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Machines vs. free weights for muscle gain

Machines vs. free weights for muscle gain

Chest press or bench press? Leg press or squats? Lat pulldowns or pull-ups? If we want to answer the question of whether machine or free weight exercises are better, we must of course first clearly define our goal.

If you are a powerlifter, crossfitter, or weightlifter, for example, then the question doesn't even apply to you. You HAVE to work with free weights in competition and therefore you HAVE to train with free weights - at least for the majority of your time in the gym.

But if you are "only" interested in building muscle mass, then things begin to look a little different. There is no specific time when you need to perform well in specific exercises.

So you can train mostly with machines or mostly with free weights. But which of them is better for muscle building? Let's take a closer look at that question now.

Free weights are not a must

As a powerlifter, crossfitter, or weightlifter, you MUST train with free weights - but as a bodybuilder, you do not need to do this.

Your muscles don't care what an exercise is called, what equipment is used, or whether the movement is "natural" or "unnatural."

For example, there are some who claim that you should not do squats on the multi-press or leg extensions because they are not "natural" movements. However, if you can perform these exercises without discomfort, then this claim has no relevance at all.

After all, the only thing your muscles care about is the amount of load being applied to them, the duration of the load, and how big the range of motion of an exercise is.

The greater the range of motion and the higher the load moved, the greater the muscle building stimulus. The load duration should usually be in the range of 6-15 reps for hypertrophy training. The number of reps generally serves as a proxy for the duration of the load.

Your muscles are stupid! They don't know what an exercise is called, what equipment is used, or whether the movement is "natural" or "unnatural."

So now we know what causes a stimulus for hypertrophy. And since we need to apply this muscle-building stimulus again and again to build muscle optimally, we must of course also not injure ourselves.

Accordingly, the execution of an exercise should not only set a great muscle-building stimulus, but also not unnecessarily stress our body's more passive structures. It's no use if we achieve a super strong stimulus in one session, but then can't train for 4 weeks because of knee pain.

With these criteria, we can now look at the pros and cons of free weights and machines.

Pros of free weights

With free weights, you have the advantage of being able to move the weight in the way that best suits your individual anatomy.

For example, when doing the bench press, you can lower the bar to the chest with a small or large arc. If you experience shoulder pain when using a small arc, then you can switch to a larger arc.

For the squat, for another example, you can lean far forward or not so far forward. If you lean forward and don't feel the exercise at all in the quadriceps, you can do it more upright to hit the target muscles better.

So with free weights you can move in such a way that you hit the target muscles well and don't hurt yourself. The disadvantage of free weights is that you are less stable and some of your strength goes into stabilizing instead of being able to lift more weight.

An advantage of free weights: You can move so that you hit the target muscles well and do not hurt yourself.

Pros of machines

The advantage of machines is that you are more stable and have the potential to put more load on the target muscles. The disadvantage is that not every machine is good. By "good" I mean that it is a good fit for your anatomy.

Unfortunately, there are many bad machines where you ask yourself, "Why did they make this machine like this? It doesn't fit any person at all - no matter how long their legs or upper arms are." You probably know machines like that...

But then there are also machines that only fit the anatomy of some people. These machines might work very well for one person but then do very little for another person.

An advantage of machines: You are more stable and have the potential to apply more load to the target muscles.

In addition, you should also consider the resistance curve of the movement you are trying to do. Sometimes a machine can challenge your body more effectively across the entire range of motion than a free weight exercise would.

For instance, think about where a preacher curl with a barbell is the most difficult. This is when your arms are parallel to the ground, since your muscles are actively fighting against gravity trying to pull the bar down. But at the top and bottom of the range of motion, there is almost no force that your muscles are fighting against, because the barbell is just resting or hanging, and your arms are perpendicular to the force of gravity. If you use a preacher curl machine, on the other hand, the machine will apply the same amount of force to your biceps at every point in the range of motion, regardless of gravity. Thus, machines can sometimes stimulate your muscles more consistently across the full range of motion.

This can also be true for cable exercises; for instance, cable lateral raises will provide a much more consistent resistance curve than lateral raises with dumbbells.

The machine must suit you well

But if you have a machine in your gym that fits you really well, for example a hack squat machine where you can use the full range of motion of the quads WITHOUT having pain in the knee or hip joint, then this machine is objectively better for the development of your quads than the free squat.

Why "better" and not just equivalent to the free squat? With the hack squat machine, you are stabilized by the backrest. Thus, you do not wobble and can concentrate 100% on moving the weight.

In the free squat, you have no back support. You are less stable. Even if you've been doing squats for years, you still have to be a little careful to stay stable with heavy weight and not topple over. This takes strength.

Therefore, the load acting on your quadriceps is greater in the scenario with the hack squat machine, due to its better stability.

This leads to a greater stimulus for hypertrophy - provided you get down at least as far on the hack squat machine as you do on the squat and you don't develop hip or knee pain.

But that really only applies if this machine is a great fit for you. Unfortunately, this is often not the case. Especially with hack squat machines, many people develop knee problems due to the high load on the knees, so that the free squat is the better choice for them.

Machines are superior to free weights only if they fit your body perfectly.

"Okay, then I'll look for good machines now and only do exercises on these good machines." It's not quite that simple. Apart from the fact that there are not many really great machines in most gyms, you also have to be able to judge whether these exercises are good for you at all.

So you need to understand how to move in order to hit your target muscles optimally. To learn this, you should first gain experience with free weights.

The probability of finding a certain movement pattern that stimulates your target muscles well is much higher when you move free weights. With free weight exercises you have many more options to move the weight according to your anatomy. You are not bound to a movement pattern as you are with machines.

Once you figure out how to do the free weight exercises, then you can also judge whether certain machines are good for you or not, and you can then substitute the free weight exercises with those good machines.

To judge whether or not a machine is a good fit for you, you should first learn the technique of comparable exercises with free weights.

If you are an engineer, why not design a perfect machine?

The elements of this machine should be very mobile. The user should be able to grasp these movable elements or lie down on them (depending on the type of exercise) and show the machine exactly what their ideal movement pattern is for training the relevant target muscles.

When the user has done a few reps and is satisfied with the movement pattern, the machine should lock its elements that were moving during the exercise.

Now the user can perform their ideal movement pattern AND be stabilized by the machine so that they can apply a high load to the target muscles. This would be the perfect machine because it would have only advantages and absolutely no disadvantages compared to free weight movements. So someone please develop such a machine!

Conclusion

In summary, we can say that machines are better for muscle building than free weights, but only IF a certain condition is met. These machines must fit your anatomy perfectly.

This means that the range of motion for the target muscles should be at least as large as it is in the comparable free weight exercise, and you should also be able to do the whole movement without any pain or injury.

Unfortunately, this is rarely the case. That's why we have no choice but to continue training with free weights if we can't find a machine that suits us for a particular muscle group.

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