Personal Training: Resistance Training – Free vs Fixed

In today’s fitness blog, we will discuss the various pieces of equipment available for a personal trainer. There’s a wide range of equipment available for personal trainers to use when planning exercise routines, and one consideration is when to use fixed-path resistance machines, cable machines, and free weights.

Resistance machines have a fixed path and allow only one person to undertake a specific exercise while moving through a set range of motion.

Cable machines are fixed machines that offer more control than free weights, but they provide some of the training benefits of free-weight exercises due to their instability.

Free weights, including dumbbells, barbells, medicine balls, and kettlebells, allow clients to develop a broader range of muscles and work more functionally.

A beginner will have a limited understanding of how to control their body and will likely exhibit poor technique, posture, and proprioception. So, if a personal trainer starts with a new, inexperienced client, they would begin with resistance machines, progress to cable machines, and then move on to free weights.

A resistance machine allows a trainer to run their client through a simple exercise in one set position while the machine’s fixed position supports the client. In this controlled environment, the client is less likely to injure themselves, and it’s easier for them to perform and feel they are achieving results, making them more likely to adhere to the exercise regime their personal trainer has developed for them.

Once the client has developed their technique and posture and improved their core strength and proprioception (so that their muscle spindles are providing better awareness of where their body parts are in relation to each other), they can move on to cable machines.

Cable machines can allow the personal trainer to take their client through a broader range of motion while still providing a certain amount of support. Once clients have progressed further, they can move on to using free weight exercises.

The benefit for those training with cable machines and free weights is that they will start using stabiliser muscles (fixators) and their larger muscles (prime movers and synergists). Lifting a dumbbell, for example, requires using the fixators around the shoulder joint and the agonist muscle to stop the shoulder from wobbling and control the movement of the dumbbell.

For instance, in a dumbbell single-arm row exercise, the following muscles are involved:

Prime Mover – Latissimus Dorsi

Synergist – Trapezius and Rhomboids, Rear Deltoid, Biceps Brachii

Fixators – Erector Spinae, Rectus Abdominis, TVA, Obliques, Infraspinatus, Supraspinatus, Subscapularis, Teres Minor

*Additional muscles could also be included.

Over time, a personal trainer will be able to devise programs that enable their clients to utilise more of these fixator muscles, thereby improving their posture, strength, and core stability, and reducing the likelihood of injuries. Developing core strength is key, as without this, the client will not be able to engage their muscles and maintain their posture to train successfully with free weights and avoid injury.

A resistance machine, such as a leg press, requires a client to engage their quads, hamstrings, and glutes to push against the weight. It will also allow them to lift a considerably greater weight than, say, in a free-weight squat. However, as a good personal trainer will advise, performing a squat requires the use of additional muscles, such as leg fixators and trunk muscles. This means that clients will burn more energy, increase their core strength, and develop better coordination, which a personal trainer might argue is more beneficial for them.

Functional training is associated with both free weights and cable machines. They replicate or simulate movement patterns that an individual would follow in everyday life, such as sitting down and getting up from a chair, picking up a child, or carrying heavy shopping. Such practices can help prevent day-to-day injuries and enhance performance in other areas, such as competitive sports.

A good personal trainer course will also cover how a trainer can progress a client to working with even more instability by using equipment such as Swiss balls, stability discs, and Bosu boards to improve technique and strength further.

We hope you have enjoyed our latest fitness blog. Please add your comments and responses below. If you would like to learn more about resistance training using free weights or fixed weights, or about personal trainer courses, please visit our Level 3 Personal Trainer Certificate webpage.