Bodyweight Vs Free Weights

The bodyweight vs. free weights debate has raged for years with no clear victor in sight. Both approaches come with pros and cons, so let's discuss each in turn.

The case for bodyweight-based workouts is that they're free, always available, and generally generate good results. Even if you're traveling and end up at a hotel without a fitness center, you can get a perfectly decent workout. Example:

• Push ups
• Dips (using the backs of two chairs)
• Abdominal crunches
• Chins (using a door jamb, a sturdy dresser with opened doors etc.)
• Lunges
• The Plank
• The Quadruped
• One-legged freestand squats
• One-legged calf extensions (standing on a phone book or similar)

Add a jog, some jumping jacks and a few sprints up the stairs, and you should be good and exhausted.

On the downside, bodyweight-based exercises have a built-in limitation in that the weight is fairly static. A beginner may not yet have the strength to pull off full-weight dips, while a seasoned gymrat may find it way too easy. Some exercises can be modified to an extent, like push-ups where you can stand on your knees or elevate the feet, but it's a crude arrangement.

Free weights have no such issues. Simply slide on more plates as you get stronger; no guesswork or flimsy compensation schemes that make the tracking of your progress difficult. Simply put, if your bench press goes from 180 to 190 to 200, you know you're doing something right.

Another advantage is the richer variety of exercises. Instead of being limited to push ups and dips for tricep work, you can do skullcrushers, barbell tricep extensions, dumbbell kickbacks, close-grip bench presses, seated dumbbell tricep extensions and so on, all of which can be tweaked to focus on specific areas of the muscle in question. The result is more complete muscle development.

Some good free weight exercises:

• Deadlifts
• Bench presses
• Dumbbell rows
• Barbell bicep curls
• Dumbbell hammer curls
• Military presses
• Squats
• Dumbbell lateral raises

The downside is the need for all this equipment, obviously. If you live near the gym and don't travel much, this isn't a problem, but road warriors and those living in rural areas may not have the benches, racks and wide assortment of plates and dumbbells needed for optimal workouts.

Clearly, both schools have a lot of good things going for them. The same can be said for machines and cable-centric workouts (fixed grooves, no way to cheat, even resistance etc.), which we haven't even touched on in this article but make up a significant piece of the puzzle for those looking for best all-around strength workouts.

Simply put, the bodyweight vs. free weights debate doesn't have to be mutually exclusive. In fact, using the cafeteria approach where you do a couple bodyweight exercises, a few free weight exercises, a few cable movements and round out with a machine or two will likely give you the biggest bang for your buck. Example of a mixed, full-body workout incorporating elements from all four categories:

• Barbell bench presses
• Shoulder machine
• Tricep cable pressdowns
• Dips
• Chins
• Cable rows
• Dumbbell bicep curls
• Abdominal crunches
• Squats
• Seated hamstring curls
• Donkey calf raise machine

Cherry-pick to your heart's delight, but remember to change your exercises frequently as your muscles thrive on change. Good luck!

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