Choosing Your Gym: Free Weight Zone

[Korean version: 헬스클럽 제대로 고르는 법: 프리 웨이트 존 (Free Weight Zone)]

© Pxhere

Imagine if you are a novice to working out. You want to get a membership to a gym, but all you have is some experience following a promotion from a local gym for 1-2 months. Because of your financial status, it’s not feasible to get expensive personal training sessions. For beginners like these, would it be the best option to opt in for the biggest, the most luxurious fitness centers? Nope, not really.

Let’s think about a typical gym. There are numerous press and cable machines in the center; there are tons of treadmills by the scenic window panes. Like this, most fitness centers are seemingly similar in design. But what will distinguish your gym from the rest? The answer is the free weight zone. Free weight zone is the space dedicated to free weights, where people can exercise with dumbbells, barbells, and their own weights as loads.

Free Weight Zone © Pixabay

In fact, cable machines and other press machines were initially designed for medical purposes to help people recover from various accidents or illnesses. This is precisely the reason for there being many press/cable machines in rehab centers and exercise therapy rooms. The intentions were different from the very start — fully-functioning, healthy people had been using these machines that were originally designed for medical purposes! Cable machines mechanically demand for a very absurd movement from its trainers. The machines’ limiting structure also limits the range of motions from the person training on it. Every person with different body size, frame, flexibility, and range of motion are reduced to move in the exact same way. To add, the machines output a consistent force of resistance from start to finish even when natural movements are designed to have different forces of resistance from start, middle, to finish.

Furthermore, the isolation exercises that target very specific muscle groups jeopardize our body’s natural balance. This is especially the case for the beginners. Let’s take for an instance the two machines that we might have all encountered before. Leg extensions and leg curls are two of the most commonplace press machines that strengthen your lower body. Leg extensions target your front quadriceps while leg curls stimulate the muscle groups around your hamstrings. But let’s think for a moment. Out of the natural bodily movements that we engage in, are there any movements that only require our quadriceps or hamstrings?

Seated Leg Extension © Wikimedia commons by Everkinetic

Lying Leg Curl © Wikimedia commons by Everkinetic

For beginners, it is best to not engage in isolation exercises that target specific muscle groups, but in compound exercises that require several or more muscle groups at once. To get used to working out and in finding out one’s own strengths and limits, one needs time to develop their muscles in balance. Isolation exercises are for the injured or people with imbalances in their bodies who want to strengthen a target area of their body. Unless you have a specific imbalance or an injury, you do not need to be doing isolation exercises.

The biggest differences between machine exercising and free weight exercising is that with free weights you only have your body to depend on. To do the exercises, your body need not shake or tremble. To maintain a stable body, we use our full mental and physical focus. Not only that, with free weights, one can maximize their range of motions with however much or less their flexibility allows them to push through. Because you are also trying to maintain your balance, you are not only training your strength, but also your skills in coordination and balance. In addition, with more muscle groups engaging, it is conducive to increasing muscle mass — and, of course, it burns more calories than machine exercises. Free weights are a suitable exercise that mimic everyday movements and combines many muscle groups simultaneously.

How about doing combinative squats and deadlifts instead of leg extensions and leg curls? Squats and deadlifts are the king of exercises. Both of these exercises demand a movement that squeezes your glutes and leg muscles together. This kind of movement simulates running and also sitting/standing up that are natural bodily movements in human body. Also, these two exercises are foundational to every sports exercise and everyday life as they target the hamstrings and quadriceps that act as a source of power. Lastly, the exercises also stimulates upper body strength as one is required to lift barbell or dumbbells against the gravity. The many muscle groups they engage makes it conducive for muscle development as a full-body exercise.

Dumbbell Squat © Wikimedia commons by Everkinetic

Back Squat © Wikimedia commons by Everkinetic

Deadlift © Wikimedia commons by Everkinetic

What I want to stress here, though, is to enlist professional’s help at least when it comes to squats and deadlifts. Foolishly trying to learn it by yourself, you may injure yourself. These two exercises that serve as a foundation to all exercises are worth spending some money in.

In choosing your gym, look at how well they organized their free weight zone. The array of press machines and cables are easy on the eyes and they are quick to seduce. And fitness centers that don’t have as much machines but have dedicated space for free weights may seem ‘empty’. But this goes to show that the gym owner has an appreciation for free weight exercises. Strength is what is required to ultimately become an expert that can confidently combine both isolation exercises and compound exercises in their repertoire. And to increase your strength, focus not on the fancy machines, but on the free-weight zone.

References

1. 최영민. (2014). 불량헬스2 스트렝쓰편. 롤링다이스.
2. 송영규. (2010). 피트니스가 내 몸을 망친다. 위즈덤하우스.
3. 수피. (2014). 헬스의 정석: 종합편. 롤링다이스.
4. Morgan, A. The Big 3 Routine. Retrieved from https://rippedbody.com/the-big-3-routine/