How more efficient is the chest press with a bar than the machine?

[JEDI]

When i use the machine, i can press my body weight.

using the bar, i'm only willing to only do 2/3 my body wieght for fear of not being able to get the bar back on the rack. i goto the gym alone, and feel uncomfortable asking someone to spot me.

how much more efficiant is using the bar vs the machine?

Edit:
And WHY is it more efficient?

are 45lb plates high enough so that i can slide under the bar and do chest press while lying on the floor?

 

[Howard]

Efficient in terms of what? Strength development? Significantly.

 

[JEDI]

Originally posted by: Howard
Efficient in terms of what? Strength development? Significantly.

Why is the bar more efficient?

 

[SociallyChallenged]

Originally posted by: JEDI

Originally posted by: Howard
Efficient in terms of what? Strength development? Significantly.

Why is the bar more efficient?

Well, it involves stabilizer muscles that are important in everyday life. Doing this creates a more functional motion. Also, if you use the machine, it's more isolatory of the main muscles. That increases your chance of injury due to imbalances in your body.

It may be unnerving to ask for a spot, but you don't even need to bench to failure. Learn your limits and get better acquainted with the barbell bench press. It will be worth it and your body will thank you for it.

 

[MotF Bane]

Jedi, I do not believe the 45's would be high enough to lay on the floor, and you would also lose your leg drive while lying on the floor.

 

[mchammer187]

no power rack?

you can essentially do the same thing if you set the safety bars at chest level

 

[IceBergSLiM]

machines are the worst option for everything. Thats a good rule of thumb to follow.

 

[SociallyChallenged]

Originally posted by: IcebergSlim
machines are the worst option for everything. Thats a good rule of thumb to follow.

Unless you're rehabbing an injury so not necessarily everything[/b].

 

[dealmaster00]

Asking for a spot isn't something you should be afraid of. I workout alone too and do it all the time. It's not a big deal and people will gladly help you out.

 

[BeauJangles]

Originally posted by: MotF Bane
Jedi, I do not believe the 45's would be high enough to lay on the floor, and you would also lose your leg drive while lying on the floor.

Not to mention ROM.

 

[BlahBlahYouToo]

use a power rack if u have access to one.

 

[Lamont Burns]

I believe most floor presses are used with dumbells. If you don't have a spotter or don't want to ask, dumbell presses are still better than the smith or hammer machines.

 

[BeauJangles]

Originally posted by: dealmaster00
Asking for a spot isn't something you should be afraid of. I workout alone too and do it all the time. It's not a big deal and people will gladly help you out.

This.

There is nothing wrong with asking for a spot and people will be happy to do it. If you're worried that they'll laugh at you or something, they won't. Most serious lifters would be more than happy to help someone rather than see them hurt themselves and most serious lifters don't give a damn if you're benching 150 lbs or 390 lbs. The only person you should compete with at the gym is yourself.

If some asshole gives you a snide remark about spotting you on a lift he perceives to be light, tell him to go fuck himself. Everybody starts from zero.

 

[IceBergSLiM]

Originally posted by: BeauJangles

Originally posted by: dealmaster00
Asking for a spot isn't something you should be afraid of. I workout alone too and do it all the time. It's not a big deal and people will gladly help you out.

This.

There is nothing wrong with asking for a spot and people will be happy to do it. If you're worried that they'll laugh at you or something, they won't. Most serious lifters would be more than happy to help someone rather than see them hurt themselves and most serious lifters don't give a damn if you're benching 150 lbs or 390 lbs. The only person you should compete with at the gym is yourself.

If some asshole gives you a snide remark about spotting you on a lift he perceives to be light, tell him to go fuck himself. Everybody starts from zero.

Agreed I have 1000x more respect for someone that needs a spot on a 100 lb bench press than the fat guy that spends an hour jumping between 3 different curling machines :roll:

 

[purbeast0]

Originally posted by: IcebergSlim

Originally posted by: BeauJangles

Originally posted by: dealmaster00
Asking for a spot isn't something you should be afraid of. I workout alone too and do it all the time. It's not a big deal and people will gladly help you out.

This.

There is nothing wrong with asking for a spot and people will be happy to do it. If you're worried that they'll laugh at you or something, they won't. Most serious lifters would be more than happy to help someone rather than see them hurt themselves and most serious lifters don't give a damn if you're benching 150 lbs or 390 lbs. The only person you should compete with at the gym is yourself.

If some asshole gives you a snide remark about spotting you on a lift he perceives to be light, tell him to go fuck himself. Everybody starts from zero.

Agreed I have 1000x more respect for someone that needs a spot on a 100 lb bench press than the fat guy that spends an hour jumping between 3 different curling machines :roll:

what about the guy who needs a spot on a 100lb bench press and brings it 4" away from his chest before pushing it back up, needs your assistance on his 3rd rep, and then tells you "5 more" as he pushes that 3rd one up?

