Workkin' Out!

[Perry Winkle]

Originally Posted by Sundae Girl

I humbly disagree with Perry Winkle - any workout can equal or surpass any other workout. Whether you use free weights, machines or even to start with just working against your own body weight you can achieve your goals as long as you know what you are doing.

For people doing exercise for fat-loss, general toning, and for improved body look, I agree. If you want to become a high-level athlete, cables and levers are not going to cut it.

I lift for strength and performance and am somewhere between advanced and elite for nearly every aspect of the generally accepted scales. In my experience, you're going to have a hard time reaching or surpassing my level without extensive free-weights training.

That's not to say that you can't reach an elite level of performance in sports like gymnastics, dance and running. You can achieve an insanely high level of virtuosity in some pursuits just through practice. But, you're never going to be able to push a 400 lb. lineman if you aren't heavy into free weights (possibly if only for the fact that machines don't go anywhere near heavy enough).