I think ff you’re new to the gym, and without a trainer, machines are a safe way to go. Most machines have diagrams to help you with proper lifting form…or if u have injuries, machines will help stabilize your body. With the extra support, you can focus on healthy muscles, and give the injuries time to heal. On other hand…machines also get boring! The same old same old: not only do your muscles get bored, so does your brain. Loss of motivation can lead you to dropping out of your fitness program…
Free weights keep your interest up.. Changing the angle of movement or rotation at a joint will challenge your body and brain. There are many pros and cons of both using machines and free weights.
which one do u guys use?.. which one u think is more effective for your goals?
free weights are better for challenging both sides otherwise with most machines uness they ahve individual arms your dominant arm or leg would be taking on a larger load.
secondly the balancing of free weights puts your entire muscles in action, try doing a set of bench presses with a machine and a barbell, and do it slowly, same amount of weight, u will know the differece
Hands down the Free weights are miles ahead in terms of giving result. As x2 mentioned, the the balancing the weight part can never be achieved by machines and can only be achieved by free weights.
Only time when working out with machine makes sense to me is when you already are in good shape and you have managed to get some muscle mass developed on your body at that time you can try working out with machines and they seem to work quite well in that case as you are just trying to hit the muscle and not worried about learning to balance the weights as you have already learned that.
So for a beginner i would definetly suggest to start working out using free weights only except seated row and lat pull down.
A nice way for a beginner would be to work muscles by doing mixture of heavy to light weight for a muscle, almost every muscle can be hit in two different ways, one by using heavy weights to gain mass and other by using lighter weights to tone the mass. For example one can start working shoulders by doing heavy weights for shoulder press ( either with dumbbells or barbell) to gain mass and then can proceed to lighter weights for frontal or lateral raise to tone the mass.
A nice way for a beginner would be to work muscles by doing mixture of heavy to light weight for a muscle, almost every muscle can be hit in two different ways, one by using heavy weights to gain mass and other by using lighter weights to tone the mass. For example one can start working shoulders by doing heavy weights for shoulder press ( either with dumbbells or barbell) to gain mass and then can proceed to lighter weights for frontal or lateral raise to tone the mass.
There have been many studies done on this regard,and it has proved to be just a myth. One cant 'tone' muscles by doing light weight and high reps.. it makes no difference whatsoever what combination you use, it all depends on your % of bodyfat on you..and the only way of toning your muscles is to decrease BF% and ofcourse with moderate to heavier weight exercises.. For example.. i could do 50-60 reps of light weight for biceps.. it'd only make them harder from inside but wont tone them.. i'd have to do cardio as well as make sure i have been eating the type of diet that would tone my muscles.
So yea, you tone your muscles by heavier weights with cardio included in your routine.
There have been many studies done on this regard,and it has proved to be just a myth. One cant 'tone' muscles by doing light weight and high reps.. it makes no difference whatsoever what combination you use, it all depends on your % of bodyfat on you..and the only way of toning your muscles is to decrease BF% and ofcourse with moderate to heavier weight exercises.. For example.. i could do 50-60 reps of light weight for biceps.. it'd only make them harder from inside but wont tone them.. i'd have to do cardio as well as make sure i have been eating the type of diet that would tone my muscles.
So yea, you tone your muscles by heavier weights with cardio included in your routine.
I think i didnt explain myself better, what i meant to say that there are some exercises that have to be done with smaller weights. For the shoulder as an example, both frontal/lateral raise and shoulder press (barbell/dumbbell) work your shoulders, but i am yet to find someone who can do both exercises with same high weight. An average intermediate level person should be able to do 40lbs for dumbbells for shoulder press for 3 sets of 10 reps. Whereas the same person if he is even trying to do frontal/lateral rise with that weight will not even be able to do 5 reps and there is a very fair chance that he will do himself some very serious damage. Same way the weight one uses for bench press is never going to be same as weight that one can use to do dumbbell flys for chest.
As far as being bored is concerned but I may be weird in that, but free weights bore me...or maybe its lack of knowledge on how long to use them. Can you post soe good work out links for women with free weights. My trainer made me use the medicine ball...But my mind kept on saying...I can do all that at home...why would I want to ome to the gym for that? I guess thats one of the reasons I like the machines better. I do agree that with the machines its hard to change your routine unless you just keep on increasing the weights.
free weights are better for challenging both sides otherwise with most machines uness they ahve individual arms your dominant arm or leg would be taking on a larger load.
secondly the balancing of free weights puts your entire muscles in action, try doing a set of bench presses with a machine and a barbell, and do it slowly, same amount of weight, u will know the differece
100% agree.
but if u r newbie and go to gym alone then i think machines might be a better option.
free weights are better for challenging both sides otherwise with most machines uness they ahve individual arms your dominant arm or leg would be taking on a larger load.
secondly the balancing of free weights puts your entire muscles in action, try doing a set of bench presses with a machine and a barbell, and do it slowly, same amount of weight, u will know the differece
X2 if you use barbell it balance/evens out over the time, nothing to worry about.
But yes in case of bumble you have to be care full.