If you are serious, you use free-weights? New Study
The accepted wisdom: If you are serious about getting stronger and adding significant muscle, you should lift weights with free-weights. Yes, machines are fine for beginners, older adults, kids, and attorneys, but if you want to maximize your results, we should focus on lifting weights with free-weights. And if you are an athlete, free-weights are far superior to machines.
The accepted wisdom… is outdated folklore.
Authors of a new paper published in the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports conducted a research study to elucidate which was more effective for increasing muscle size and improving athletic performance, free-weights or machines.
The researchers trained 34 men for eight weeks; one group used free-weights only and the other group used machines only. The strength of this study is that the researchers matched every other variable (exact exercises, sets, rest between sets, and intensity level) and they utilized a comprehensive battery of assessments (vertical jump, sprint speed, change of direction, muscle size, muscle architecture, and anaerobic performance).
Their conclusion? Contrary to the free-weight superiority myth, machines were just as effective as free-weights. This new study echoes a new meta-analysis on the topic.
Take Home Message: If you are an athlete, you can use machines or free-weights and produce great results.
Final Note: As an assistant strength and conditioning coach in the NFL during the late 1990s and early 2000s, we used almost exclusively machines. If I brought a friend or visitor into our weight room, they would invariably say something to the effect of, “Where do the football players lift weights?” To be clear, in 2023, high school and college athletes and coaches continue to cling to the myth of free weight superiority.