Is it better to workout with weights? Well the answer is yes and no. To say that free weights are better than machines would be incredibly unjust. There are advantages in both lifting weights and using a machine with weights attached.
Well some of the advantages of training with adjustable weights is that they fit any size of user. You could be 7ft 2 or 4ft 9, it doesn’t matter because the only thing that needs to be adjusted is the weight on the bar, almost hassle free.
Following on from the last point, the weight on the barbell can be adjusted in small increments, so when you are lifting you can train at your desired pace.
Free weight gives you the option of having multiple exercise options from just a bar and blocks of weight. The value you get for the money you spend and the end result make buying free weight for exercise an exceptional bargain.
Funnily enough, most of our everyday chores involve using free weight and we have probably never even thought about it. So naturally we are building and using muscles that we use on a daily basis, so it makes sense to lift weight on a bar. These daily exercise include lifting groceries, carrying books, cutting the lawn and lifting your children.
Another benefit of using free weight is the development of balance. However, machines help you with this part of the exercise and all you really need to do is lift and not worry about balance, or worrying about equally distributing the weight across your shoulders when doing a squat or unequal lift, due to uneven distribution of strength.
Ideally, machines are perfect to begin with because they allow you to develop the larger and more general muscles, whereas free weight concentrates both on the larger area of muscle as well as the muscles and tendants that support those general muscle groups. So if you have a machine already and have developed those larger muscle groups to an adequate standard, then moving on to free weight is only going to enhance your existing muscle and build extra muscle that you never knew existed.
The advantages are obvious and the savings can be substantial.
