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The eternal question in fitness: Which is better, machines or free weights? Both camps have hard core supporters who go on arguing till you just throw up your hands and give up the discussion. Till some time ago I was in the “free weights only” camp. But a number of events occurred that made me change my mind and understand that machines can be useful too in our quest for muscle hypertrophy and strength. In fact, thinking in pure binary terms we might be losing out by not utilizing a judicious mix of free weights and machines. But before we see the pros and cons of machines and free weights, a little bit of history.

Arthur Jones and Nautilus machines

Arthur Jones, a maverick innovator, introduced his Nautilus machines to the public in 1970 and ended up changing the gym culture in the US and beyond. According to Jones, barbells and dumbbells do not correspond to the strength curve of the muscle(s) being worked. For example, in a simple exercise like the bicep curl, maximum strain or resistance is felt when the arms are hanging straight down and once the weight is beyond 90 degrees at the elbow, the resistance decreases rapidly. He proclaimed that the correct way to properly work a muscle was to use “Variable Resistance Machines” which is what his Nautilus machines were. If the reader ever has an opportunity to use Jones’ designed pullover Nautilus machine, they would be very impressed with the way it works the entire upper body and it has been rightly called the “upper body squat”. Nautilus machines were readily adopted by gym owners which led to a number of other developers jumping in with their designs. Today it would be difficult to find a gym which does not have lots of machines for every part of the body and also has a free weight area.

A number of champion bodybuilders in the 70s, 80s and 90s claimed to follow Arthur Jones training philosophy – going to absolute muscle failure on each and every set and training infrequently, aka Hight Intensity Training (HIT). Mike Mentzer and Dorian Yates are two biggest names who followed Arthur Jones training philosophy. Both these bodybuilders were big proponents of machine-based training, no surprises there. In fact, Yates claimed that squats should be replaced with leg presses if the goal is maximal muscle hypertrophy.

The pros and cons of machines

•The biggest advantage with machines is that you can really focus on a particular muscle without having to bother about controlling the bar. That is the reason you can leg press way more weight than you can squat. This leads to targeted training of a particular muscle.

•Machines help train those muscles which would be difficult to train otherwise. The biggest example is the soleus muscle in the lower leg. It can be only trained on seated calf raise machine. Otherwise, this muscle invariable gets neglected leading to diminished calf hypertrophy and strength.

•Constant tension or resistance makes a big difference while training with machines, hence the muscle gets trained through its full range.

•If you are injured, machines are a blessing. You can continue training other parts of the body without stressing the injured part.

•The disadvantage of machines pertains to cost and availability. Unless you have access to a well-equipped gym, machines will not be available in your regular run of the mill gym. If they are available, then they would be badly designed, rickety and badly maintained. These can be outright dangerous to train on.

•Since machines make muscles easy to isolate, too much machine use may lead to person looking big and strong but may not be able to perform well on the playing field. (This has been disputed by new studies where machine use had a positive effect on an athlete’s performance) *

Pros and cons of free weights

•Easy availability is one the biggest for the vast popularity of barbells and dumbbells. All you need is a sturdy bar and some plates and you are good to go. Quality metal bars and plates last a lifetime and need very little maintenance.

•The pandemic has shown that the easy accessibility cannot be taken for granted. The pandemic pushed a lot of people to set up small home gyms and guess what – most of these home gyms have a barbell and plates and may be an adjustable bench!

•It is easy to measure your progress with free weights. You exactly know how much you are lifting. 50 kg is 50 kg anywhere in the world. This is not the case with machines. A Cybex machine feels different from a Hammer Strength machine.

•Using free weights leads to enhanced inter muscular coordination and theoretically you would be more functional if only trained with machines.

•Free weights can be intimidating to the beginner who might feel that they are not strong enough to handle “heavy weights”. This is particular a big issue with my lady clients. But once they get used to the free weights, then there is no going back.

•Also, if you are injured, it is better to stick to machines or even dumbbells as using a barbell is a full body endeavor.

There you go – each has its strength and weaknesses. My suggestion is to use the most appropriate tool to get the best results and not get hung up ideology. Now go and do it.

*https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32726364/

Kamal Singh is a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist who has been coaching for 15 years

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