Weight training for women can proceed in 3 different ways when training with weights is your goal, you can train using machines, free weights or a combination of the two to help achieve overall health for women.

I have to tell you straight out that I prefer the latter (dumbbells and barbells) for the majority of exercises

The demand on your body is greater with free weights and still allow your joints and limbs to move within their natural motion . Machines make your body move in a motion dictated by the make and designing of the equipment .

Most joint injuries and muscle strains come from the result of using machines that put unnatural stresses on the human body by locking you into a far too rigid position.

I have seen people hurt themselves performing resistance exercises before , it’s generally come about when using machines (and inappropriate form) instead of dumbbells and barbells.

Dumbbells and barbells will give you the ability to isolate individual muscles and exercise in a variety of ways.

When you use free weights it doesn’t matter what your weight, height , length of your limbs (legs and arms ) you can have a total body work out.

Many machines are well designed , and you can make adjustments on the machines for your particular physical proportions. Now that I have said that, quite a few machines still seem to be geared towards the average person in mind, you do stand a higher risk of injury, if you are not average.

Now I’m not totally against training with machines I do use them in my training, leg-extensions, lat pull-downs and various other exercises. I believe that you should be using free weights 60 to 70% of the time in your training.

Machines will keep the resistance working along one plane only, this will result in the muscle group your training using less muscle while performing the exercise. The idea is to use as much of the muscle group at the same time to create maximum growth.

The muscle does react differently to the different types of resistance created by using free weights or machines. When a muscle is being hit from various angles and directions constantly as with free weights the resistance will be different and more positive then using machines which are always along a foreseeable line.

The bottom line is a work out is a work out, and sometimes you just have to make use of what is at hand to do your workout. The main matter is, that you do workout .