Fast Company iPad edition promotion


FC Member Blog

Are Free Weights GOOD For Muscle Building

BY arefreeweightsgoodformusclebuilding arefreeweightsgoodformusclebuilding | 01-07-2009 | 6:43 AM
This blog is written by a member of our blogging community and expresses that member's views alone.

The world of strength training and muscle building has been divided between those who advocate use of free weights and those who opt for machines to build muscle. So who is right? Of these, free weights are rapidly gaining in popularity due a wide variety of reasons. First is that they are very effective but also save time. However there are many other reasons why free weights are better option for strength training.

Free weights provide a wide versatility to those looking to build muscle. You can do a wide variety of muscle building exercises for the whole body. They are functional, which means they let you move your body through the natural motions in many planes. They also let you build the total body strength as you have to support your body. This allows you to target specific muscles while simultaneously involving the smaller stabilizer muscles, which are generally ignored when the exercises are done on the machines.