If you’ve ever walked into a well equipped gym before, it’s easy to be overawed by the seeming complexity and involvement of building muscle. What… a dozen different machines, cable pulleys, odd shaped bars. Where do you start?
You start with free weights.
Free weights are nothing more than weights which you lift freely, without machinery. These include the barbell, dumbbells, and any other kind of bar such as EZ-Curl and triceps bars and such like.
Free weights are an excellent, cost and space effective way to build muscle at home. And they are also the most important items in the gym, if you work out there.
Every single Pro bodybuilder in the world uses free weights for the majority of their program, and the reason is simple: they work better than machinery.
You see, machines run along set paths, and provide stable support. With free weights, it’s all on you. Each movement is completely natural, and the body responds best to natural movements. Plus, by having no support whatsoever, all of the stress to control the weight is on your muscles. Machines take these 2 important elements completely out of the picture, so they simply aren’t as effective in building muscle as free weights are.
Quite honestly, the biggest mistake you can make is to allow yourself to overlook the simplicity of free weights in favour of fancy machines. Machines do have their place – and for some people, for some exercises, they are essential. But you should always use free weights whenever possible if you want the best results.