When you're at the gym, you will see many free weights and machines. If you want the best gym workout then you need to know exactly how to use these types of equipment to really make the most out of your muscular development and performance. I'm going to offer my pros and cons of both free weights and machines and tell you which is best to focus on at the gym.
When using machines, you don't have to focus as much on form, balance and coordination. The machine will guide you through the movement and make sure you are doing the exercise properly. As a result, machines are usually safer to do than free weights and are best for a beginner and someone who isn't familiar with many exercises. Machines are also a great way to isolate the muscle. For example, it's hard to workout just your quads when doing free weights. The quad extension machine allows you to just work your quads with virtually no emphasis on any of the other muscles. If you were to do a quad-based free weight exercise like a dumbbell lunge, you would also be working the other muscles of the leg, such as the hamstring and glutes and not just the quads. Machines allow you to really isolate a specific muscle group and are best for that purpose. Lastly, machines are a much faster way to get through your workout. Rather than readjust dumbbells or finding new ones, you can hop from one machine to the next in little time.
Free weights are the best gym workout to build the most muscle and strength while cutting body fat. When training, you need to work your stabilizer and synergist muscles. Stabilizer and synergist muscles are supporting muscles that assist the main muscle in performing a complex lift. The more stabilizers and synergists worked, the more muscle fibers stimulated. For example, if you are doing the bench press, it requires many stabilizer and synergistic muscles to perform the lift. However, doing a bench press machine will use almost no stabilizer muscles. If your stabilizer muscles are weak then it will be extremely hard to build muscle and strength. Doing free weights will put a very large amount of stress and emphasis on supporting muscle groups and build up multiple muscles at once. Since you are working many muscles at once, you are also burning even more calories to burn body fat. Free weights are also more versatile than machines because they allow for more variations in range of motion so you can really maximize your gains and work all different types of muscles.
While machines have benefits, I would focus a vast majority of your routine on free weights but still do machines for a few sets to really isolate those muscles.
When using machines, you don't have to focus as much on form, balance and coordination. The machine will guide you through the movement and make sure you are doing the exercise properly. As a result, machines are usually safer to do than free weights and are best for a beginner and someone who isn't familiar with many exercises. Machines are also a great way to isolate the muscle. For example, it's hard to workout just your quads when doing free weights. The quad extension machine allows you to just work your quads with virtually no emphasis on any of the other muscles. If you were to do a quad-based free weight exercise like a dumbbell lunge, you would also be working the other muscles of the leg, such as the hamstring and glutes and not just the quads. Machines allow you to really isolate a specific muscle group and are best for that purpose. Lastly, machines are a much faster way to get through your workout. Rather than readjust dumbbells or finding new ones, you can hop from one machine to the next in little time.
Free weights are the best gym workout to build the most muscle and strength while cutting body fat. When training, you need to work your stabilizer and synergist muscles. Stabilizer and synergist muscles are supporting muscles that assist the main muscle in performing a complex lift. The more stabilizers and synergists worked, the more muscle fibers stimulated. For example, if you are doing the bench press, it requires many stabilizer and synergistic muscles to perform the lift. However, doing a bench press machine will use almost no stabilizer muscles. If your stabilizer muscles are weak then it will be extremely hard to build muscle and strength. Doing free weights will put a very large amount of stress and emphasis on supporting muscle groups and build up multiple muscles at once. Since you are working many muscles at once, you are also burning even more calories to burn body fat. Free weights are also more versatile than machines because they allow for more variations in range of motion so you can really maximize your gains and work all different types of muscles.
While machines have benefits, I would focus a vast majority of your routine on free weights but still do machines for a few sets to really isolate those muscles.
