Free Weights Versus Fitness Gym Equipment

There has always been debate over which is ultimately better for you: working out with free weights or using exercise machines or fitness gym equipment. Honestly both are equally good for helping to tone muscle and to get you into better shape. For some people it is safer to use fitness gym equipment and for others, free weights are better suited to meet their goals.

Whenever you do any type of exercise, the movement of your body during the exercise is known as the range of motion. The more difficult the range of motion is, the more effective the exercise will be, because your body has to work twice as hard to perform the movement.

Take for the instance the classic dumbell bicep curl. The exercise is performed grabbing a dumbell, while keeping your upper arm motionless, lift the dumbell upwards toward your shoulder. You can do the exercise standing or seated. But the idea is to contract only your bicep muscle as you move your arm up and down.

Using that same movement for exercise on a bicep curl machine, you should sit down, brace your upper arms on a pad, grasp the handle in front of you, then perform the same movement as above to move the handles in an upward motion.

But interestingly the muscles exercised are slightly different. With the dumbell you are using more of your whole arm. Your forearm and parts of your shoulder. When you are using the weight machine the exercise is so concentrated on just your bicep. The machine is built to target a single zone. Free weights bring into play extra muscles from the time you drag the dumbells off tthe rack, through the exercise and as you replace the weights.

Neither is necessarily better, but fitness gym equipment makes the exercise more controlled. You seem to exert not as much effort.

One of the best thing about free weights is the fact that you move a little chuck around to select the weight you want to use. With free weights you have to go to the weight rack and grab the weight you want to lift and carry it back to your bench. There is a nice convenience factor when you work out with fitness gym equipment.

A lot of people argue in the fact that free weights are the best for your body. While this may be true, many people feel that fitness gym equipment is the best. There are pros and cons with both machines, although free weights have been around a lot longer and have been proven time after time to achieve dramatic results.

Body builders for example, have used free weights over the years to build very impressive bodies. The vast majority will exercise with mostly free weights although there is some fitness gym equipment they find of value.

Basically free weights will use more of your muscles than fitness gym equipment will which makes them  seem more effective overall. Exercise machines certainly have a place in gyms. Some people enjoy the fitness gym equipment as they generally do not require someone to  "spot" their exercise for safety. Free weights most often do.

The decision on which to use for you should be based on what you hope to achieve with lifting weights and where you plan to use the equipment, such as home or at a gym. Both systems are great for your body. Besides, why make a choice? Use both for variety.

Movement is a medicine for creating change in
a person's physical, emotional, and mental states.  ~Carol Welch