With all the recent talk about machines being just as effective as free weights for strength and hypertrophy, I’ve been thinking—are there still benefits to free weights compared to machines when it comes to health or athletic performance?
Personally, I always include squats, bench, and deadlifts in programs for people who haven’t trained before. It seems to help them move their body through different planes of motion, especially since most of them are quite stiff.
What do you think about that?
Thank you for always taking the time to respond
Free weights and machines produce similar hypertrophy results, as both adequately load muscles through a large range of motion. Strength is specific to how it is trained, so they don’t produce the same improvements in strength per se’, but rather the same relative strength improvement (e.g. 20%) in the specific movements.
I think the benefits of free weight training have more to do with coordination and skill development. I do not think barbell training expose people to different planes of motion than machines or are uniquely beneficial for stiffness.
We’ve talked about this in a few podcasts before. Most recently here:
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