Equipment

What It Is

The kind of resistance you train against, from your own bodyweight to bands, dumbbells, barbells, and machines.

Why It Matters

The equipment you train with may make little to no difference to how much strength and muscle you build. Two meta-analyses comparing free weights with machines found similar growth in muscle size, and similar strength gains when strength was tested on neutral ground, and one comparing elastic bands with weights and machines found similar strength gains. Bodyweight training has the thinnest evidence of the four: small trials in young adults found push-ups (in one, loaded with a band) built bench press strength about as well as the bench press itself, and in one of them chest and triceps muscle too, but the head-to-head evidence is small and mostly limited to that one exercise.

What appears to matter is the effort, not the tool: a push-up, a band, and a dumbbell can all supply the tension that drives adaptation, though with lighter resistance that depends on taking the set close to failure. Two things bend that rule. Strength tends to be specific, so you get strongest on the equipment you trained with, and gains made on a machine show up less on a barbell, and the reverse. And bodyweight has a ceiling you have to work around: once an exercise gets easy it stops being a hard set, which may be why an analysis ranking equipment types in older adults found the smallest average gains with bodyweight programs, though its authors concluded that with adequate loading the choice can come down to preference.

So build your training around the equipment you will actually use, and judge each set by how close it ends to failure rather than by what you lifted. At home, push-ups, pull-ups or rows, split squats, and a dumbbell hinge cover most of the major movement patterns; when a set stops ending near failure, move to a harder variation, work one limb at a time, or add load. If a particular lift matters to you, such as a barbell squat, train that lift, because strength carries over only partly. What protects against sarcopenia and preserves independence is muscle you build and keep over years, and training you can do at home counts toward it.

• Calatayud, J. et al. (2015). Bench press and push-up at comparable levels of muscle activity results in similar strength gains. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. doi.org/10.1519/JSC.0000000000000589
• Kikuchi, N., Nakazato, K. (2017). Low-load bench press and push-up induce similar muscle hypertrophy and strength gain. Journal of Exercise Science & Fitness. doi.org/10.1016/j.jesf.2017.06.003
• Kotarsky, C.J. et al. (2018). Effect of Progressive Calisthenic Push-up Training on Muscle Strength and Thickness. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. doi.org/10.1519/JSC.0000000000002345
• Lopes, J.S.S. et al. (2019). Effects of training with elastic resistance versus conventional resistance on muscular strength: A systematic review and meta-analysis. SAGE Open Medicine. doi.org/10.1177/2050312119831116
• Heidel, K.A. et al. (2022). Machines and free weight exercises: a systematic review and meta-analysis comparing changes in muscle size, strength, and power. The Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness. doi.org/10.23736/S0022-4707.21.12929-9
• Haugen, M.E. et al. (2023). Effect of free-weight vs. machine-based strength training on maximal strength, hypertrophy and jump performance: a systematic review and meta-analysis. BMC Sports Science, Medicine and Rehabilitation. doi.org/10.1186/s13102-023-00713-4
• Wiedenmann, T. et al. (2025). The Effects of Different Resistance Training Modalities on Muscle Strength in Community-Dwelling Older Adults: A Network Meta-Analysis. Gerontology. doi.org/10.1159/000546346
• Currier, B.S. et al. (2026). American College of Sports Medicine Position Stand. Resistance Training Prescription for Muscle Function, Hypertrophy, and Physical Performance in Healthy Adults: An Overview of Reviews. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise. doi.org/10.1249/MSS.0000000000003897