Free weights and dumbells V's multigyms V's Body weight resistance

Which is allegedly better for you.

Which do you gain most from.

Which do you use and your experiences.

We were having this discussion at work and the differing answers were interesting as to which sport people did. So anyone want to stick there
opinion in so the argument can continue tomorrow.

Iain

i believe free weights bring more muscles into play as youre trying to ‘balance’ the weights as you lift.

A combo of freeweights and bodyweight is best, benefits to both controlling your own weight and an external weight.

All have their advantages, disadvantages and myths.

For overall conditioning I would prioritise compound movements with free weights and body weight stuff over machines, but would probably combine a bit of everything.

agree with body weight and free weights work. I got the best gains from doing the p90x dvds but It half killed me everyday

I prefer machines, you get to sit down.

“free weights” are better for development and the performance benefits are better for increasing the overall effect. When using weight machines, you target a single muscle (or group) but the muscles that “fix/hold” the rest of the body in place don’t get worked. eg, bicep curls using free weights and standing up work the biceps, triceps plus the shoulder muscles, back muscles, chest muscles, etc as you must fix/stabilise your body meaning an increase in strength in the other areas. If you use a machine it isolates the muscle (not 100%) so you could in theory end up with massive “guns” that are only for show, as the rest of the body would (specifically the shoulder) be the weak link for any real world activity.

Basically it’s far better to work as much of the body in one move as possible of you want real world gains and not just show muscles.
Also if you want massive looking muscles – don’t stretch!

Well with a post like that Stew1982 could kill this thread dead! For those that can’t be bothered to read it…

Machines are for Losers.

I would however add that free weights with good technique has all of the benefits outlined above. However bad technique + too heavy a free weight is the quick route to injury.

Last year had a couple of one-on-one coaching sessions with a international standard weight lifter on squats, deadlifts etc. The amount of improvement I apparently needed in my technique was humiliating.

So… if you’re using free weights build up slowly and make sure you’re shown how to do it right.

I’ll add another factor into the mix. dumbells > barbells if you’re trying to fix imbalances between right and left strength.
But as above, it’s definitely more important to have correct form than to lift heavy weights, or you will injure yourself.

If you’re trying to build size, you can’t go wrong with compound movements

Yep, missed the bit about technique and starting with minimal/low weight to condition the muscle first – good technique at the start (which almost certainly means you’ll lift less than you think you could) is the way forward, and means you won’t end up looking like a muscle bound Nostradamus!

Hate machines, unless you can afford gym-standard ones they’re horrible clunky and frictiony. Free weights seem to be best to me.

depends what your goals are i reckon. personally i prefer body weight exercise.
can do some serious hard conditioning workouts with burpees, chinups, box jumping, handstand shoulder press, dips etc, can also work well with a tabata style workout for maximum gains in a short amount of time.

freeweights are also great, but i found when i was lifting heavy on the bench and squat it didnt really help my overall performance but i was obviously stronger at thoose exercises.

theres also kettle bells to consider and other tools like sand bags, not much experience of these though.

So what’s a good freeweight exercise for the legs then. Squats, obviously, but what else?

Squats
hack squats
lunges
dead lift
stiff legged deadlift
calf raises.
cleans.

To be honest, if I was lifting weights all I would do is, squats, cleans (or clean and jerk although as above I would like to be shown how to do it properly)and dead lifts, with some form of shoulder press, with dips and pull ups.

hack squats
stiff legged deadlift
cleans.

Que?

IHN – Member
So what’s a good freeweight exercise for the legs then. Squats, obviously, but what else?

Stiff legged deadlifts for your hamstrings

So what’s a good freeweight exercise for the legs then.

I normally wrestle a brown bear to the ground, then hold my bounty above my head and do some victory squats. Will this work for you??

DrP

“Which is allegedly better for you.

Which do you gain most from.”

Maybe it depends what you hope to achieve.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDawlrIeaVM

I got the best gains from doing the p90x dvds but It half killed me everyday

Funny you should mention p90x, a friend of a friend was talking about it the other day. He used it for about 6 months when preparing for some sort of military selection (I can only assume he didn’t get through since he’s working at a bank!). He’s impressively athletic (we took him bouldering, he’d never been before but despite a lack of technique he still managed to drag himself up everything he could get a decent hold of).

