Machines build cars – not bodies

I don’t want to offend the hardcore believers in cable crossovers leading to maximum chest fullness; dimensions normally only dreamed about. Nor do I want to disturb the macho man madness that happens when some trainees hop on a Smith rack to pump out a few “heavy” bench presses. But let’s get real here: machines may build cars in Detroit, but they don’t build great bodies in the gym.

The machine versus free weight debate ravishes the gym floor. And comments about who is on steroids and who is the genetically gifted generally accompany any conversation regarding exceptional results. But are we missing the real underlying point here? The limiter is not always someone’s access to great equipment, professional nutritional counseling, excellent strength coaching or purely favorable bodybuilding genetics. Sometimes it’s their lack of intensity and motivation; the kind you get by gripping some true raw iron. Not the sort of iron that is suspended from a chain to assist concentric contractions. The kind of iron that floats in space with only dedicated hands to guide it along a path. This is the way nature designed the human body to receive a stimulation for muscular growth through repetitive and progressive resistance. This is the time-honored way the human body has accepted through the evolution of man.

Research has shown time-after-time that free weights encourage quicker strength gains than their restrictive counterpart. By requiring more balance and coordination, they tend to promote more activity of the joint stabilizer muscles. Compound free weight movements can recruit more muscle groups than variable resistance machines, predisposed to isolate only specific muscles. This compound training also leads to an endogenous hormonal cocktail that can prime a body for optimal post workout nutrition uptake and utilization. Free weights are also more versatile and more cost-effective than machines.

So what’s the debate? I don’t want to get hate mail from Arthur Jones and colleagues. Machines are good for building a foundation and serving as a safe initial liaison between a new trainee and their muscular systems. But for the experienced athlete: free weights build brawn. With brawn, comes power; and then, definition, symmetry and aesthetic fullness is only a well-planned diet away.

Enter the New Year by ditching the flippin’ machines, and stopping any excuse as to why you can not dead lift. Enter 2007 as a warrior of iron, committed to moving some heavy loads and getting into the best physical condition known to man. Let the machines build your next car – but your Mack truck of strength and size gains will come from iron in its unrefined form; the way nature intended.