Question:
Should free weights should be used instead of machines for the purpose of training the stabilizer muscles?
Answer:
While some muscles’ primary function is stabilization while standing and moving, “stabilizer” refers to a role a muscle can play, and not a type of muscle, and is relative to the exercise.
During most exercises many different muscles are involved performing a variety of roles and depending on who you ask they may use different terms, but these roles can generally be divided into two groups; producing the desired movement (agonists, synergists) and preventing unwanted movement (stabilizer, neutralizer, fixator). If the exercise is performed correctly (using proper body positioning and path of movement) the muscles producing the movement will be meaningfully loaded, but this is not the case for all of the muscles preventing unwanted movement. Depending on the exercise, body position, external bracing, and other factors the stabilizing muscles may encounter anywhere from a very low to a very high level of resistance and during some exercises it changes significantly over the range of motion. Just because a muscle is involved in an exercise does not mean it is working hard enough to benefit from it.
A good example of this is the standing press versus the seated press or overhead press machine. While more muscles are involved in the standing press to maintain balance, they do not have to work very hard to do so because of the relatively short moment arms, even when using relatively heavy loads.
This is very different when comparing the bent over barbell row or seated cable row to a compound row machine with a chest support pad. During the bent over barbell row and seated cable row the muscles of the lower back and hips which act as stabilizers work against a much longer moment arm and would be affected more by the exercise. However, depending on your back strength this can detract from the ability to focus on the target muscles of the upper back and arms, and these muscles can be more effectively trained with a trunk extension exercise like deadlifts or a hip and back extension machine.
Whether a particular exercise involves other muscles as stabilizers is less important than how effectively it works the targeted muscles. If you want to effectively strengthen a muscle or muscle group you should perform an exercise which works it directly rather than depend on its involvement as a stabilizer in other exercises. This includes the postural muscles, which can be effectively trained with conventional trunk flexion, extension, and rotation exercises and do not require or gain any unique general conditioning benefits from exercises performed on unstable surfaces or which challenge balance or involve simultaneous movement in multiple planes.
Comments on this entry are closed.
Hi Drew,
Does this lead us back to Arthur Jones “direct resistance” to the working muscles.
Steven,
It’s the same concept. Direct resistance means both resistance applied directly to the body part the target muscles are acting on and in a way that directly opposes the actions of those muscles.
When designing a machine for a simple (rotary) exercise for the torso, shoulders, or hips the resistance should be applied directly to the body segment the target muscles act on to prevent weaker muscular structures from limiting your ability to effectively load them or to avoid unnecessarily exposing joints between the axis and the resistance to potentially harmful forces.
For example, a properly designed pullover machine applies the resistance directly to the upper arms with pads instead of requiring the user to hold a handle to prevent grip and triceps strength from limiting the resistance that can be applied to the lats and other muscles acting on the shoulders. A machine for almost every shoulder movement – flexion, extension, horizontal and vertical abduction and adduction – should apply the resistance directly to the upper arms through a pad, and not through the hands. The only exception is internal and external rotation, in which case the resistance should be applied to the forearm rather than through a handle (using a coupled movement arm with another pad to help keep the upper arm aligned properly)..
Properly designed hip adduction and abduction machines apply the resistance to the thigh just above or proximal to rather than below or distal to the knee near the ankles to avoid stressing the collateral ligaments.
Properly designed machines for the muscles which flex, extend, or rotate the trunk apply the resistance directly to the trunk, or if the arms are used they are used in a position where the lever against them is minimal so their strength is not a limiting factor.
To choose a standing press over an overhead press machine for the purpose of working the muscles of the trunk makes as much sense as designing a trunk machine that loads the abdominal and low back muscles by having the user press handles upwards with their arms instead of placing a pad against the chest or upper back for the user to flex or extend their trunk against. If you want to work your trunk muscles effectively, do exercises designed to work those muscles.
The primary criteria for selecting an effective exercise for a particular muscle group is how effectively they are loaded, and an exercise that directly works those muscles is going to be more effective than one that only involves them as stabilizers, especially if the lever against them is very small. The postural muscles barely have to work when standing, so they aren’t going to be working much harder when pressing overhead or performing other upper body exercises standing or laying down, as opposed to seated on a machine (assuming you are using strict form and not cheating with your whole body to throw the weight up instead of lifting it under strict control).
While involving as many muscles as possible in an exercise might seem like a more efficient way to train and a better way to improve metabolic and cardiovascular conditioning (and this is one of the arguments for building workouts around a few basic compound exercises) beyond some point you are no longer efficiently loading any particular muscle group and compromising strength and size increases without gaining any other benefits.
Hi Drew,
So am I to assume that training using a relatively small number of primarily single-joint “isolation” exercises would be a more productive way to train for muscle hypertrophy? I’m not necessarily interested in improving my metabolic and cardio conditioning.
Andy,
In some cases they might be, but it depends on the exercises, the equipment used, and how they’re performed. I discuss this in the updated and expanded version of High Intensity Workouts which will be out the beginning of December.
Interesting topic here. It does seem to me that working a muscle as directly as possible and without leverage advantage would allow stimulation otherwise not possible. I don’t mean just visible changes. At the same I can see the reasoning behind the great simultaneous stress that exercises like pull downs, leg presses, chest presses, etc. put on the body. I do both. Again an interesting topic. Ever since reading about “direct resistance” many years ago in “The Nautilus Book” I often thought why not just simple movements?
Donnie,
Each has it’s advantages and disadvantages. This is something I will be covering in detail in an upcoming second edition of High Intensity Workouts.
I find myself continually going back to focusing on contraction and focus on intention. Trying to keep in my mind that external tools are there to help me focus on the internal.
I don’t have the equipment to safely perform a barbell bench press, but I can perform a dumbbell bench press and a weighted push up. Which exercise stimulates the chest muscles more effectively? The dumbbells have to constantly be balanced so the weight of them have to be lighter than what my chest can handle, so at first glance I’d assume the weighted push up is more effective. But at the same time I feel that sometimes the muscles involved with keeping my body straight during a push up fail before my chest and triceps do, and so I break form and have to stop…if that makes sense.
Zidan,
Both exercises are effective, but if you are having difficulty maintaining a straight back during push-ups you should stick with dumbbell chest presses and work on your abdominal strength. Planks, which I cover in Project: Kratos, are a good way to improve the strength of all the muscles required to maintain proper body position during push-ups.