Bodyweight Exercises VS Gym Machines: Which Are Better?

When it is time to get back into shape, burn off those pounds that accumulated over vacation or build muscle for the beach, most people think about going to the gym and using gym machines. After all, when you walk into your local gym and see all the shiny equipment, it is impressive. How could you not get fit, burn fat and build muscle?

However, in my opinion, bodyweight exercises are a better choice for your fitness, fat loss and physique building needs. You not only build an attractively muscular body, but you improve real world performance with physical abilities you can use outside the gym. Plus, you can avoid those high gym fees!

Gym Machines Are Useful For A Busy Gym Business, Not Necessarily Your Fitness

While the fitness industry wants you to believe gyms are set up to help you get fit, the truth is, a gym is a business. And businesses want to make money. (And frankly, I don’t find anything wrong with that).

But what happens is, decisions are made based on how much money they can make, not how helpful they are. And using machines are a perfect fit.

Set up a series of machines and have the gym members go through the circuit like an assembly line and they will be improved at the end. Sounds great, but it is not the best way to train… even if it allows the gym to increase its membership.

Gym Machines Improve Your Performance In The Gym, And Do Little For REAL World Performance Improvement

When you exercise and train, your body makes changes due to the stress placed on it. It will build muscle, burn fat, improve cardiovascular function, etc. so you are better prepared for the activity in the future. But here is the thing. The improvements your body makes are specific to the activity. So, when you train on machines in the gym, your body gets better at training on machines in the gym.

In the real world you are not strapped into a machine and asked to perform reps of a movement foreign to natural movement. From a performance standpoint, bodyweight exercises are a better choice for performance improvements you can actually use. And the physical improvements are just as visible.

Bodyweight Exercise Train Your Body In The Way It Naturally Moves, Unlike Gym Machines

When you use your own bodyweight for resistance, you are training yourself to perform better in the real world. After all, exercise is about movement… not muscles. And when you use bodyweight exercises, you are training your body to move better.

And isn’t that really the point. Don’t you want to perform better in your daily activities as well as look better? I sure do.

When you want to get fit, burn fat and build a strong, attractive body, don’t immediately run off to the gym. Use the gym you were born with by exercising with bodyweight only movements and calisthenics. You’ll find you perform better, feel better and look better than if you used all those shiny, chrome machines..

So, when choosing between gym or no gym… go gymless!