Depending on how you train, weight machines can help you safely build strength or size in your muscles. Lifting with machines can be beneficial for beginners and those who aren’t yet comfortable with free weights. However, there are limitations to weight machines, including that they don’t require your smaller, stabilizing muscles to get involved.
The Workings of Weight Machines
Weight machines typically feature a stack of weighted plates and a series of lever arms or platforms that move in a set pathway. You sit or lie onto the machine and move these lever arms or platforms with your muscles. Because of the load of stacked weights attached, the stress that your muscles undergo when using the machines can cause either an increase in muscular strength or size. The effects that your muscles will undergo depend on how you train with the weight machine.
Developing Strength or Size
You can use weight machines to develop muscular strength if you perform sets of a lower number of reps while selecting a heavier weight. Strength and conditioning professional Dr. Helen B. Binkley notes that performing three to five sets of six or fewer repetitions is ideal for building muscle mass. You would need to select a weight on the machine that would make performing six reps difficult. If you were to lighten up the weight stack and perform three to six sets of six to 12 reps on each machine, you would be training for an improvement in muscular size and tone. According to Dr. Jeffrey M. McBride of the National Strength and Conditioning Association, a weight training machine is just as effective at free weights for putting on muscle mass.
Lack of Stabilizers
When you’re working out on weight machines -- and because the movement pathway is set for you -- your stabilizing muscles aren’t recruited like they are when you’re performing exercises with free weights like dumbbells or barbells. For example, most fitness facilities offer a shoulder press weight machine that involves you sitting and gripping handles at your shoulders and then pressing them overhead to lift a pair of lever arms. The machine works your major shoulder muscles and triceps. If you were to do shoulder press while standing and with a pair of dumbbells, you would also work your shoulders and triceps, but your hips, legs, abs, obliques and lower back would be contracting to keep you balanced -- and your smaller stabilizing muscles in your shoulder joints would work to coordinate the pressing of the dumbbells.
Case for Machines
The benefit of training on weight machines is that you can build strength safely. If you struggle with balance, working out on a machine allows you to sit or lie while you perform the movements. For example, elderly individuals can lift loads without being afraid of falling. In addition, weight machines allow beginners who are just starting out to focus on mastering exercise technique and improving coordination before incorporating free weight exercises.
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