Free Weights are Overrated

Free weights vs. machines: the great debate.

For decades we were taught that if you were really serious about your strength training, you needed to employ free weights. We heard things like: “Free weights are the best for athletes.” “Free weights are the best for advanced trainees.” “Free weights require more balance and involve more muscle.” “Free weights are more functional.”

The authors of a recent meta-analysis published in the journal BMC Sports Science, Medicine and Rehabilitation debunk the long-standing myth of free weight superiority. The authors reviewed 14 studies and concluded that free weights offered no benefit over machines in terms of muscle strength, muscle size, or muscle power – and this appears to be true if you are new to strength training or very advanced in your training career.

I don’t think most people are aware of this. Walk into most health, gyms, or high school, college, or pro sports team weight rooms today and you’ll see an array of free weights. And you’ll be lucky to find a machine.

Noteworthy: A 2022 meta-analysis revealed that variable resistance (the feature of a machine that makes the weight heavier when your muscles are strongest and lighter when your muscles are in a weaker position) produced greater improvements in strength than constant resistance (using machines that simply rely on gravity alone acting in one direction). 

Machines allow for the performance of specific exercises that are simply not possible with free weights (leg extensions are one example). 

Bottom Line: Machines work. Free weights work. If you want great results from your strength training, it’s not the tool, but how the tool is used that is important.

Perspective: I was taught in 1997 by a mentor and prominent NFL strength coach that machines are valuable and that free weights weren’t superior. He told me, “You can drive from Minneapolis to Dallas in a Yugo or a Lexus; the Lexus is probably going to be a safer, more efficient, and more comfortable ride.” I had never heard of a Yugo, but the analogy worked.

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