MACHINERY

FOR

• Best for beginners. For someone who starts now, the best thing to do first is to exercise with resistance, using the various machines working all major muscle groups. A beginner does not hold sufficient or proper technique and for each movement. The machines will place him in the correct position.
• Reduced risk of injury. Most injuries occur when exceeding the range of motion for muscle group that we work on. The machines are designed in order not to leave us stray from the right move.
• Less time. With the machines, you only need to be placed in position and choose the desired weight.  You can move to the next machine without any delay and complete the training very quickly.
• Ideal for restoration. If someone has to deal with an injury, then the machinery can continue to train other muscle groups, isolating the injured muscle. By using machines you can be kept in shape and at the same time to give the injured muscle the opportunity for proper recovery. Also machines are the ideal choice when one has reached overtraining phase (see related article) and needs a training session with less intensity.

AGAINST

• Incorrect power level impression. It's not the same to push or pull a weight on a machine compared to lift or pull an object in your daily life. Think of pulling back in a sitting position on the relevant machine where your body is stabilized with your chest on a special pad. Pull the back muscles and feel that you grow stronger. But when you find yourself in the actual situation you should pull something off to the ground or to move the sofa in your living room does not feel so strong. This is because the other muscles that you have to activate, as the abdominal that will act as stabilizers, they are not strong enough cause they are not being activated enough during the exercises on machines.
• Increased risk of injury due to overload in traffic pattern. This can occur because the machines perform an exercise with exactly the same movement pattern in each iteration, each set - each time, using exactly the same muscles, tendons and ligaments themselves. If this happens for several weeks, then there is a risk of injury due to overloading.
• Incorrect sense of security. Because we use machines, does not mean that there is no risk. The complacency that nothing can go wrong, it can lead to injury, just because they load more pounds or because we are not careful and focused enough during the execution of the exercise.
• Lack of adaptation to the specific characteristics of each body. By using the machines you are forced to follow a certain movement, without having the opportunity to respect the peculiarities of your body, because you follow a path that might not feel normal.
• It is expensive. The good quality and construction machinery has very high cost, and in order to find a comprehensive range of what you want, that will give you the opportunity to workout all muscle groups, you must go to large (and crowded) gyms. If you travel often then you will have trouble finding what you want.

FREE WEIGHTS
FOR

• Similarity of exercises with our daily activities. Think about it. There are shoulder press similar moves with when we are trying to place the box with our cd on the top shelf of the library. The free weights prepare us for being effective in our daily routine.
• Increased activation of stabilizing muscles. With free weights, for each exercise, the body is in condition to activate the muscles such as abdominal and dorsal to assist in stabilizing the body during the movement. The result is to have strong, well-trained muscles in the body, reducing the time needed to devote to exercises exclusively for abs and dorsal.
• Increased balance. As mentioned above, the exercises with free weights activate the stabilizer muscles in our body. The result is a good balance, which exercises with free weights can strengthen further.
• Enhance muscle assembly and perception. With free weights, and generally exercises, we force our brain to perceive and process the pattern of motion and adapte, by sending the appropriate commands to the muscles to perform the movement efficiently. This is something especially important for all those who are engaged in any sport.
• Easy to use and without great expense. With free weights you can work out almost anywhere, making exercises for the whole body, using only a set of dumbbells or a barbell. The cost of a set of dumbbells or a barbell with weights is only 10%, even from the cheapest MFP.

CONCLUSION
Exercising with free weights can have some disadvantages, mainly regarding the need for absolute knowledge and dedication to technique of each exercise. Εvery athlete, even the beginners can win much more by exercising with free weights than by being obsessed with the machines. If you want to see real and visible changes in your body and in your performance then move on to an area with free weights, grab your hands on the barbell or dumbbells and go to the next level!