He claimed it was the best thing ever, but I’ve always been a bit wary of these sorts of things.

IHN – Member
So what’s a good freeweight exercise for the legs then. Squats, obviously, but what else?
Stiff legged deadlifts for your hamstrings

Cycling!

I normally wrestle a brown bear to the ground, then hold my bounty above my head and do some victory squats. Will this work for you??

Nice idea, but unfortunately we only have black bears in Cirencester. Black bears, as you’ll know, are smaller than brown bears so they wouldn’t really give me the workout I’m after.

Nice idea, but unfortunately we only have black bears in Cirencester. Black bears, as you’ll know, are smaller than brown bears so they wouldn’t really give me the workout I’m after

I don’t know about that. I regularly do high rep squats with a black bear on my back and have legs like tree trunks.

Hmm, good point. Maybe if I got the bear to hold some dumbbells whilst I lifted it that would work. Or, I suppose, I could hold a bear in each hand like a pair of cuddly kettlebells.

😀 @ Bear comments!

frog walking, I do one with a barbell behind the neck.
Sort of like this

Hmm, good point. Maybe if I got the bear to hold some dumbbells whilst I lifted it that would work. Or, I suppose, I could hold a bear in each hand like a pair of cuddly kettlebells.

I’ve never tried squatting a live bear so I don’t know how effective it would be getting them to hold dumbbells. Squatting two bears can work, but I find that my form suffers, so I prefer a single bear.

Perhaps you could stuff a dumbbell in it’s mouth, in a similar fashion to roasting a pig with an apple?

I’ve never tried squatting a live bear

Dead bears are to bear lifting what gym machines are to weight lifting; for amateurs 😉

Brown bears… black bears… wimps.

You haven’t trained until you’ve spent a month in the Arctic wilderness fuelled by nothing but your own bodyfat and water before drowning two polar bear cubs and then wrestling their enraged mother to death.

I do Squats and overhead press one day, Deadlift and bench press on the other. I do have some supplementary core exercises that I sometimes do but most of the time I can’t be arsed.

I do a variation of the 5-3-1 programme so the average amount of time I spend in the gym is 20 mins per session. Twice per week is probably sufficient but I sometimes do 3 or 4 if I get over excited.

You haven’t trained until you’ve spent a month in the Arctic wilderness fuelled by nothing but your own bodyfat and waterbeans, pulses, veg, lean meat, red wine, black coffee and dark chocolate, but not pasta, potatoes, fruit or simple sugars before drowning two polar bear cubs and then wrestling their enraged mother to death.

FTFY 😉

Nah I’m going for carb-depeleted bear wrestling at the moment.

Started out on koala bears, then black bears, brown bears, now polar bears.

2 months time I’m going for the Holy Grail of bear wrestling and sneaking into Edinburgh zoo to dish out some pain on the pandas. Yeah, yeah they’re not the toughest but I want to know I can take on two before I take a sebatical to hunt down one in the wild.

Should be done just in time for the start of the crocodile season.

I’m lucky enough to have a circuits lesson I can go to at lunch time and they’ve been concentrating on Strength and Conditioning and HIT moves for a while now and the athletic (not muscle size) benefits are noticeable.
I reckon dynamic, compund moves with a weight bag with some plyometrics thrown in is the way ahead.
I haven’t lifted a metal gym weight or sat on a machine for about a year now and find the whole idea just dull now.

I’ve probably been to a gym and lifted weights about three times in the last twelve years. I much prefer bodyweight exercises and get far more from it, usually outside somewhere where I can run around at the same time.

Kev

I’ve never tried squatting a live bear

Dead bears are to bear lifting what gym machines are to weight lifting; for amateurs

As per DrP, I spend 10 minutes wrestling with the bear as a warm up then snap it neck and do squats with the bear carcass.

I find that this gives me a suitable workout.

the jokes on this thread are only just bearable…

That’s appawling Keva.