Free weight exercise alternatives to popular exercise machines (part 3): chest press

I've got to be honest, I just don't see the point in the chest press machine. This is not just me being anti-machine training, previously in this series of articles I have acknowledged the potential usefulness of both the leg press and the lat pull down machines. Yes... on both occasions I did continue on to say how free weight options are better, but I still confessed that both the leg press and lat pull down could be excused in some circumstances. Not this time! Straight up, if the chest press machine is a regular exercise in your training program it's time for a change!

Swap out: chest press

The chest press machine has two main variations, the seated and the prone. The seated and prone chest press machine both train the same main muscle groups: the chest, shoulders and arms (pectoralis major, anterior deltoid and triceps). Despite being a compound movement (which I like) it fails to deliver any significant stability or core benefits (which I don't like).

I can excuse the use of exercise machines in a training program when they are being used to transition to a free weight movement or in the absence of free weight technique coaching. I simply can't excuse the chest press machine given how simple chest free weight exercise techniques are to develop and how easily the weight can be scaled to be suitable for any body's level of strength. There is simply no excuse not to be doing free weight chest exercises.

Swap in: push up, dumbbell chest press or barbell bench press

The push up, dumbbell chest press and barbell bench press train the same main muscle groups as the chest press machine but have a number of additional benefits making them much more worthwhile. These benefits include:

• greater development of shoulder stability
• greater development of core strength
• more suitable for developing explosive power
• easier to achieve a full range of motion which increases activation of working muscles
• unrestricted movement path which reduces the risk of injury and allows for a more natural motion

Hopefully by article three in this series you are starting to see a pattern. Yes, machine weight exercises do resemble free weight movements but they only look the same on the surface. If you look a little closer you will see that a much wider variety of fitness benefits are achieved from training with free weight exercises. Exercise machines try to imitate free weight movements but unfortunately they miss the mark (by a long way). Swap the chest press machine for a push up, dumbbell chest press or barbell bench press next session - it's worth the switch!

In the next part of this series (part 4) we will look at free weight alternatives for the leg curl & leg extension.

Related articles: Getting back to what works - free weights | Free weight exercise alternatives to popular exercise machines (part 2): lat pull down | David's 5 favourites: exercises

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