Free Weights Vs. Exercise Machines

[Guest guest]

Free-Reprint Article Written by: Potts

-----------

IMPORTANT - Publication/Reprint Terms

- You have permission to publish this article electronically in

free-only publications such as a website or an ezine as long as

the bylines are included.

- You are not allowed to use this article for commercial

purposes.

- You are not allowed to use this article in UCE (Unsolicited

Commercial Email) or SPAM. This article MUST be distributed in

an opt-in email list only.

- If you distribute this article in an ezine or newsletter, we

ask that you send a copy of the newsletter or ezine that

contains the article to info@...

- If you post this article in a website/forum/blog, ALL links

MUST be set to hyperlinks and we ask that you send a copy of

the URL where the article is posted to

info@...

- We request that you ask permission from the author if you

want to publish this article in print.

The role of iSnare.com is only to distribute this article as

part of its Article Distribution feature (

http://www.isnare.com/distribution.php ). iSnare.com does NOT

own this article, please respect the author's copyright and

this publication/reprint terms. If you do not agree to any of

these terms, please do not reprint or publish this article.

-----------

Article Title: Free Weights Vs. Exercise Machines

Author: Potts

Category: Wellness, Fitness and Diet

Word Count: 981

Article URL:

http://www.isnare.com/?id=1290 & ca=Wellness%2C+Fitness+and+Diet

Format: 64cpl

Author's Email Address: info@...

Article Source: http://www.isnare.com

Online Publisher Tool: http://www.isnare.com/html.php?id=1290

------------------ ARTICLE START ------------------

Anyone who has ever been in a gym before is familiar with the

gleaming banks of shiny exercise machines. Coming in all shapes

and sizes, they are usually cause for the newcomer to the gym to

pause and ask, " What IS all of that stuff? "

Well, according to the price that the gym paid for any one

piece of that equipment, I certainly hope that it not only

stimulates your muscles, but also cooks your breakfast, washes

your car, and brings the kids home from soccer practice! Now

the question becomes whether or not those machines were worth

the price, or if you'd be better off doing a home aerobics

video with a can of soup in each hand….

Personally, I would advise you to get the low-sodium version of

the soup, serve it up alongside a tomato sandwich, and then go

buy yourself some free weights. Yes, that is just my opinion,

but it does come with some scientific reasoning behind it.

Natural movement vs. Controlled movement

One of the things that you need to remember is that when you

are exercising, you are training for LIFE. You may spend an

hour a day at the gym, but that still leaves 23 other hours for

your muscles to function without the aid of that fancy

equipment.

Whenever you do any given exercise, the movement of your body

during that exercise is called the Range of Motion. The greater

and more difficult the Range of Motion, the more effective the

exercise is, because your body has to work harder to perform

that movement.

Let's take a classic dumbbell bicep curl for our case study. If

you aren't familiar with the movement, it is basically performed

by standing up straight with your palms facing forward, and a

pair of dumbbells held down at your sides. You concentrically

contract your biceps (also known as flexing your elbow) to

bring the dumbbells up to approximately shoulder level, and

then repeat the movement for a prescribed number of

repetitions.

Let's take that same muscle movement and do it using a bicep

curl machine. You sit down, brace your upper arms on a pad,

grasp 2 handles that are in front of you, and do that same

fancy elbow flexing movement to move the handles in an upward

motion. Pretty easy stuff so far, right?

Now let's examine the muscles that are used in this motion.

Wait - I thought we were concentrically contracting the biceps?

That is correct, and if you are using the bicep curl machine,

that is pretty much ALL you are doing. For one, you are sitting

down. You know, like you did all day at work, and then in your

car on the way to the gym. Then, your upper arms are braced on

a nice soft pad to keep your upper body stable while you pull

the handles upwards. The machine has effectively limited the

muscles used in this exercise to the biceps, as well as the

muscles in your forearms and fingers as you grip the handles.

Let us now sidestep over to the weight room where the dumbbells

are kept, and once again get in the start position for a

standing bicep curl with the dumbbells. Notice the term

" standing " . You know, like you DIDN'T do all day at work, and

hopefully also did not do in your car on the way to the gym. So

before we even start the exercise, we are using more muscles

than we did on the machine - namely the leg muscles.

Now let's pick up a 10 lb dumbbell in each hand. We've just

added 20 lbs to our body weight. What is keeping us from losing

our center of balance and falling clean over? The abdominal

muscles and the muscles of the lower back and spine. Now we are

using our legs, our abs, and our back. Flex those elbows and

start to raise the dumbbells. Now our center of gravity has

become a fluid state, and our legs, back, and abs all have to

constantly compensate to maintain posture. Oh, and the biceps

are also in on the action by this point, as are the forearms,

the fingers, and the shoulder girdle.

We now have the dumbbells all the way up and it's time to start

lowering them again, via an eccentric contraction of the biceps

(also know as extending the elbow). What muscle group controls

the extension of the elbow? The triceps on the back of the arm.

Did you lose track yet? It's okay if you did because you have

illustrated the point:

Machine Bicep Curl: Uses the biceps, forearms, and fingers

Cost: Thousands of dollars

Standing Dumbbell Bicep Curl: Uses the biceps, forearms,

fingers, legs, abs, back, triceps, and shoulders.

Cost: $40 for a good set of dumbbells that can be used for

dozens of other exercises

In a nutshell, free weight exercises simply USE MORE MUSCLES

than machines do, which make them more effective. Does that

mean that the machines are a complete waste? Absolutely not! In

some circumstances it is BETTER to stabilize the muscles being

used in any given movement. However, those circumstances are

the exception, rather than the rule.

So what do you do? Change up your routine, and incorporate free

weights as well as machine exercises. However, keep the machine

work to a minimum - say 20% of your total time spent working

with weights. Spend the other 80% developing your stabilizer

muscles, your sense of balance and coordination, and if nothing

else - just standing up!

After all, you can go home and sit down on the couch to enjoy

your post-workout snack. The bicep machine already brought the

kids home from soccer practice, remember?

About The Author: Potts is the owner and creator of

Fitness Destinations. 's experience in the health and

fitness industry includes one on one personal training in many

different environments, maintenance of several health-related

websites, and authoring of many fitness-related products for

consumers and fitness professionals.

http://www.fitnessdestinations.com

------------------ ARTICLE END ------------------

For more free-reprint articles by Potts please visit:

http://www.isnare.com/?s=author & a=+Potts