TOTAL LIFETIME FITNESS

Strength Training - Free Weights vs Machines

October 17th, 2008 Posted by David Lemberg

Free weights vs. machines – this old debate is always worth revisiting. In the really old days, of course, there were hardly any machines. “Bodybuilding” gyms were places you went to pump iron – dumbbells and barbells. These facilities were bare-bones operations – there were no amenities, just a few racks of rusty lockers, maybe some ancient faded towels, and possibly a shower. You definitely needed to bring your own soap.

Metropolitan Museum of Art Greek and Roman Gallery - Photography by David Lemberg (1999)

As weightlifting became better described as strength training, and then as strength training became the cooler “working out”, machines began to become popular. Gyms weren’t called gyms anymore – they were now health clubs, and health clubs morphed into fitness clubs. Many new members at fitness clubs were unfamiliar with the use of dumbbells and barbells, and machines were simply an easier, more accessible way to begin lifting weights for exercise.

Machines are fine – you can do a good workout using only machines – but there are many important benefits to doing your exercises with free weights whenever possible. And as we’ll see, using machines provides more opportunity for injury – a definite no-no.

Your body learns many things when you’re using free weights that it doesn’t learn when you’re using machines. With free weights – dumbbells and barbells – your muscles, joints, ligaments, and tendons are completely responsible for lifting and moving the weight. Your entire body learns how to balance in three-dimensional space – this is called proprioception. Not only the prime mover [the main muscle you're training in the particular exercise] is working, but so are all the accessory muscles needed to move the weight. The accessory muscles stabilize the action and provide support and balance for the prime mover. So with free weights, a lot of brain-muscle activity is going on, and more and better neurologic connections get established. The metabolic result is superior, too, because more muscles are being used. You’re using more energy and burning more glucose with free weights. The result is improved metabolic efficiency and improved cardiovascular and respiratory effort.

These benefits are profound and very valuable – not only from the point of view of training effects, but also because of their important physiological impact. We’re exercising to get strong and look good, sure, but we’re also exercising to be healthy and live a long life.

For the most part, machines only train the prime mover. All the stabilizing is done by the structure of the machine, so no benefit is gained by your smaller stabilizing muscles. And as you’re not lifting a free weight – and not needing to use your abdominals and lower back muscles to balance against gravity – there’s a lot of opportunity to lift too much and let your form totally decay.

Just look around you at the gym [I mean, fitness club!]. You’ll see people trying to lift massive amounts of weight on a lat pulldown machine, for example, and swaying their torsos back and forth and sticking their neck out and back, all in a misguided attempt to lift a lot of weight. With machines you can lift more weight than if you were using free weights – but as it’s so easy to let your form get sloppy, there’s a lot of possibility for injury.

It’s not the amount of weight that’s the problem, it’s all a question of form. Using free weights causes you to keep paying attention to good form. With free weights you naturally progress up the ladder of increasing weight. Your entire body benefits, not just the prime movers.

For some exercises a machine is the only way to go. That’s fine. If the majority of your exercises are done with free weights, you can mix in a couple of machine exercises. Variety is a good thing. Make sure to maintain good form on the machine, and you’ll have a great workout.

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