Train with machines or with weights? Is gym equipment more effective than free loads? What are the benefits of training with machines versus doing it with weights and dumbbells?
It is almost a fact that most bodybuilding practitioners prefer free loads (dumbbells or bars) over gym equipment, for various reasons they are often considered to be more effective for muscle development.
However, technology has advanced so much in the field of training equipment today those high-level professionals rely heavily on machines.
The result is that a greater sensation of exhaustion is currently achieved, generating a sensation similar to that of free loads.
Perhaps it is best to test with each team and see what feeling you get? Not to mention that a frequent change in strength exercises and a change in training methods will help you grow your muscles.
But we ask ourselves again is it better to train in the gym with machines or weights?
Is it better to train with gym equipment or with weights?
Each case will depend on many factors where variables come into play, such as: your current state of muscle development, your goals, experience, and even what sport discipline you are training for.
In particular, I think that free loads have many advantages over gym equipment, especially in terms of total body training.
However, gym equipment offers us greater security and a great advantage in terms of isolation and training focus.
Let’s now see a list of the benefits of training both with machines and with free loads, so that you can evaluate which would be your best option according to your goals.
Benefits of training with gym equipment
- The machines are designed to isolate a specific muscle group, which is ideal if we want to reinforce a particular weakness.
- They are easy to master. The biomechanics of the movement is predetermined, it is the configuration of the machine that, in general, imposes a position on the body and the load can only move in one direction.
- The previous point is useful if there is some lack of coordination, which is generally the case for beginners. The more advanced ones shouldn’t have to worry about load balancing. However, if you are a beginner and you only train with machines, you will not be able to develop the accessory muscles that will allow you to continue advancing.
- It generally relieves stress on the joints, hence its great interest as a rehabilitation tool for most muscle injuries.
- The machines used normally allow to finish a training session earlier. Since to change the load, it is enough to move a bolt.
- Gym equipment helps to better develop certain muscle groups such as the calves and adductors (inner thighs).
Benefits of training with free loads
- Very small people or very large bodybuilders may have difficulty using machines. This problem does not exist with free charges.
- They allow a great variety of exercises and angles of attack to work the muscle, which generates new stimuli for each zone.
- Weights allow for a greater number of exercises that target more than one muscle group at a time (compound exercises), resulting in higher caloric expenditure and improved training session efficiency.
- They collaborate in the development of muscular coordination and improve balance abilities.
- When training with weights, the repetitions are closer to the natural movements of our body, which is especially important for athletes of different sports.
- Weights are best for training sheer strength, especially the major muscle groups. We see this in intermediate and advanced bodybuilders who tend to structure their routines with these types of exercises.
Here you can read a little more about whether or not it is good to train with only dumbbells: can you train only with dumbbells?
Conclusion: are machines or free weights better?
Like I said before, it all depends on your training goal.
If you’re a beginner, it might be beneficial to focus on training with various gym equipment and supplementing with some basic free-load exercises.
Once a few weeks have passed, you can change the machines for more exercises with weights.
This will allow you at first to establish certain bases of strength in a safe framework, and then to develop the muscles in an integral way with the free loads.
If you are an advanced bodybuilder, you will have a routine based on free loads but at certain times where you need to apply a higher level of isolation it will be necessary to seek support in certain gym equipment to continue advancing in muscle development.