Free Weights or Exercise Machines

Which types of weight training should you be using when working out: free weights or exercise machines? Personally, I like to use a combination of both free weights and exercise machines, including pulley machines. It all depends on the type of exercise that I am doing.

Exercise Machines

Let’s take a look at exercise machines. They are great for beginners because you don’t need a spotter, therefore they are safer. You can feel confident as you increase the amount of weight, you won’t hurt yourself or be stuck while doing a repetition. Machines can help you focus more on targeted muscles. Some machines even have different hand grips to help you hit different muscles and add some variety to your workout. The only drawback is that machines tend to move in a single plane, a more limited range of motion. Although some machines like the HammerStrength machines will tend to have a wider range of motion available. Also, by incorporating a workout using certain types of machines, you can achieve different range of motion and a wider range of motion.

Pulley Machines

With respect to pulley machines, they allow you to change hand grips and bars and you can get constant tension on both the positive and negative movements of the exercise. They also give you a much wider range of motion, particularly while doing chest crossovers. Therefore, pulley machines offer you a lot of variety which can mimic the exercises that you can do with free weights.

Free Weights

On the other hand, free weights tend to give you the greatest and the widest range of motion. Basically, you control the motion. There are also so many types of exercises that you can perform with free weights. You can even combine your free weight workouts with a Bosu ball for a total-body workout.

If you are working out with heavy free weights, you may need a spotter.