 

[darkxshade]

Originally posted by: JEDI

Originally posted by: Howard
Efficient in terms of what? Strength development? Significantly.

Why is the bar more efficient?

When you do assisted machines, your range of motion is limited. That's actually why you can lift more. When you use free weights, you can't lift as much because on top of lifting the actual weights, you have to balance it which also works out your stabilizers. That's why as a beginner, the weights wobble, or sometimes one side goes up more than the other. While fear of dropping the weights contribute to lifting less, it's not the real/actual reason why. Once you get confident with lifting free weights, you will still end up lifting less than you would than with assisted machines.

 

[KingGheedora]

Originally posted by: purbeast0

what about the guy who needs a spot on a 100lb bench press and brings it 4" away from his chest before pushing it back up, needs your assistance on his 3rd rep, and then tells you "5 more" as he pushes that 3rd one up?

lol. This happened a lot at one gym I used to go to, and it annoyed me. If I end up having to try hard to lift the weight while spotting you, better call it a day.

 

[JEDI]

Originally posted by: mchammer187
no power rack?

you can essentially do the same thing if you set the safety bars at chest level

but isnt the powerrack essential the same as the machine?
you have no range of motion. the rack keeps it stable when you push up/come down?

 

[SlitheryDee]

I'd think it's less efficient so far as the amount of energy required to lift a given amount of weight is concerned. That kind of efficiency doesn't matter so much. You WANT resistance and creating it through doing something in a less efficient manner or at a mechanical disadvantage is a perfectly valid way of getting it.

 

[conorvansmack]

Originally posted by: JEDI

Originally posted by: mchammer187
no power rack?

you can essentially do the same thing if you set the safety bars at chest level

but isnt the powerrack essential the same as the machine?
you have no range of motion. the rack keeps it stable when you push up/come down?

No, you might be confusing a power rack with a Smith machine. The safety bars on a power rack will just keep the bar from crushing you if the bar falls. The bar is free to go all over the place. A Smith machine keeps the bar locked in a pre-determined path, which is not good for optimal strength development.

 

[SociallyChallenged]

Originally posted by: conorvansmack

Originally posted by: JEDI

Originally posted by: mchammer187
no power rack?

you can essentially do the same thing if you set the safety bars at chest level

but isnt the powerrack essential the same as the machine?
you have no range of motion. the rack keeps it stable when you push up/come down?

No, you might be confusing a power rack with a Smith machine. The safety bars on a power rack will just keep the bar from crushing you if the bar falls. The bar is free to go all over the place. A Smith machine keeps the bar locked in a pre-determined path, which is not good for optimal strength development.

Depending on your chest height during a lift, seat height, and possible racking spots, this may or may not work, but I would definitely give it a try. It's great if it works out. Sometimes I find that the ~4 in gaps are right in between too high and too low so if you can't touch it to your chest, just ask for a spotter at a normal bench.

 

[conorvansmack]

Exactly. Your best options are to ask for a spot, or lift within your limits until you've built up the strength/confidence to increase the weight. Getting a spotter is the better of the two choices.

 

[brikis98]

Using free weights is superior to machines in the vast majority of cases. Here are a few of the reasons why:

1. Free weights build "functional strength" - strength that transfers well to the real world - much better than machines. This is because free weights force you to balance the weight and your body while machines do all the balancing for you. In the real world, the neuromuscular coordination developed from weightlifting is just as important as the raw strength, and machines only give you one of those. Moreover, many machines focus on isolation exercises and limit ROM, which further ensures that any strength you build on them will transfer very poorly to real life.

2. Free weights tend to produce more rapid gains in size and strength. Free weight exercises usually employ far more muscles, mostly because of the same reasons as mentioned above: the need to balance yourself, compound vs. isolation movements, and longer ROM. People like to talk about free weights engaging more "balancer" or "stabilizer" muscles, but this distinction doesn't exist: free weight exercises use more muscles, period. As anyone who has compared the free weight squat to the leg press knows, balancing a heavy weight on your body is just as difficult as actually moving it. Where the leg press is primarily a quad exercise, the squat works your quads, hamstrings, calves, glutes, lower back, upper back and abs. This makes free weight exercises a better "bang for the buck", producing more strength & size gains for the same amount of time spent exercising.

3. Machines often force the body into a fixed, unnatural movement path. For example, the smith machine only allows the bar to travel perfectly vertically. However, normal human biomechanics do not allow for a perfectly vertical squat or bench press - there should always be a small arch. Doing these exercises in a smith machine virtually ensures that you are going to be using an unnatural and often dangerous motion and really sets you up for injury.

Use free weights. Yes, it takes effort to learn to use them properly, but it is well worth it. And don't be afraid to ask people for a spot - people do it all the time and no one ever minds.