Something which should always be remembered when you exercise, is that you are training for life. You may proceed to spend one hour a day in the gym. However, you will still have remaining 23 hours a day whereby your muscles function without the use of fancy equipment.

The movement of your body whenever you undertake any form of exercise is known as the range of motion. The more this range of motion is increased in difficulty, the more effective the exercise is. This is because the body has to work twice as hard to perform the movement.

One example is the classic dumbbell bicep curl. If you are not familiar with this exercise, then it is performed by standing in the upright position with a pair of dumbbells held down by your sides with the palms of your hands facing forward. You then contract your biceps in order to lift the dumbbells up to shoulder level. This is then repeated as many times as you wish.

It is also possible to undertake the same movement on a bicep curl machine. It is necessary that you sit down, brace your upper arms on a pad, take hold of the two handles that are situated in front of you and perform the same movement as you would with the freestanding bicep curl.

When we take a closer look at the contractions of the muscles during this exercise, you are essentially contracting your biceps if you are using the curl machine, and nothing more. Because you are sitting down when using the curl machine, you are limiting what degree your shoulders are being used. When using the machine you are using several muscles such as your biceps, forearms and fingers.

When using machine weights, you will, a majority of the time, be limited as to what type of exercise can be performed. A strict procedure must always be followed, as with free weights. However, unlike free weights, machine weights do in actual fact offer a certain amount of resistance.

One of the advantages is using free weights is that you can move a little and select the weights that you want to use. However, there are also advantages of machine weights, and these are that you do not have to carry weights over to your exercise area, which does in effect use that little bit more energy.

Many people will argue that free weights are the best type to use for your body. Whilst this is normally true, there are those people who prefer to use machine weights.

Body builders, for example, have been using free weights for many years to build their very impressive bodies. A body builder would most likely laugh at you if you were to ask them about using machine weights.

Therefore, in summary, free weights will certainly use more muscle that machine weights, which will give a bigger effect in the long run. However, this does not mean that machine weights are not successful, as they do offer some advantages. In some cases, it is better to stabilize the muscles that are being used in a movement, which is where it is better to use the machine weights.

It is always advised to decide what kind of results you are looking for when lifting weights, so that you can decide whether to use free weights or machine weights. Both systems give good results on the body, although free weights will give bigger results. Always ensure that your muscles are receiving the correct workout that they require.

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