Which Is Best: Machines, Free Weights, or Body Weight?
If you’re hitting the gym for the first time or are tempted to venture off the cardio equipment, it can be hard to know which piece of strength equipment to choose. Dumbbell, barbell, machine, or mat? Get-Fit Guy Brock Armstrong helps you make an informed decision that’s right for you.
Brock Armstrong
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Which Is Best: Machines, Free Weights, or Body Weight?
Regardless of your age, body type or gender, incorporating strength training into your fitness plan is a great idea. If you have strong and toned muscles you will be better able to move through everyday activities with ease now and 10, 20, or 50 years from now.
Before we jump in, let’s review the benefits of strength training:
- Improved bone density
- Improved body composition
- Improved gene expression
- Better blood glucose control
- More balanced blood lipids
- Lower blood pressure
- Improved cardio-respiratory fitness
- Greater aerobic capacity
- Looking good in a tight t-shirt
3 Types of Exercises
Strength training exercises mostly fall into three groups, based on what you’re doing and what equipment you’re using. They are:
- Body Weight
- Free Weights
- Machines
Each type can serve a useful purpose so it’s handy to know your way around all of them. There are pros and cons in all three areas, and some exercises tend to be more effective when done using one or the other.
For instance, dumbbells can be inexpensive, are somewhat portable, and having a set at home in your living room (near the TV) or in your office (under your desk) can make it easy to quickly grab them when the mood strikes you.
A machine, on the other hand is something that you likely won’t have at home. But using them at the gym can allow you to really focus your effort because they are fixed onto an axis that only allows you to move in one or two planes (or axis). A machine will also allow you to lift heavier weights than you might otherwise be able to and allow you to target specific muscle groups.
When you use free weights or body weight, you’re engaging more muscles while you stabilize yourself along with the weight that you are lifting. This creates a more functional type of fitness (the type that you can use in everyday movement). On the other hand, machines can build strength, but using them too much can lead to a lack of functional fitness.
So, choosing which type of exercise is ideal for you involves many factors, such as experience, availability, personal preference, body type, genetics, strength, and of course your fitness goal.
Let’s go look at each one in detail so you can make an informed decision…
Body Weight
A body weight exercise is an exercise where the resistance is provided by the combination of gravity and your own body weight. Despite how easy that may sound, these exercises can enhance many biomechanical parameters like strength, endurance, power, mobility, flexibility, and balance.
Body weight exercise can be thought of as moving your body from point A to point B instead of moving a weight from point A to point B.
Common examples: Sit-ups, push-ups, pull-ups, lunges, squats, chin-ups, and dips.
The pros:
It engages more muscles and sensory inputs such as balance and stabilization.
It allows you to naturally move through a large range of motion.
Nothing is restricting your body or forcing it into a fixed or unnatural position.
It allows you to practice movements in the almost exact manner that they are performed in real life.
The cons:
Beginners or people with movement limitations require some extra modifications to allow a body weight exercise to be executed for multiple repetitions (or perhaps even one). Think knee push-ups instead of military push-ups.
Unlike weighted or machine exercises, you are stuck with one weight—your own—for every set. This means to increase the workout, you have no option but to do more sets and reps.
Free Weights
This is any exercise where the resistance is provided by a free moving weighted object or objects. These objects force your body to work against their weight and gravity.
Similar to doing body weight exercises, free weights also work many of the smaller muscles that surround the bigger muscles that you are specifically targeting. For example, when you do a weighted squat with a barbell on your back, you’re challenging more than just your quadriceps (front of your thighs). Your adductor and abductor (inner and outer) thigh muscles will have to get involved as well. Along with your glutes which work to keep your body tall, strong, and steady while you lift.
Common examples: barbell, dumbbell, kettlebell, or resistance bands.
The pros:
It allows for movement on many planes, which can help build functional fitness.
It allows you to move through a full range of motion, unrestricted, that is natural for your body. If you have limited time to train then free weights are the way to go.
Most of the big, multi-joint exercises are considered functional movement because they apply directly to real life. If you get really good at weighted squats, you may get asked to help your friends move into their new apartment.
Uses additional muscles groups, body parts, and smaller stabilizer muscles that can go unused on exercise machines.
The cons:
Proper technique is a must, especially if the weight being lifted is heavy.
Free weight exercises have a higher learning curve and you will likely need someone to show you proper technique.
Even if proper technique is being used, the chance of injury is higher. Especially if you have trouble maintaining focus.
Some exercises require a training partner (or spotter) to do effectively and safely.
Other equipment like a bench, squat cage, or a Smith machine are often necessary to perform certain exercises.
Machines
Weight machines use gravity as the primary source of resistance, and simple parts like pulleys, wheels, levers, and inclines to change the relative weight. A machine exercise works your body part(s) on a fixed path with the weight being stabilized by the machine for you. So, rather than holding the weight to move it from point A to point B (like free weights), you hold handles that are attached to the weight. Most often you are holding handles that then use cables and pulleys to lift weighted plates off a stack of more weights.
Common examples: machine press, machine row, leg extension/curl, assisted pull-up/dips, and the good old leg press machine.
The pros:
Machines are good for beginners due to the fact that your range of motion on them is inherently limited.
Because of this limited range of motion, machines are helpful for focusing on and building specific muscle groups.
They are a safe way to lift heavier weights than you might lift using free weights (even with a hefty spotter at your side).
They can be useful for exercising while you are injured or recovering from injury.
There is less risk of injury compared to free weight or body weight exercises.
The cons:
If you work out in a commercial gym (especially at peak hours) the machines can be hard to come by.
If you don’t adjust the machine to suit your body size and type, it can put you in an unnatural body position.
This is the least functional type of exercise. You are developing strength that can applied to real life but you are not practicing a movement that is applicable to real life.
Your movement is stabilized by the machine, not by you, so you are missing out on the potential side benefits.
Most of us don’t have space or the money to own these pieces of equipment so we are relegated to using them in a gym setting.
Although they will make you big and strong, they don’t train complete human movement patterns.
Which Is Best?
Body weight, free weights and machines all have their uses, but if I had to choose between them, I would generally opt for the free weights simply because you can work more muscles with each exercise. Also because the movements themselves apply directly to real life.
That being said, machines also have their place in my strength training plan. They are perfect for isolating specific muscle groups, doing things like drop-sets, or if you are recovering from an injury. They are also great from beginners who are looking for a way to prepare themselves to safely transition to free weights.
And of course where would we be without body weight exercises? Not only can they be done pretty much anywhere and anytime but they are versatile, adaptable, functional, and allow us to be creative with our workouts. There is pretty much only one or two ways to use a machine, and only a few more ways to safely use a barbell, but when it comes to body weight exercises, it truly is play time!
Here is the way I break it down:
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Use body weight to get stronger, more agile, and mobile by doing movements we use on a regular basis.
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Use free weights to build strength quickly and effectively.
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Use machines to build muscle in specific areas of your body (or recover from injury).
Finally, remember that the type of strength training you choose should always be based on your current fitness level, what your goals are, and also what you enjoy. Exercise shouldn’t feel like medicine that you have to endure to be healthy—it should also be fun.
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Weight room photo courtesy of Shutterstock.
About the Author
Brock Armstrong was the host of the Get-Fit Guy podcast between 2017 and 2021. He is a certified AFLCA Group Fitness Leader with a designation in Portable Equipment, NCCP and CAC Triathlon Coach, and a TnT certified run coach. He is also on the board of advisors for the Primal Health Coach Institute and a guest faculty member of the Human Potential Institute.