Regular movement is key to lifelong wellness, but strength training is often overlooked as a crucial part of that puzzle. This part 3 of the Weightlifting for Beginners series helps you utilize machines and free weights to reach your weightlifting goals and prioritize your long-term health. If you haven’t yet, go back and read part 1 for a deeper dive into weightlifting’s health benefits and part 2 for a look into using public and at-home gyms.

Challenging your muscles, stability, and mobility is an important part of staying healthy, but you should first understand the differences between machines and free weights so you can personalize your workout to your health goals. No matter what type of strength training equipment you use, you can be sure that every rep, pulse, and pump in your routine has significant payoffs over time.

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Why Strength Training Matters at Any Age

Lifting weights isn’t only about changing your physique or boosting your confidence, although those are two real advantages. Long-term health benefits of weightlifting include improved muscular longevity, bone density, joint health, cognitive function, injury resistance, and more. Weightlifting for Beginners: What You Should Know Before You Start (series part 1) goes into these benefits further, but you can be sure that it’s never too late in life to start getting stronger for your future self, whether you’re picking up dumbbells for the first time or getting back into an exercise routine.

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When to Choose Weight Machines

Weight machines and free weights have the same goal — to help you stay strong and healthy — but they have different purposes and benefits. Depending on your goals, machines can be great for getting started on your weightlifting journey with safety and support. Machines are ideal for the following:

• guiding your form so you can learn movements without injury
• Supporting you as you work up in weight over time
• helping you isolate certain muscle groups
• providing a generally safer option, especially for beginners who are just starting out
• offering supportive movement when recovering from an injury

Machines help you “level up” as you get stronger without upping your weight too quickly. This helps you avoid injury and slowly progress over time.

A Beginner’s Guide to Common Gym Machines

Weight machines are great for starting and progressing on your strength journey, but every machine targets different muscles, so understanding your options helps you tailor your workout appropriately. There are dozens of weight machines for various muscle groups, including, but not limited to:

• cable lat pulldown
• seated cable row
• machine hack squat
• cable push-pull
• seated overhead press
• assisted dip

While machines offer many perks, they do have a limited range of motion, don’t allow for compound movements, and are expensive and demand more space than free weights (for you home gym enthusiasts). This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t use them, though, as they’re great for familiarizing yourself with exercises and isolating muscle groups.

Read More: Read Our Weightlifting for Beginners: Know Your Way Around the Weight Room (series part 2)

Machine-Based Exercises for Beginners

If you’re a beginner to lifting weights, starting with weight machines before testing out free weights is often recommended so you can work your way to different equipment safely. Luckily, there are a number of machine weight exercises that don’t require much experience, including:

• Hamstring curls
• Bicep curls
• Leg press circuits
• Shoulder press

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What Free Weights Offer That Machines Don’t

Free weights offer a way to level up your strength journey and work different muscles through compound exercises. Understanding how to use free weights allows you to personalize your workout to fruther your goals, as they:

• Require a greater range of motion than machines
• Demand more balance and control, so you can increase muscle activation
• Provide variety and convenience when used correctly

Below, we walk you through how to choose the right weights and some beginner exercises for getting started.

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Free Weight Options: How to Choose the Right Fit

Like weight machines, the various free weight options allow you to customize your workout and switch things up. Some common weights and their benefits include:

• Dumbbells: These include two handheld weights, and they can be used for isolation or compound movements and are accessible anywhere.
• Barbells: These are a longer bar with weights on the ends, and they’re good for training your muscles in tandem and overall muscle conditioning.
• Kettlebells: These are bell-shaped, cast iron weights that can be used in a number of ways (but especially for legs, back, and shoulder work).
• Medicine balls: These are weighted balls that can be used for strength work or rehabilitation and recovery movements.

While they offer variety and challenge your muscles in new ways, free weights do have a bit of a learning curve to use, and there’s a higher potential for injury if you don’t use them correctly. Remember: they don’t have the same support as machines, so you might need a spotter if you use heavy weights.

Beginner Strength Exercises Using Free Weights

While they require more control and safety precautions, free weights help keep your muscles, bones, and joints healthy while promoting balance and mobility. You can target one or two muscle groups in one day, but it’s important to get a well-rounded strength workout every week or month so that no muscle group goes unsupported. Below are some free weights exercises that will help you build strength and progress safely over time:

• Dumbbell single arm row
• Dumbbell shoulder press
• Dumbbell chest press
• Bicep curls
• Tricep extensions
• Weighted lunge
• Weighted glute bridge

There are many more weightlifting exercises for beginners, and you don’t have to use free weights for strength-only workouts. Dumbbells, kettlebells, barbells, and medicine balls can be a great addition to other workouts like high intensity interval training (HIIT), CrossFit workouts, pilates, and even yoga.

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Why a Balanced Approach Works Best

Understanding the purpose and benefits of machines and free weights helps you progress your weightlifting journey and tailor your workout to your goals, but it’s a good idea to use a combination of both as part of your strength routine. When it comes to one over the other, research does not suggest that one improves your overall strength more than the other: they both offer different benefits for a whole-body workout and long-term wellness.

Your Weightlifting Journey Can Start Today

Weight machines and free weights have different purposes, but they both help you improve your strength and promote your health through movement. Learning the differences between the two will help you customize your workout to your specific needs.

While everyone’s weightlifting journey looks different, the truth is this: strength training offers the versatile, customizable options you need for low-impact, high-impact, recovery, and basic weightlifting exercises. With the foundational skills and well-rounded knowledge around strength training, you can work towards a healthier you one rep at a time.

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