ll see machines, bands, dumbbells, barbells, kettlebells, BOSU balls, cable columns, something called a “landmine” and so much more! For someone like me, this is like being a kid in a candy shop. So many options…I get giddy just thinking about it!
For everyone else, though, all these options can feel a bit intimidating. You might also be wondering what is best? Should you be using the machines that are already set up and tell you what body part you are working? Or maybe you should be using dumbbells because they seem easy enough and you can do lots of exercises with them. With all these options can come a lot of questions. The short answer is that no one exercise format is necessarily better than the other. They each have their benefits and their drawbacks. And, like many things, it also depends on what your goals are related to your strength training.
The key is understanding what those are then making an educated decision about what is right for you! I am going to help give you some insight into the good and that bad for machines verse free weights. These are the most commonly used and asked about in terms of which one is best. Next time you walk into the gym maybe you’ll be giddy like me with all the potential! At the very least, you’ll know whether you want to head for the dumbbells or the machines.
Free Weights
First off you might be wondering what exactly constitutes a free weight. Quite simply, this is any weight that is not attached to an apparatus. For example, this can include (but not limited to) dumbbells, barbells, and kettlebells. These are the best option if you are planning to do your workouts at home. They are relatively inexpensive and small enough to store away when you are not using them. But hey, if you have room for a bunch of machines in your home gym then good on you…and I’m officially jealous!
One great benefit to using free weights is that they allow you to work three-dimensionally. This is important because this is how our body normally moves in daily life. Therefore, free weight exercises can be considered more functional because you are working in all three planes of movement. Most exercises involve a primary muscle or muscle group and secondary muscles. Many of the secondary muscles involved are the ones that help stabilize the joint your moving. When using free weights, you are engaging both the primary muscle(s) and a bunch of secondary stabilizing muscles to keep you moving smoothly throughout the exercise. Because of this stabilization, you will be engaging more muscles while performing a particular movement or exercise. Again, this is also how we move throughout our day and use our muscles we lift or pick something up.
While free weights have the benefit of being a more functional way of moving and requiring more muscle involvement they might not be for everyone. Using free weights, particularly barbells can be more challenging for beginners. Barbell work requires a greater level of skill to perform accurately and without risk of injury. Free weights also tend to require more balance and coordination which can also be more challenging for beginners.
Weight Machines
A good portion of a gym is likely to be taken up by a wide variety of machines, working all different body parts. There are many different types of machines and exercises you might encounter. Machines can be great because they place you in a good position to help you isolate a particular muscle or muscle group. They move on a fixed axis and will only allow you to move in two planes of motion. Because of this, they don’t allow you to compensate or use a lot of momentum to assist with the movement. You also may be able to lift heavier because of being in a proper position. You could also improve some muscular imbalances and specific areas of weakness because you are able to better isolate that muscle and not compensate with other bigger stronger muscles.
Machines can be a safer alternative to free weights for beginners who are not as comfortable with a certain movement pattern or unsure of the set up for an exercise. As I mentioned above, free weights have a slightly higher potential for injury due to requiring proper setup and form with the movement. Machines inherently place your body in the right position and therefore can be safer in that regard. They are do not require the level of balance and coordination that free weights do.
Availability
Sometimes it just may come down to availability. The gym can get busy at certain times of the day and you may have a plan to do a leg press machine but it’s taken. Don’t feel like you have to wait around until it’s free. The goal is to maximize your time in the gym and nothing wastes your time more than standing around waiting. You can switch to doing a dumbbell or kettlebell squat instead. We want to work smarter not harder so don’t be afraid to adjust your plan for that day if machine or free weight availability is an issue.
**A small caveat to this is that I never use a machine alternative for my compound lifts. By now you likely know that compound lifts are the bread and butter of a good strength training program. They are a highly effective and functional piece to strength training and just too important to replace. If you are healthy and able to do them safely and effectively I would not recommend replacing these with a machine.
Machines and free weights both have their place in a well-structured workout plan. I am a big fan of variety and I use both in my programming. Like I said in the beginning, one is not better than the other. It’s just a matter of understanding how each works and knowing how that will benefit your strength goals. Now that you understand the benefits for each one you can be more strategic in how you are planning our workouts and using them to help you meet your own strength goals!
Until next time…
Xx
Allison
