Free Weights???

Is it necessary to do free weights to gain weight and muscle? If so what are the best exercises to do? Could cable exercises be good enough?

Cheers

Free weights are the most effective all round for adding muscle.  The best exercises are the big compound movements, squats, presses, rows, deadlifts, etc.

As above but, and its a big but you must serve your apprenteship first or the likelyh,ood is you will end up injured!!

Free weights are proven to be effective, but the same can be said for machines if they are applied in the correct manor.

If I personally wanted to focus on adding sheer mass.  My routine would be based around big heavy compound lifts, for example the deadlift engages the greatest amount of muscle throughout the human body therefore increasing the amount of muscle tissue stimulated giving a greater reason for your body to respond and grow.

thanks for all this info, i've been doing machine exercises and cable exercises for a bit now so have i served my 'apprenticeship'? i have not noticed any big increases in mass but i believe i have a decent diet now and with the help of compound moves i will build muscle from this hopefully!

Sounds like a good plan to me mate.

robbo3


thanks for all this info, i've been doing machine exercises and cable exercises for a bit now so have i served my 'apprenticeship'? i have not noticed any big increases in mass but i believe i have a decent diet now and with the help of compound moves i will build muscle from this hopefully!

Machines and cables are not 'serving your apprenticeship' what the poster meant (I hope)was to do the compound movements from day 1 but learn form and dont overload the weight.

gripstrength

robbo3


thanks for all this info, i've been doing machine exercises and cable exercises for a bit now so have i served my 'apprenticeship'? i have not noticed any big increases in mass but i believe i have a decent diet now and with the help of compound moves i will build muscle from this hopefully!

Machines and cables are not 'serving your apprenticeship' what the poster meant (I hope)was to do the compound movements from day 1 but learn form and dont overload the weight.

I agree here, I've nearly always used free weights as I've found machines can limit the movement and/or cause damage to some muscle groups (I found this particularly with the shoulder press machines). 

IMO free weights are definitely the better option, as all the control of the movement is down to the user and not reliant on the setup of the machine.

That all said cables are a valid way to train and can be very useful.

yes, you need to do free weigt, free weigh is the most effective way to build your body.

beside for free weight, supplement taken also important!

robbo3

Is it necessary to do free weights to gain weight and muscle?

It is not necessary, but it would be my preference for best progress.
 
 
I'm a little old school with my ways and would always say free weights overall.
 
But, i'm also open minded and would say that with the right routine and diet someone could still make nice gains using just machines. There is a massive range of machines out there nowadays, and i think it would be naive to say someone could'nt make good progress by using just them.
 
I do however think that optimal progress for size and strength will come from a good routine based around the compound lifts with free weights.
 
 
 
 
 

a preacher curls bench you mean? it already exists