Thread: Gym attention

A shoulder press with dumbells would be more effective than a machine. From everything I've learnt personally, and from others on the board, it's best to substitute machine exercises with dumbells where possible.

thanks for the input i have heard alot of people say freewights are far more beneficial than using machines

I know something that would be VERY useful is the muscle groups which should be worked together e.g tri's and bi's or quads and calfs (i know that is probably not right)

Originally Posted by Martinogdenbsx

thanks for the input i have heard alot of people say freewights are far more beneficial than using machines

do you know if anyone has done any study's on the increase in muscle mass when using machines compared with using freeweights?

I could attempt to prove how it does but I would probably word it poorly and not do a good job. Wait till a mod posts and they will have a crapload of reasons why freeweights are better.

lol okay i know it works all the smaller muscle fibers etc in balancing the weight etc etc

Even I have a bunch of reasons why free weights are superior.

As you mentioned, they work the stabilizer muscles. This is key in both transferring your lifting to everyday life and in avoiding injury - you're only as strong as your weakest link, and stabilizers should never be extremely weak.

Machines, by their very nature, don't allow you to balance or stabilize (as we just said). This also means that the entire load is placed on the target muscle. Some consider this a positive thing, but I personally always work towards functional strength, and thus it has no positive carryover to my goals.

Machines can create drastic imbalances in muscles that wouldn't occur with a well-thought-out free weight program. Free weight exercises allow you not only to work large groups of muscles simultaneously, but also help you develop intermuscular and neural coordination that isolation machine exercises wouldn't dream of. In addition, you'll be working with movements instead of just muscles (a horizontal pulling movement versus a curl).

I don't have that much time left, and there are plenty of other reasons, so I'll let someone else finish up the job.

I don't know that freeweights are necessarily better for mass gains, but they are safer. You aren't going to develop stable enough joints to be throwing around the weights you need to for mass gains if you use machines too much.

Just use the dumbbells, or find a new place to workout. Throw in the occasional machine for shits and giggles.

Lower body exercises that can be done with dumbbells:
Pile squats
Deadlifts
Front Squats
Lunges
Bulgarian Squats
Romanian Deadlifts
Stepups

Pressing movements that can be done with dumbbells or bodyweight:
Pushups
One Handed Pushups
Dips
Bench Press (Flat/Incline/Decline)
Overhead Press
Arnold Press

Pulling movements that can be done with dumbbells or bodyweight:
Pullups
Chinups
Rows
Unilateral Rows
Incline Rows
Pullovers
Upright Rows

wow cheers CP

and what muscle pairs wud u advise to be worked together for each workout?