Random Fitness Questions

Met a polish guy today who was just back from underground gym secret knock job , anyways we got chatting about fitness and stuff he used to be a personal trainer in Poland .
In summary
He reckons you can't get big or muscular at home with a barbell and dumbells you need machines , loads of machine to isolate muscles lift really heavy and eat 6 chicken breasts a day .
Don't do deadlifts at all - risk/reward with injury is just not worth it .
Don't squat - use leg press machine .
Basically without machines you'll never progress and only lift 3 days a week .
Is that all bro science or has he a point . I don't necessarily want to get big but is it possible to make the same gains at home as someone in gym , if you have barbell and dumbells ?

The way it's presented there it's not "true" in the strict sense.

There's no reason you can't get big with no machines and a home set-up, particularly if you have access to a barbell, bench and rack as well as dumbbells.

The claim about strength doesn't really make much sense, I'm not sure how someone who trains only on machines could definitively be determined to be "stronger". What, we have a leg press competition? Maybe, stranger things have happened.

But if you take some of his claims then if they were coached in a different way they are not total nonsense.

If your goal was purely hypertrophy, and in particular if you wanted to train using some bodybuilding approaches machines do make a lot of sense as a big chunk of your training.

If doing rest/pause or anything involving real blood or guts failure then there are a lot of times a machine could work better than a barbell, and be safer. There's some lower body movements you would have to have them to do real rest/pause work.

If you're doing drop sets they're much handier than free weights. Even without a partner, particularly on a selectorised machine.

For forced reps you need machines and a partner to train the way some pro bodybuilders do. If you look at videos of Dorian Yates training people this gives you an absolute masterclass in what this looks like.

It is hard to find free weight alternatives to particular machines like leg curls, leg extensions and hack squats that allow you to do a lot of volume for leg size without beating up your lower back. If you're training purely for size you will still do your free weight lifts but when you're doing squatting and so you would then go and still do a **** load of volume on the lower body machines. At home you can do single leg exercises and things but it's not the same.

Probably the most controversial thing I'll say, but a lot of bodybuilders are probably right that if someone's sole goal is hypertrophy and overall size then depending on their body type and limb lengths they might be better served by not squatting, deadlifting etc and instead find movements that allow them to really train particular muscles in a meaningful, heavy way, with proper mind-muscle connection. Leg presses, hack squat, leg extension, leg curl and calf raises have developed a lot of big legs for people who may or may not also use a barbell.

With regards to the comments about deadlifting and the risk-reward ratio... Yeah, I personally don't buy into this idea but to be honest if I could never deadlift off the floor again and I could only do RDL, stiff legged deadlift, leg curl etc. and various exercises for back thickness then I doubt I'd lose any size (if that was the only concern).

As for leg press versus squat... Again, wouldn't be for me, I see no reason it is either / or.

I guess finally what I will say is that if there is a focus on hypertrophy / size then maybe the new conventional wisdom that compound barbell movements are the be-all and end-all have become the "bro science" of today. And I say that as a mainly barbell guy. So many people with poor leverages will be doing high bar squats or front squats until the cows come home thinking they are building their quads when really the machines they like to laugh at, like the leg extension, might be just what they need a little of...