The Road to Being Healthy: Free Weights vs Mechanical Weights The components of a healthy lifestyle include eating healthy, keeping a content mindset, as well as exercising regularly. Health clubs are constantly being built and remodeled to fit the growing popularity of interest in strength and weight training our population is constantly wanting. It is said that the origin of strength and weight training was introduced early Ancient Greece and has been constantly evolving ever since. As an increasing trend in our generation as well as others, many people are eager to live this healthier lifestyle but some have little knowledge of how to do it in a safe and effective way. Strength training is one evident, effective, and easy way when on the …show more content…
By doing so, the machine lifts begin to improve a specific muscle groups structure and function. This allows users to focus on what needs to be enhanced instead of working unnecessary muscles that come from using free weights. For example, in a debate conducted by Jeff Bayer of Ask Men, an online blog, he discusses the importance of the role machine lifts have on recovering athletes. When you injure any part of your body, it is important to rest and cause it little to no discomfort. Bayer says in defending his argument of machines in athletes going through rehabilitation that “machines can be a great option because they can isolate a particular body part”. By isolating that specific body part, you allow it to rest while working on other parts of the body which is critical to recovering athletes because they want to get better without the risk of more injury. Another example would be those considered as “starters” or “new to working out”. Greg Merritt stated in his article, Rise of the Machines, that “machines are those that stress muscles in a crucial manner that cannot be easily duplicated with free weights”. This basically saying that free weights take more time then mechanical lifts when building muscle because they don’t stress the workout hard enough on the body. Since machine …show more content…
It’s been proven by many prestigious institutes and companies that a person is more prone to injuries when working with free weights than they are using mechanical weights. Free weights advise many users to have coordination, balance, and experience due to the fact that all your muscles go into the workout in order for it to be correct. This becomes a downside to those who are new to working out or becoming fit. The US National Library of Medicine found that since 1990 to present day, over 900,000 injuries have occurred due to free weights and only an estimated 25,000 have been examined and reported. Many types of injuries can occur from free weights such as moving any joint or ligament out of place among many other injuries. The McKinley Health Center of The University of Illinois conducted a study and found that when a person jumps right into the fit and healthy lifestyle they forget that form and posture is important to the workout and invite injuries into their life. It is important to have proper knowledge of form when using free weights or lifelong injuries or death can occur. In another study conducted by Princeton University, they found that “some athletes, particularly those who have very little experience in weight training, might worry more about balancing the resistance than