Author: Mike Parker

The fight over which lifting, free weight lifting and machine lifting, has be fought for years. I am not going to sit here and tell you which is better, they both have there benefits. Instead, I am going to tell you what each one is good for and let you decide which you prefer.

Free Weights

If you are a professional bodybuilder you should be doing free weight lifting. Free weights have be proven to be the best way to get muscle and power. The reasons that free weights are more effective in getting you more muscle is because they use much more muscle fibers than machines do. They are also better for working on your stabilizer muscles in order to keep control of the weights, something you do not have to do with machines.

When you are using a machine the focus is on an isolated muscle, so you are not working many muscle fibers at all. When you are lifting with free weights you are using many more muscle fibers, stabilizer muscles, and you are getting a much greater range of motion. All of those thing will help you to ultimately get bigger.

A great example for how free weight lifting is better than machines is the squat. If you were to do squats on a machine, such as the leg press, you are only working on your legs. If you were to do squats free weight style you are not only working on your legs but are also working on your lower back because it is needed to stabilize the weight. When any stabilizer muscle is used you are not only getting a stronger base but you are also making your muscles grow faster.

Machines

If you are a beginner bodybuilder, an old person, or a person recovering from an injury, you should probably use machines. Unlike free weights, machines use a strict range of motion, only working on one specific muscle per exercise, which helps to reduce injuries while lifting.

If you are an injured person you should do machines because they help you to isolate the muscle you injured and help it to gain back strength and flexibility. If you are a beginner you should also start with machines because you do not want to hop onto the free weight lifts because you are to eager and hurt yourself.

Well there you have it. Free weight lifting should be used by professionals because the greater range of motion and stabilizer muscles being used are better for gaining muscle. Machine lifting should be used by beginners, old people, and injured because there is a strict range of motion preventing injuries. Which one should you do? You decide.

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