#8: Free Weights VS Resistance Machines

When stepping onto a gym floor you will be surrounded by a wide variety of scary pieces of equipment, so developing an effective workout plan that targets every body part in a balanced way can be quite challening.

This confusion is not eased by the ever lasting argument between different school of lifters, one claiming that nothing can compare to free weights and another listing the benefits of resistance machines.

When I think of this debate, it comes to mind Rocky IV, where Stallone fought Dolph Lundgren, who played a menacing soviet boxer called Ivan Drago.
In the movie, Rocky is forced to train in a barn using only what’s available around him and thanks to his cunning and creativity manages to put together an effettive workout that grants him the upper hand on his opponent.
Drago, in stark contrast, is treated like a rab lat by soviet scientists and trains on advance machines that capture every possible measurement.
Naturally Rocky wins, proving heart and resilience will always overcome brute strength.

Now, why do I make a big deal out of this? It almost seems like there can only be two ways of training: the “old school” way based around free weights and body weight movements and the newer approach, focused on shiny and technological pieces of equipment.

I love a good riff as much as the next guy, however it’s pretty clear that these are not polar opposites but rather going hand in hand providing the necessary variety for an optimal workout. But let’s dig deeper into both aspects to find out which is better at what.
Free weights are beloved by many. Legends like Arnold, Lee Haney and Ronnie Coleman have spoken up about it claiming the superior nature of free weights to build size and strength.
Reasons are not just that they remove the guidance and costrictions of machines, like removing training wheels from a bike, but they also force you to focus more on every repetition and slowly control them to maximise the hypertrophic stimulus while minimizing injury.
All of the above is of course true for resistance machines too, with the added benefit of providing a safety net to prevent or, at least, reduce, the injury risk.

Mike Mentzer, back in the ‘80s was a big proponent of the Nautilus machines, state of the art equipment specifically designed to adapt to the human anatomy and proving that resistance machine can be just as good as free weights at building muscle mass and increase strength.

Originally designed by Arthur Jones, the brillant mind behind High Intensity Training, the philosophy that rivaled Arnold’s old school of training of training 6 times a week for hours at a time.
The concept was simple: reduce frequency and increase intensity, shorter gym session pushed to absolute failure and beyond to emphasyze recovery without sacrificing results. Amongst it’s proponent we have legends of the sports like Dorian Yates, Tom Platz and, of course, Mike Mentzer.

This approach is still wildly popular today, without its criticism, but let’s go back to the matter at hand.

It’s important to address the fact that the way many resistance machine is built only fits a generic anatomical structure and there’s only so many handles and seat option they can offer, plus for élite athletes it can be quite easy to maximise the weight stack.
This makes it sometimes difficult to find the right brand or model to fit our specific body type.
On the other hand, controlling free weights is much trickier as it requires the engagement of smaller muscles called stabilizers to keep good posture throughout the set and that forces to reduce the amount of weight lifted.

So there’s seems to be both benefits and limitations to either approaches, so which one to choose?
The answer, like in most cases, is right in the middle. An effettive workout plan should include both as regilarly switching between variations of the same exercise allow to hit a muscle from different angles providing a more complete stimulus and therefore better results.