Callahanstrong.com brings you a weekly blurp on the “white lies” of working out. With so much information out there today in regards to working out, weight-loss, fat-loss, performance, strength, cardio, core, the list goes on I wanted to try and address them as I see most prevalent and shed some truth toward these commonly accepted “little white lies of working out.”
White Lie #1 – “Free weights are better for your body than machines,” now for those of you that know me well you might be scratching your head right about now as I have told you for years to stay off of the machines and use free weights and bodyweight when possible. I am still advocating this stance I just want to clarify my exact position on this thought. I do not believe that machines are the best choice for your exercise routines but, it’s not because I don’t think that you can’t get results. Your body responds to any stimulus that is put on it. Your muscles do not differentiate between free weights, bodyweight, or a machine. If used properly then there will be a stimulus provided regardless the tactic used and given that all other variables are line there will be a positive response/adaptation from your body in return. My position on free weights over machine weights rests on this idea, with machine training all of the stability is provided for you. All of the proprioceptive work that your body would endure using free weight is now lost. With machines we lose the ability to adequately train the stabilizers that are so important to developing well-rounded strength and health. Also, with machine exercises there is a great amount of core stability that is lost that could be trained using free weight exercises. So given this information let us not confuse the facts as to why we are doing something or are not doing something. The take away point here, use free weights and bodyweight exercises in place of machine training in every opportunity possible.
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