Another important aspect of your training routine that should be stressed is that the majority of your resistance training should be comprised of free weights as opposed to machines. The reason machines take up so much space in today’s gyms is that they give the place a clean, modern, technologically advanced look; so people think that the gym is “better”. The reality is that machines are far less effective for getting results than good old-fashioned free weights.
To keep your workouts interesting, realize that your free weights don’t always have to be dumbbells or barbells. Some of the most intense, functional, result producing workouts can be done with kettlebells, sandbags, logs, boulders, etc.
Free weights allow you to follow your body’s natural line of motion and require that you stabilize the weight, whereas machines stabilize the weight for you and restrict you to a fixed path of motion. Essentially, machines are doing a portion of the work for you making your workout less effective. In addition, an over-reliance on machines for your weight training can make you prone to injury in the long run due to neglecting your important stabilizer muscles.
Bottom line – if you want better results from your workouts, stick to free weights for the majority of your routines.
When I say machines, I mean something that’s locked into a fixed path. Take note that I don’t consider cable exercises as machines. Therefore, cable exercises such as lat pulldowns, horizontal rows, or cable bench presses from a stability ball can all be beneficial.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment