 Question is from Jay Kendall 503. Can you build your physique specifically your legs with just free weights? I solely train in my garage with a wide variety of barbells, plates, dumbbells, and a few other non machine items. Are you kidding? Oh, yeah. I mean, nothing's going to build your legs. It's a real question. Nothing's going to build your legs more than those things right there. Doing barbell back squats, front squats, zercher squats, doing Bulgarian split scant, split stance squats with dumbbells, lunges. Stiff legged deadlift, leg of deadlift. Oh my God, yeah. I worked out entirely, exclusively with free weights for 14 years. When I had my wellness studio, I had a cable machine in there that I would use occasionally, but I had a rat. I mean, it was a small studio for personal training clients. So we didn't have tons of equipment. And if you have, you've seen studios like this because really, really good trainers typically don't use a lot of machines. They'll use body weight exercises, maybe physio balls, bands, because the best exercises are not ones that are limited to the shape of a machine because a machine, there's nothing wrong with machines, okay? But one of the big drawbacks to machines is that they're, they're, they're designed for an average person. So someone moves a little differently. They're shorter. They're taller. They don't typically work. Now free weights form to the person. And of course the best exercises that are out there are free weight exercises. And I don't miss machines. If I do use machines, it's because I'm going to a gym and it's something different. Well, that's just the one thing is the education, you know, and like learning the moves. And so it does take a little bit of that. And that's why, you know, trainers are around. And I prefer trainers to stick with free weights, because like people need to learn these things and learn these exercises, how they're going to benefit their body the most. Like machines are pretty straightforward. I mean, they got like three picks and like, you just kind of form your body into some of these, like the leg extension and, you know, like, like leg curl. And so that's probably what I'm just assuming that they're used to those types of, of, you know, equipment and things to use for their legs. But there's a whole host of exercise out there. The truth is, though, and this is the thing why I always try and teach or stress to new beginners is that what makes free weights, the benefits and the results is because it is difficult, because it's difficult to get good at squatting. It's difficult to get good at a deadlift. Like, and it's, it's that because of that is part of why you get such great results. We, now we talk about the, the science and the studies part we'll talk about how much muscle activation and load. And yeah, okay. That's all true too. But really it's, it's the novelty of the exercise. It wants to, it's why when you switch a program or you do something completely different, why the body responds so well. So doing exercises that are really difficult to get well and it takes months and months and sometimes years for people to perfect that your body is adapting and changing that whole process, where get in a leg press machine or get in a leg extension machine and you could take the most novice person and put them in that and within two weeks they get it. You know what I'm saying? It's not like it's difficult for them to do it. Well, that's great. And oh yeah. And for, we can show with Eastern machines how much muscle is being activated and oh, can they do? Yeah, yeah. But there's also something to be said about that that neuromuscular adaptation that happens and occurs that is already, that's pretty much your body's adapted to that part. I just love, it's the barbells and dumbbells are the original first, you know, fitness equipment that was ever invented and used. Until this day, hundreds of years later or a hundred years later, it's still the best. Free weights are still the best. There is no machine that can do what a barbell can do. I literally can take a barbell and I could write down hundreds of exercises that you could do with it. Machines typically do one thing, one exercise or maybe two, a cable even, which has the most versatility of all equipment, still can't match what a barbell, single barbell can do. If you have a home gym and you have a cage, you have a barbell, dumbbells and an adjustable bench, you're done. Like you can do everything with that. You can do almost anything you want and you can develop the most amazing physique ever with just that equipment. In fact, that's what I prefer. That's what I still to this day, majority of my exercises revolve around those pieces of equipment right there. And the cool thing is today, nowadays, equipment, I mean, I talked about this earlier in the intro, at home gym equipment used to be terrible. I mean, your choices when you were, when I was younger, the choices for at home equipment were, you know, sand-filled plastic weights or I had to buy commercial equipment which was super expensive and it took up a ton of space. Nowadays, you have things like companies like PRX, which you got a cage that folds in the wall just as sturdy and good as any commercial equipment. Barbells and dumbbells are really, really good quality. Nowadays, plates are really good quality, adjustable bench are good quality. Boy, you could do a ton. And I'll tell you what, this is the other part. If you ask experienced trainers, coaches and strength coaches, what are the top 10 best, most effective overall muscle building, strength building, just functional strength building? There'll be all barbell dumbbells? Mostly, right? I'm sure there'll be a few machines in there towards the bottom, but at least 70%, if not more, of the equipment that will be listed in that top 10 will consist of something you do with a freeway. So you've got the best exercises at your fingertips. You definitely don't need lots of machines. The only machine I would ever add to a home gym honestly would be a cable, some kind of a cable machine. And why? Because a cable machine is more like freeweights than it is like machines. Because of its versatility, because you're not stuck into a path or a form.