At the gym the other day, I was waiting for a vacant bench to bench press at (my gym has 2). It was taking too long so I decided to use the Hammer Strength iso-chest press instead. I was able to move significantly more weight on that machine than with the free weight version, and personally, I felt more comfortable and safe using it. I'm aware that this is because I don't have to use stabilizers to keep the bar from swaying. This got me to thinking, why do I want my stabilizers to limit my lifts in the first place?
When I'm doing a bench press, I'm looking to work my pecs, anterior delts, and triceps to an extent. All of these muscles are worked with the aforementioned Hammer Strength machine as well. I'm not really trying to work all of those other stabilizers. I usually have a dedicated exercise just for those specific muscles, so that they are hit fully. I understand free weights are more efficient, but are they really giving those stabilizers a full workout?
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