In my opinion one of the things that makes it so hard to figure out who is right is that most of the fitness people are kind of right about building muscle. The basic fact is that you get stronger if you put load on your system. They mostly argue about what is more “efficient”, which depending on the person arguing can mean faster/easier/less effort/safer. And the differences are mostly much smaller than the person who wants your money would like you to believe. But most of the fitness experts never state it clearly in terms of something like "method x will make you grow 5% more muscle per month than method y". So be skeptical.
Machine training can be a good way to build a foundation, because the limited movements make it a bit harder for you to injure yourself. And the biggest problem if you are starting is not which method is 5% faster, but it is injuring yourself and then not being able to do anything for months or for the rest of your life. Injuries are more frequent the weaker you are, since you don’t have the muscles to hold your joints in place properly.
In my opinion one of the things that makes it so hard to figure out who is right is that most of the fitness people are kind of right about building muscle. The basic fact is that you get stronger if you put load on your system. They mostly argue about what is more “efficient”, which depending on the person arguing can mean faster/easier/less effort/safer. And the differences are mostly much smaller than the person who wants your money would like you to believe. But most of the fitness experts never state it clearly in terms of something like "method x will make you grow 5% more muscle per month than method y". So be skeptical.
Machine training can be a good way to build a foundation, because the limited movements make it a bit harder for you to injure yourself. And the biggest problem if you are starting is not which method is 5% faster, but it is injuring yourself and then not being able to do anything for months or for the rest of your life. Injuries are more frequent the weaker you are, since you don’t have the muscles to hold your joints in place properly.