Machines vs Free Weights

The beginner trap

You probably remember your first time walking into a gym. Machines everywhere, and you drift from one to the next, testing how much you can push or pull on each. If you noticed the free weights at all, it was probably just the barbell already loaded on the bench press.

For someone brand new to the gym, that's a fairly normal, logical way to behave. It's a different story if you're still doing it after a few months, or worse, a few years, of training.

Free weights should be your foundation

A lot of beginners don't realize this, but free-weight exercises should form the core of any real strength training program. If you ask anyone more advanced, their training is almost certainly built around squats, deadlifts, the bench press, dips, overhead presses, bent-over rows, pull-ups, and pullovers. Most beginners never make that connection, so they end up living on machines and cable stations instead.

Training that way will still get you some results — you'll get a bit stronger, you'll build some muscle — but not for long, and you'll never come close to what free weights can do for you. Why? It comes down to something fairly simple. Bench pressing in a Smith machine, where the bar just slides up and down on fixed rails, takes almost no skill at all. It's also not particularly kind to your joints — your shoulders, in that specific example. Free weights, on the other hand, force you to balance the weight yourself so it doesn't come crashing down on your face. That balancing act recruits extra muscle fibers you simply don't use on a machine, and that's exactly what drives faster growth. Which, presumably, is why you started going to the gym in the first place.