Home Gym Vs. Free weights... again

ennaejay
ennaejay Posts: 575
in Fitness and Exercise
So is there some benefit to lifting with a weight bench and barbells with weight plates? Is there some magic formula you can achieve, a "total body" muscular workout, that you can't attain with a home gym?

Why do some people use a home gym, and others the free weights?

You can work your hammies, glutes, shoulders, pecs, yada yada yada, with both ---- right? Or am I mistaken?

Someone please offer advice, which is better, and why?

(For those of you who answered my previous Topic about this... my husband finally, actually, offered to be my spotter and even lift with me 3x a week. So once finances are there, I have the go-ahead to do NROL, safely :):):)

Replies

  • Lyadeia
    Lyadeia Posts: 4,603 Member
    I think it is the same argument as the free weights vs. machines in a gym. Of course you can get a great workout using either of them, or a combo of both. But there are just certain things that the home gym, or machines in a gym, don't do for you such as core balance and strength. Try doing barbell squats and then use a Smith machine at the gym and you'll see what I mean.

    I think a home gym is great for people who don't have a spotter, though. I think there's more opportunities for injuries, especially in beginners, when just barbells or dumbbells are being used.

    I personally go to the gym at least 4 days a week, and I use a combination of both machines and free weights. I think if you have the availability of both, then you should use both. Just my .02 cents.
  • withervein
    withervein Posts: 224 Member
    Do what works for you, but the benefit of free weights is that you build stabilizing muscles while you are working on the muscles each exercise is designed for. For example, standing doing front squats with a bar means your core is brought into the game to keep you from falling on your face.

    The benefit of a home gym/nautilus style machine is that you have a much more difficult time of getting the motion wrong and doing yourself an injury because you did something untrained and with too much weight.

    Both have their benefits and shortcomings. To be fair if you want to go the free weight route, you don't even necessarily have to buy barbells and plates, you can pick up just about anything thats heavy and put it down. You can make medicine balls with a bag of sand, a basket ball, duct tape and a funnel.

    Here's a good start to a home gym on the cheap. http://www.stumptuous.com/the-basics-of-a-home-gym
  • egaal
    egaal Posts: 19
    Lifting "free weights" usually makes you use a lot of supporting muscles to help balance the bars/dumbbells while machines often "assist" too much. I find I can lift a lot more with a machine than when I'm using a bar and even less when I'm using dumbbells.

    This is not to say machines are bad. They're perfectly good for training with and building strength and confidence in your ability to move heavy things.
  • tameko2
    tameko2 Posts: 31,634 Member
    Lifting "free weights" usually makes you use a lot of supporting muscles to help balance the bars/dumbbells while machines often "assist" too much. I find I can lift a lot more with a machine than when I'm using a bar and even less when I'm using dumbbells.

    This is not to say machines are bad. They're perfectly good for training with and building strength and confidence in your ability to move heavy things.

    I find that too - I much prefer using dumbbells (Although some things are easier with the bar, especially over a certain amount of weight so I'm planning to pick one up) for almost everything. I also like to do more compound movements - like yesterday with my trainer I was doing flys with a reverse crunch (as the dumbbells come together the legs lift up - probably not a good idea unless you can do both of those motions separately with very good control though)
  • ennaejay
    ennaejay Posts: 575
    Good, good thoughts. Stabilizing muscles and core being more heavily utilized makes perfect sense. I think with DH's assistance as a spotter I'm going to go with purchasing the bar and plates, as I don't have access to a gym, and a machine is wicked pricey.

    Thanks peeps! Much obliged :happy:
  • TAWoody
    TAWoody Posts: 261 Member
    I've owned and still own a Bowflex for the past 6 years and have been in and out of various gyms in the same time. My ultimate decision is I'm selling the Bowflex and using the gym full time from now on. First off, like you said, the initial cost of these nice machines is crazy. My bowflex was $1000 and that was one of their cheaper models. Also the gym machines such as this are mostly intended for the beginner and people who aren't as serious about their weight training. I would much rather purchase some free weights, bars, and a weight training bench if I had to buy stuff for my house again. Sadly these Bowflex like machines are just not as versatile and they take up a lot more space. I don't use my 2nd bedroom for anything else right now because it's filled with the machine.

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