The debate between free weights vs. machines has been going on for years now, yet there is still a ton of confusion around this topic. With so much BS information available out there, my goal with this blog is to provide clear cut true information that guides you in the right direction. In this article i will list the key benefits for using both free weights and machines, so you can decide which is best to use for yourself.

 

Tension

To better understand this topic, first we must identify what we are trying to accomplish through exercise.

When you go to work out, the main goal should be tension.

Muscles do not know how or where the tension is coming from, they just know that they are put under mechanical stress. The amount of tension the muscles endure during lifting is what will force adaptation and growth.

Both weights and machines are tools that can be used to create tension.

 

Free Weights

Dumbbells and barbells are the ‘bread and butter’ tools for working out and getting in great shape.

Being free weights, your body will have to stabilize itself. This means using free weights will challenge your stabilizing muscles groups with every exercise.

Having the ability to provide a stable platform is a huge key factor in getting maximum tension through a working muscle. Therefore, it is incredibly important to train your stabilizing muscles in order to maximize results in your major muscles groups.

You are only as strong as your weakest link.

Another key benefit of free weights is that it allows you to adjust exercises to fit your specific body type in order for you to use correct exercise execution and get the most out of it. This is another huge component of your fitness success because every individual is slightly different and slight modifications of most exercises may be required to fit your frame and provide maximum tension.

Free weights allow you to perform compound exercises which are excellent and highly recommended to build a solid training foundation.

The body works as a unit.

Using compound exercises such as the barbell back squat, barbell bench press and trap bar deadlift will use a large amount of muscle groups at the same time during each lift. This provides a great amount of tension and stimuli for your entire body, efficiently.

Lastly, free weights such as dumbbells make it very simple and efficient to train your body unilaterally to avoid imbalances.

• Work your stabilizing muscles
• Provide flexibility of modifying exercises to fit your body
• Enable you to train your body as a unit ( compound exercises)
• Allow you to train your left and right side of the body independently (unilateral exercises)

 

Machines

Machines, just like free weights provide tension to the working muscle and the reality is that the body does not know the difference between where the tension is coming from.

As a mentioned above, free weights will require your body to stabilize itself.

Most often than not, your stabilizing muscles will fatigue quicker than the working muscles.

Machines are a great tool that can be used to artificially stabilize your body in a certain position so you can continue to create maximum tension through that working muscle.

Another great use for machines are if you are coming off an injury and your physical ability is currently limited. Machines can provide a good workout without stressing the specific injured areas.

A potential drawback that most machines have is that they are standardized and built to fit a specific body type.

As you probably know, we are all built differently and may require adjustments during different exercises in order to create maximal muscular tension.

Reality is that some machines may fit you just right and provide great tension and some may provide minimum stimulus and mostly joint aches and pains.  

• Allows you to artificially stabilize to create maximum muscle tension
• Allows you to work around your injuries
• Not built to fit everyone properly

 

Final Words

There is a time and use for both free weights and machines.

Both are simply tools to provide tension to the working muscle. Based on your fitness level, individual situation and goals, use both as seen fit.

Prioritize equipment based on what allows you to create a strong mind muscle connection.

Your ability to create tension during an exercise  is the deciding factor on the best exercises and/or equipment for you.

With the vast amount of information available on the internet. it may sometimes seem overwhelming to know what will work for you and your fat loss goals. For that reason, I have outlined 7 easy-to-digest effective ways to accelerate fat loss and help you get beach-ready ASAP.

 

1. Move more.

It is no secret that movement is key to vitality.

As humans, we are built to be active. Whether you take the bike out around the neighborhood, dance around in your room, go for a brisk walk, opt for the stairs instead of the elevator, any movement will be beneficial to your fat loss goal.

Taking a 10-min walk after your meals is linked to increased insulin sensitivity and improved uptake of glucose, both of which help with fat loss. In a study done in obese women, walking helped reduce insulin sensitivity and decrease abdominal fat.

 

2. Eliminate/minimize sugar.

Sugar is like a drug. When you ingest anything sugary, your brain releases the feel-good chemicals like serotonin and dopamine. The more you have it, the more you will crave it.

Added sugars may make you feel tired and hungry by spiking up your insulin which will quickly drop soon after. You’ll be tempted to go grab another sugary food, adding even more empty calories to your diet, repeating the whole process all over again.

If fat loss is your primary goal, eliminating quick sugars from your diet will improve your hormonal balance, increase energy levels, improve your insulin sensitivity and accelerate fat loss.

 

3. Drink more water. 

We are made out of mostly water. Shouldn’t we drink more water then? Yes, drinking adequate amounts of water is probably one of the most overlooked aspects of weight loss by most people.

How do you know if you’re drinking enough water? Well, let’s say that if you feel thirsty it’s already too late.

The idea is to make it a habit and consistently consume water throughout the day. Not only does it keep you fuller and away from foods you shouldn’t eat, but it will also help you be less bloated.

Bloating is often caused by consuming too much sodium and not enough water to flush it all out.

 

4. Eat more protein. 

Protein is the primary muscle-building block. Eating more protein will support and preserve lean tissue, help you feel fuller which results in eating less junk.

Try replacing your carbohydrate-dominant meals with lean protein and vegetables a couple times a day and you’ll have your fat start melting off.

Lean protein is low in calories and difficult to eat ‘too much’ of it. Next time you go out to eat, grab yourself a lean steak instead of linguini alfredo.

 

5. Up your veggie game. 

This one goes hand in hand with the protein tip. Vegetables are always a yes. Not only do vegetables have endless nutritional benefits such as decreased inflammation, strengthened immune system and improved digestion, but also are super low in calories.

