When it comes to exercise and achieving an attractive physique, it is highly recommended that you learn a variety of free weight exercises. Unlike utilizing resistance exercise machines, free weights can help develop power, speed, explosiveness and strength faster. Here is a quick overview of why you should train with free weight exercises over machines.
Balance and Core Strength
Utilizing free weight exercises will help you achieve a higher degree of balance by forcing you to use more core muscles. These muscles include the hip flexors, abdominal muscles, obliques, erectors (lower back muscles) and upper portion of the gluteus maximum. There is nothing better than having a solid core that will give you more strength and balance.
Variety of Exercises
Unlike machines which pretty much lock you into a fixed exercise, there are a wide variety of exercises you can perform with free weights. Whether you choose to use barbells, dumbbells or kettlebells, you can perform a variety of exercises such as squats, dead lifts, chest presses, shoulder presses, snatches, power cleans, etc. Variety is the key to constantly shocking the muscles, which will help you get stronger and leaner.
Functional Movements
Free weight exercises, unlike workout machines, are better because they mimic real life, functional movements. Whether you intend to squat down, pick something up, or pull something – free weight machines are better equipped at developing functional strength versus using workout machines.
Weight Limitations
One of the major drawbacks about using workout machines is that they are often limited in the amount of weight you can load. This is especially true for men who need to press heavier amounts of weight to achieve higher levels of strength, power and explosiveness. Dumbbells can get as heavy as 200 pounds and barbell exercises can reach nearly a thousand pounds in weight.
Fixed Position
Another problem with using machines is that they often place you into an fixed, unnatural position that can cause injuries when trying to press higher amounts of weight. This is especially true when using smith machines in order to do squats and dead lifts.
As you can see, there are a plethora of benefits behind using free weights in your exercise regimen. Obviously, the best thing to do is to learn proper technique and work on range of motion before attempting to push heavy amounts of weight.
