Exercise is an important aspect of maintaining a healthy mind and body. Aerobic exercise, such as running, biking, swimming and stair climbing, helps increase stamina, reduces weight and improves cardiovascular health. Weight training is the type of exercise geared more toward building muscle. Weight training involves either free weights or strength training machines.
Types of Machines
Free weights give you the ability to work all of your major and minor muscle groups with exercises like bench presses, shoulder presses, back rows, triceps extensions, biceps curls and squats. Machines give you this ability as well -- there is a machine available for every muscle group. Compound exercises work more than one muscle at a time, which causes faster gains in size and strength. Certain machines like the leg and chest press involve compound movements. You will know an exercise is compound if you activate more than one joint when you perform it.
Strength Gains
As the name implies, free weights move freely in multiple directions without any constraints. Machines on the other hand are operated completely differently. They have handles and lever arms that move through a determined range of motion. Although machines often get a bad rap for not fully working the muscles, the Mayo Clinic notes that they are equally as effective as free weights at producing strength gains. The most important factor is that you use a full range of motion and work out on a regular basis.
Design of Machines
Each weight machine has multiple adjustments for the seats and lever arms. Before doing exercises, it is important that your body is in proper alignment. A leg extension machine, for example, has an adjustment for the back rest and lever arm. When doing the exercise, the machine should be adjusted so the back of your knees are on the edge of the seat and the curvature on the top of your feet are resting against the padded roller on the lever arm. The resistance with machines is changed by either adding weight plates to a support bar or sliding a pin into a weight stack. Weight plates range from 2½ to 45 lbs. and weight stacks generally exceed 100 lbs.
Advantages and Disadvantages
Weight machines are not without disadvantages. Although you can build strength, the predetermined path of movement with machine exercises eliminates the use of stabilizing muscles. This is in stark contrast to free weights. Take dumbbell chest presses, for example. While lowering and lifting the weights, you have to contract a high level of stabilizing muscle fibers in the shoulders and arms to remain balanced. When doing a seated chest press on a machine, this muscle activation is severely reduced. Weight machines also have advantages over free weights. According to the American Council on Exercise, machines are generally easier and safer to use than free weights, which makes them advantageous for beginners. Another advantage is that you can quickly go from one machine to another if you are in a hurry and trying to get a fast workout.
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