Free Weights or Resistance Machines?

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(Free-Press-Release.com) March 7, 2011 -- In any gym you will always see a strict divide between those who choose to use free weights and those who use resistance machines. Thats not to suggest that the 2 are mutually exclusive but certainly there seems to be some gym-goers who are more drawn to using machines and some who favour free weights. Both have their own advantages and disadvantages but which is best overall?

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Free Weights or Resistance Machines?

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Free weights are ideal for isolating individual muscles whilst resistance machines tend to work the body in a compound sense utilising more than one joint and many muscles assisting the action. Weights tend to emulate natural movements whilst resistance machines feel slightly more mechanical. Also weights obviously don't take up nearly as much space as resistance machines and users are only limited by their own imagination when it comes to the amount of exercises they can perform with them.

Free weight exercises lying supine (lying on your back) on a bench such as bench press may require the assistance of a spotter to help complete the exercise with good form and prevent risking safety. The spotter should be experienced and able to step in and help if they feel the individuals safety is compromised or if they cannot complete the final repetition. However, there is not always a spotter available so often users will attempt to lift weights sometimes beyond their capabilities. This could potentially cause them serious harm and they could usually replicate a similar level of resistance using a machine without the risk of injury.

While using free weights an individual may lift beyond their ability and drop the weights on to themselves or risk hyper-extension where the movement exceeds the users natural range of motion. It is much harder to injure yourself using resistance machines since if the weight cannot be lifted the weight will simply drop onto the weight stack and not on top of the user. Machines also incorporate many muscles to assist the movement (compound exercise) which means one individual muscle isn't subjected to excessive strain as could occur using free weights targeting individual muscles. Assuming the user follows all of the necessary precautions and set-up procedures correctly then the machine is always the safer option.

For a beginner I would suggest the use of resistance machines since they are safer to use, far more simplistic to get to grips with and work the gym user in a far broader sense without causing any muscle imbalances. On the other hand once a gym-user has been attending his/her gym for a while I believe the natural progression should be to free weights. They offer a less mechanical movement through a more natural plane of motion and assuming the individual performs the exercise using good form is far more effective at targeting specific muscles.

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