When in doubt, throw down a massive salad mixed with your favorite vegetables and eat guilt free. Oh, and you can have as many veggies as you’d like, no need to measure or count.

Add a lean protein to your vegetables and you have a great meal that will accelerate fat-loss and get you beach-ready.

 

6. Get enough restful sleep.

We all know that restricting sleep is generally a bad idea. More and more research finds that even mild sleep restriction (less than 7 hrs) – especially done on a consistent basis – has a negative impact on our body and brain. To name a few:

• Reduced rate of fat loss – even if your diet and training is on point, sleep deprivation negatively impacts fat loss. 
• Increased energy intake .
• Increased sugar cravings (and fats)
• Attenuated cognitive function.
• Decreased muscle recovery/growth.
• Elevated cortisol, decreased testosterone.

If your goal is fat loss, getting enough sleep consistently (7+ hrs) will be a major factor to your success. Not prioritizing sleep as much as possible is doing yourself a disfavor.

 

7. Shorten your eating window.

The idea of eating in a certain window period while fasting for the remaining time in a day is called intermittent fasting (IF). IF is a great tool to use for fat loss:

• Improved hormonal response
• Improved digestion
• Improved energy
• Decreases fat, maintains or even increases muscle tissue

Although there are many methods, intermittent fasting usually refers to fasting for at least 16 hours while only eating for 8 hours. If you are not ready for that kind of lifestyle change, even reducing your eating by 1-2 hours can give your body more time to digest food.

The real benefits begin when your body is in a fasted state. It takes about 8-12 hours to fully digest after your last meal and enter a fasted state.

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The fastest and direct way to reach your fat loss goals is to commit to a well designed fat loss program individual to you. However, beginning to incorporate any of these tools above will help you accelerate fat loss and set you on the right path.

As a newbie into my fitness journey, i must have been one of the most eager and hard-headed individuals. I dove into deep waters, without even learning how to swim first. I disregarded good advice and made every single mistake possible because of that.

Having wasted unnecessary time and energy on doing the wrong things and having to re-program my mistakes later on, i made a list of my top four mistakes to avoid as a beginner.

 

1. Too much, too soon

You’ve just seen your favorite fitness model post a new shot on Instagram and now your motivation to build your body is higher than ever.

“That’s it, starting Monday, i’m gonna go to the gym 7x a week, work out 2 hours a day and never eat carbs again.”

Unfortunately, motivation is a temporary emotional state that quickly runs out. This motivation usually runs out by the first week and leaves you more discouraged than ever.

Start easy and slow. Find a program that is sustainable for your current fitness level and build up on it.

Remember, change takes time, so rather be patient, take it one step a time and learn to enjoy the process.

 

2. Believing everything you hear

With the large amounts of information out there, as a beginner, you will most likely become confused and overwhelmed by it.

Between the misinformation on the internet, your local gym bro guru’s and the marketing schemes promising you a 6 pack in 17 minutes, you’re left with a headache and trust issues, not knowing what to believe anymore.

Narrow down your info sources. Find one or two credible sources that are ideally backed up by facts as well as experience and try it out for yourself.

When you’re a newbie, everyone will want to give you advice on what’s the ‘best’ way to get there, be aware of that and narrow down the sources you choose to listen to, to only a few that you absolutely trust.

This will save you from a lot of unnecessary mistakes and provide you with some awesome results.

 

3. Neglecting nutrition

It’s fantastic that you’ve decided to start exercising and taking a step forward for a better body, but if you want real results, nutrition is a huge component of that and must not be neglected.

I can confidently say that many people are not seeing the results that they would like to because their nutrition is poor.

Invest some time into researching the basics and essentials of nutrition or hire someone who is qualified to do the “dirty” work for you.

Nutrition should always go hand in hand with the type of training that you are doing, depending on your specific goals, often the difference between seeing great results and no results at all.

You are already putting tons of effort training, make the most of it by paying attention to what you feed your body as well.

 

4. Lifting too heavy (focusing on load)

Working in a gym, i see this more often than i would like, “ego lifting”.

As a beginner, your main focus should be to learn and master exercise execution.

Knowing the correct exercise movement patterns is key to increasing your ability to create muscular tension and achieve results.

Rather than putting emphasis on load, become the student and take the first year of your fitness journey to learn. This will create a solid foundation that you can build upon greatly as you progress and further test your limits.

Heavy lifting is tempting and fun, but without proper knowledge and body awareness, it can do more harm than good.

Heavy loads without precise exercise execution can cause:

• Sub-optimal form – teaching your brain incorrect movement patterns
• Create muscle imbalances
• Possible injuries

Yes, progressive overload is needed for growth, but the key word is “progressive”. Accept where you are and take it one step at a time. By training correctly rather than “ego lifting”, you will see more progress, increase longevity and avoid injuries.

 

Final Words

By nature, we all want things easy, fast and right now, without putting much work into it if possible.

It’s important to understand that about ourselves and that it’s simply a fear mechanism wired in us for centuries.

Look at your current situation and before you do anything, simply accept where you are.

Great, now that you’ve accepted yourself as you are, you can begin the journey to a new you.

Learn to enjoy the process and do the best that you can as you progress.

We all make mistakes, but many could be avoided by listening to others’ mistakes and applying their lessons.

Knowing what I know now and working in the field as a personal trainer in Toronto, I would’ve saved myself years of essentially wasted time and efforts by hiring a knowledgeable coach or trainer to show me the ropes from that start.