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A 49-year-old member asked:

Please answer! what muscles does the machine press work compared to free weight bench press?

1 doctor answer1 doctor weighed in
Dr. Audie Rolnick
42 years experience
See below: if you are using machine for bench press you tend to isolate out several muscles. if you are using free weights, you need many more muscles to stabilize your upper body. therefore you get a more "total body" workout when you use free weights in general.
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Last updated Jul 23, 2016

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