Which is better, machines or free weights, for building muscle and strength?

Free weights definitely have their advantages. One factor is that they require the use of more stabilizer muscles to balance the weight. Strong stabilizers equates to stronger muscles and stronger muscles lead to bigger muscles.

Free weights have also been shown to burn more calories than machines. The difference may be that a greater number of stabilizer muscles are used during multijoint exercises, i.e. free-weight squats versus machine leg press.

With all the talk about free weights, are there advantages to using machines? YES! Machines are of benefit because they help you focus more on the target muscle. For example, because the machine is on a fixed path, the shoulders (in this case, stabilizer muscles) do not need to help the chest muscles when performing machine chest presses as they would during the barbell bench press. Less involvement from the delts means you can place more focus on the pecs for greater muscle growth.

The verdict? Do not avoid machine exercises. Always include as many training tools as possible to maximize your gains. This means, use both machines and free weights. In doing so, you may want to perform your free weight exercises early in your workout and then finish with machines as your stabilizer muscles are fatigued and you can put all your focus on the target muscle.

Until next time, keep training hard and eating smart!

~Your ironladydoc