Article: Free Weights Better For Body Comp
- Thread starter The Press
- Start date
drFLEXxin88
New member
Weak.
RLD92
New member
Isolation exercises are great mass builders, the only 2 things I would say is you definitely cannot neglect free weight compound lifts they train the neural pathways in your brain and you strengthen motor recruitment patterns that will benefit you greatly as a strongly integrated muscle recruitment pattern allows you to move fast and with power,
Point 2 is that you cannot train all the muscle groups on machines alone, free weights allow you to use 1 piece of equipment for several purposes and work within your bodys dimensions opposed to the dimensions of a machine,
Obviously not to say machines don't have their benefits, unless you are recovering from injury it would be advisable to add free weight compound movements, integrate squats and deadlifts and bench pressing
What does your workouts look like?
the_swol_god
Banned
Get stronger forearms then
Bigcountry08
Active member
So you look better then everyone, but you can't pick up your own couch to move it cause your grip/forearms are to weak.
Nice profile pick, why don't you change it to a pick of your legs, or calfs for that matter. Lol
Ristonian
New member
I isolate everything. So when there's not a machine or a specific exercise I.e. wrist curls, then I pick up a few dbs and go at it. The same with db shrugs etc. I should have stated 90 percent of my workouts are done with machines. I personally don't believe in all that motor recruitment stuff. I used to bench and use dbs and never had a good mmc because all my other "stabilizing" muscles were burning up. Different strokes for different folks. My body has been sculpted from isolation movements and I have found no reason to return to doing anything else.
RLD92
New member
You would most definitely see mass gains by varying your workout, you should be judging your development by an increase in strength, it is may at first be difficult to believe the concept that your mind muscle connection can be developed by performing compound free weight movements but after about a months of training approximately 300-500 reps of great form on an exercise ,your minds neurons will fire signals stronger and the nervous system will recognise the pattern which allows you to train the correct muscles in a safe way ,
if you feel your weaker muscles are lagging on the movements its because you have been training isolation exercises prodominately and you would need to do a few sets that activate muscles in the corresponding compound lift, then use weights just light enough to tax the weaker muscles that your isolation moves havn't been utilising
Train legs twice a week BB squats and deadlifts legs are so important,
UCSMiami
Well-known member
I injured my ac joint and found free weights unbearable in movements which involved the injured area.(Barbell overhead press and different bench movements come to mind.) I was able to achieve a workout of sorts using Hammer assisted or Life Fitness machines during the recovery phase. So not all bad in my opinion.
RLD92
New member
You would most definitely see mass gains by varying your workout, you should be judging your development by an increase in strength, it is may at first be difficult to believe the concept that your mind muscle connection can be developed by performing compound free weight movements but after about a months of training approximately 300-500 reps of great form on an exercise ,your minds neurons will fire signals stronger and the nervous system will recognise the pattern which allows you to train the correct muscles in a safe way ,
if you feel your weaker muscles are lagging on the movements its because you have been training isolation exercises prodominately and you would need to do a few sets that activate muscles in the corresponding compound lift, then use weights just light enough to tax the weaker muscles that your isolation moves havn't been utilising
Train legs twice a week BB squats and deadlifts