Comments on: Strength Training – ONLY With Free Weights!

By: Alex Moisescu

Alex Moisescu — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 16:36:37 +0000

Rage against the machines,

I have also written an article like this one: “Rage against the machines” on one of my blogs: http://www.alexandindi.blogspot.com .

PS I am not trying to divert traffic to my blogs; I live in China and I write for fun.

Cheers

By: Caleb Lee

Caleb Lee — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 15:28:22 +0000

@ Darrin: Yeah I agree with you on using certain machines for rehab. For example, Louie Simmon’s reverse hyper machine is GREAT for rehabbing and strengthening the lower back — I could actually recommend that machine.

And in certain instances when you would need to pre-fatigue a specific muscle group I could see the advantage as well, or even better, first doing as many free weight exercises with that muscle group as possible, THEN moving onto machine exercises targeting it (because you could reach failure with free weight squats for instance and still do another set on the smith machine squats, then another set or even two of leg extensions before reaching failure… because there is less total muscles involved in each sequential exercise)… but strategies like that usually aren’t needed by 80% of trainees so I just decide to take a completely contrarian approach from the get go.

I guess you could start someone on machines too, but I would rather start them on doing bodyweight exercises mimicking the free weights, then go straight to them first — after they’ve mastered their bodyweight — but then again I’m not an actual personal trainer and I’ve never had to deal with clients in a gym like that so who knows?

Thanks for the comment Darrin — love to hear everyone’s viewpoints!

By: Darrin

Darrin — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 02:56:44 +0000

That picture is hilarious (or sad, or both). I totally agree to stay away from the Smith machine. But I’m might have a friendly disagreement about swearing off ALL machines. Before I go further, I should say that I have not used a machine in about 4 yrs. So I agree with your emphasis. But resistance machines have some value, once in a while. For example:
- certain rehab routines after injury
- to pre-fatigue an isolated muscle before doing a compound exercise
- and then there’s the fear factor: if someone brand new has a fear of free-weights, and you are coaching/helping/training them, you might want to have their first week or two be on machines, so that they at least get started doing something, and then start weaning them off

But I don’t want to be argumentative – great post!

By: Caleb Lee

Caleb Lee — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 16:42:26 +0000

@ Blaine: Yeah, pulleys can be pretty useful in situations where you need to work a specific range of motion, such as rotator cuff exercises, etc… also, if you’re working out at home you can substitute those thick rubber bands for most of those movements and get great results!

By: Blaine Moore

Blaine Moore — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 13:58:23 +0000

I stopped using machines about 5 years ago and have been preaching the advantages of only using free weights ever since (the only exception being pulleys with a complete range of motion – not that I’ve had a gym membership w/access to them for 2 years anyway.)