Dumbbells, Barbells, Machines, or Bands for Strength Training?

Listener Mia emailed me to ask: “What’s the best equipment to use for strength training?” I get this question a lot from both new and experienced exercisers alike.

With so many different types of strength training equipment available at the gym, in retail stores, and online, it’s easy to get confused and overwhelmed.

The question I most frequently get asked is some variation of whether dumbbells, barbells, machines, or resistance bands are best. My answer is always “it depends” because in reality there’s no one best piece of workout equipment for everyone or even for the same person at different times.

The best piece of workout equipment for you right now depends on a variety of considerations. For example: your experience with strength training, how much weight you’re lifting, whether or not you have a spotter, the location where you’re exercising, whether or not you’re dealing with an injury, etc.

In this episode, I’m going to share with you what these pros and cons are for each type of equipment because I believe your strength workouts will be safer, more effective, and tons more enjoyable when you’re armed with the knowledge to make optimal equipment choices for yourself. 

Strength training machines

Let’s start with strength training machines. Go to any gym and you’ll find a large section dedicated to them. These are machines to strengthen your glutes, quads, hamstrings, chest, back, arms, abs, and just about every body part imaginable.

There are a ton of reasons to love strength training machines and most of the reasons boil down to ease of use. For example, you can easily adjust the resistance by simply sliding the pin in the middle of the weight stack to a different location. This is great if you want to save yourself the hassle of loading and unloading a bar with plates like you would with a barbell.

What’s also great about strength training machines is that it’s hard to get the lifting technique wrong because the motion of the lift is guided almost entirely by the machine. This is beneficial for people new to strength training who want to jump right in without having to worry about getting injured because of poor lifting technique.

The biggest drawback of strength training machines is that they don’t provide the freedom of motion needed to give your muscles a robust workout. Because the motion of the lift is guided almost entirely by the machine, your muscles aren’t required to balance the weight like you would have to do when using barbells or dumbbells.

The end result is a less robust workout because important muscle fibers that would otherwise help you balance and stabilize the weight during the lift are not used. The exception to these downsides of strength training machines are cable machines.

Cable machines (also known...

Keep reading on Quick and Dirty Tips