So is it weightlifting or bodyweight workouts? well truth to be told the answer is not as simple as you might think.

You probably thought that the answer is obvious, its weightlifting…but that type of thinking is very closed minded thinking.

The fact is THERE IS NO SUPERIOR METHOD, each has its ups and downs.

All Exercise And Equipment Has A Use

First of all I want to make the declaration that each piece of gym equipment and exercise is a means to an end.

If perhaps you want to gain mass and muscular strength you ought to know that there are many different ways to do so, for biceps you could do dumbbell curls or you could do chin ups, every person will respond differently to each exercise.

The two of them are good workouts and as a matter of fact neither of them is superior, the dumbbell curl is an isolation exercise that is better for more advanced people and the chin-up stimulates the back and the forearms as well as the biceps which makes it a compound exercise.

Compound exercises are great for the beginners(or people who took a long break from the gym) to start with and will make you grow a lot quicker, but who am I to tell you how YOUR body will respond, remember that you as a unique individual should find out what works best for YOU.

Push-Ups Vs Bench Press’s

It might seem that the bench press is superior to the push-up but however you would be wrong.

Push-ups allow you to work with your upper back in a way that a bench press wont allow, its possible to harm your back because of a muscle imbalance if your upper back is not very strong.

“The scapula is allowed to go through a full range of motion with push ups, but is constricted in all forms of bench pressing. ” – Zach Dechant a credible writer from elitefts.com

If they are too easy for you for a greater difficulty you can do pushups while wearing a backpack filled up with sand(or something else).

Bench pressing has the mental effect of doing more but there is as much of a difference between pushups and bench presses as there is between working out a home gym and at a paid gym, there are some totally obvious distinctions but the end result is the same. You do almost the same exercises in whichever gym and you promote the same muscles in either chest exercise.

So are push-ups better than bench press’s? absolutely no! neither is better than the other!

Each exercise has its place and you can’t argue about either being ineffective unless of course you have done each of both for at least a year and its still a personal experience for every single one of us.

Weightlifting Workouts

Weights have been around for ages, people young and old have used them for ages, even before gyms were popular.

Its quite possible to accomplish some amazing things with them, I use them myself and there are exercises that are not possible to do without weights.

As far as what kind of weights you use(for those who have no dumbbells) it does not matter, I know a guy who claims that he got big by lifting rocks because he could not afford to go to the gym(true story), though dumbbells are a better idea seeing as they were designed specifically for exercises.

Bodyweight Workouts

I use these types of exercises too, there are certain exercises that you are unable to do with any gym equipment, like the handstand pushups which are a lot more brutal than ordinary pushups.

The special forces are a great example of where dudes use bodyweight workouts, they can’t bring in lots of gym equipment into their own base so they make use of bodyweight exercises and they are definitely not out of shape if you ever met a guy who is in the special forces.

Conclusion

To finish this off I basically want to say that you have the freedom to use any type of workouts, what is important is what your goals and intentions behind them are, because there are many roads to get to your goals and many tools.

It is up to you to choose what to do, you can use free weights or you can do bodyweight exercises, you can also do a combination of both.

Ultimately you should do what works for you, but remember do not close off your mind to new possibilities.

Author Bio: Click here to read more about weightlifting workouts and mass building. Take a look at Alex’s blog, the blog is at hardcorenaturalbodybuildingtips.com Hardcore Natural Bodybuilding Tips Copyright © 2010