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I often get asked about using strength machines and their benefits over free weights. As with any piece of exercise equipment, strength machines will have their advantages and disadvantages. I personally have never been a fan of strength machines. While you can lift heavier weights and focus closely on particular muscle groups, relying on strength machines can also increase your chances of injury and slow down your weight loss.

This might seem counter-intuitive. Most people tend to gravitate towards strength machines because they see faster gains in a specific area, and because machines seem less intimidating than using free weights. But there are some down sides they might not be aware of.

Before you dedicate yourself to a workout regimen centered on strength machines, consider the following:

Loss of stabilizing muscles

When you work exclusively on a single muscle or group of muscles, you will see faster gains there. However, that isolation can weaken other muscles that help with supporting that muscle. For example, leg extension machines are great for singling out and increasing strength in your quads, but do not help the development of your core, glutes, or back. If you exclusively develop quads without building up the surrounding muscles that support and stabilize it, you increase your chance of injuring yourself.

Disproportionate Development

Another drawback of focusing on one particular area is that you can develop muscles disproportionately. Take a machine press, for example. At this machine, you sit down and work only your chest and triceps. On a traditional bench press, however, you rely on strength from your legs and core to stabilize you while your chest and tricep muscles do the heavy lifting. Therefore, you are building other parts of your body, even as you work on your chest. Have you ever noticed those guys with huge pecs and biceps, but skinny little chicken legs? Chances are they spent too much time at the machine press, and not enough time on the bench.

Slower calorie burn

Isolating a single muscle means you are also narrowing down your calorie expenditure to a single area. This decreases your total calorie burn and slows down your weight loss. It may also lead to unwanted bulk in particular areas where you are quickly developing muscles, but not burning enough calories to lose fat, and can also result in muscle fatigue from isolated overuse.

Increased Risk of Injury

Strength machines are not good at mitigating risk. They look straightforward, given that they tell you which muscle group you are working and give you user-friendly pictures and instructions. However, these machines don’t take into account your height or joint angles; you need to understand how your body should move in order to modify the machine correctly. If you don’t, injuries are likely to spring up. Lasting injuries can be very discouraging, especially if you are a beginner who was fooled into thinking the machines were user-friendly.

At the end of the day, you have to decide what is best for your body based on your goals. Strength machines are not necessarily bad – you just have to weigh the pros and cons to make sure they are actually supporting your goals. Isolating particular muscle groups might be necessary in a few specific situations, such as rehabilitation after an injury or if you are body building. If that is the case, I’d recommend using strength machines with assistance from a gym associate or physical therapist to mitigate risk.

I personally do not use strength machines, because I am not a body builder or in rehab. If you aren’t either, then embrace all those muscles and get ready to sweat for the long haul!

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