Most pieces of gym equipment cater for working only one or two muscles at a time. What has this got to do with losing weight or shaping the body? The downside to fancy machines you can find in any gym is that they burn fewer calories and work the body less than doing the same movement with free weights and other equipment that allows you to move in a three-dimensional plane. This is because more muscles are required to do the same movement without machines and the more muscles you can work at once the greater the calorie demand you will have.

Also training with machines that isolate body parts can make the body imbalanced in strength leading to postural problems and eventually injury. Performing multi joint exercises like squats and rows correctly without gym machines have the best carryover effect and can help you in work, sports and many of life’s tasks.

Finally and best of all, the more movements you can do without machines the more your core muscles have to work.