machines or free weights

[uce101]

I heard that working with the machines will better your body structure far as adding equal amounts to each body parts. Also free weights will tell which certain body parts your working with needs more work. Does this make sense?

 

[bjg]

no odes not make sens you are saying the same thing for both machines and weights which is practically to workout symmetrical muscles equally.
as far as training it depends if you are a beginner or not.
if you have some experience and you know what you are doing , then you can combine machines, weights, and cables. the problem with machines is that there is a wide variety of machines, some are useless or do not give you a good range of motion and are just there for people who wants just to train a bit and who are not really serious. however, there are machines that are designed for heavy duty bodybuilding and can replace weights and work symmetrical muscles equally.

 

[docdoom77]

the best thing about machines, imo, is that you can do some compound exercises without a spotter. When you're alone in the gym, Barbell Bench press isn't really an option, but you can use a machine.

I find I'm having better results with free weights than I ever did with machines, however.

 

[CaptainNapalm]

I heard that working with the machines will better your body structure far as adding equal amounts to each body parts. Also free weights will tell which certain body parts your working with needs more work. Does this make sense?

No and Yes. Working with strictly machines will have a tendency to create imbalances. In other words, due to lack of free range of motion and lack of use of all muscles (especially those stabilizing) can result in uneven development.

Working with free weights will help you identify which body parts need more work or identify imbalances better over using machines.

 

[uce101]

Thanks fam. I use both machines and free weights.

 

[jay_steel]

I all ways push to failure period with free weight and then focus on finishing with machines with some thing like FST-7. The key is using the proper machine. There is no point to do incline press, then go to incline machines and then do incline flys.

An example of what is working INCREDIBLE for me is..

week 1
Flat Bench
135 x 12 for 2 sets
185 x 8
225 x 8
275 x 8
315 x 6
340 x 2
375 x 1
405 x 1

My max is above 405 so it is not like I am maxing out every week. I do this to generate power for week 1 chest.

Incline Flys

weight varies from 60-75's for each set to failure

cable fly's

weight varies on the day but each set it to failure, I keep it light at this point

Pec Deck fst-7

Week 2

Similar to that but I focus on incline as my press and flat as my fly

week 3

similar to that but I focus on decline and higher rep ranges.