free weights form the core of your workout, but machines can be useful when you want to isolate a specific muscle and give it extra load
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eg. i exercise hamstrings when i do deadlifts, but then i also want to isolate the hamstrings and give them extra work (bc on deadlifts i'm bottlenecked on lower back strength, so hamstrings don't get properly destroyed), so i use the hamstring curl machine
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i also use a pulley for triceps curls, bc i don't enjoy doing triceps curls with a dumbbell (but a dumbbell is perfectly fine for this)
same with pec flies
and i use a pulley for face pulls and lat pushdowns bc it's not clear to me how you'd do that with free weights at all
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actually lat pushdowns is another case of isolating a muscle that gets a workout otherwise anyway, eg with pullups
and face pulls you could probably do with dumbbells if you lie on a tall bench on your stomach
in conclusion, free weights only = probably completely fine
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oh i forgot, if you can't do 5–8 pullups per set for a few sets, it might be better to start on a machine with supported pullups or with lat pulldowns
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that's true
i started with stronglifts 5x5 and just modified it a tiny bit and did that for the first six months at least
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i'm still doing stronglifts 5x5 lol i'm not brave enough to modify it yet, what did you change?
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there's way too many squats and no vertical pull, so i switched the squats in one of the days for lat pulldowns
(there's both horizontal push (bench) and pull (rows) and vertical push (overhead press) but no vertical pull)
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aw but i like squats a lot
and i don't have easy access to lat pulldowns welp
what about pullups? i guess it's not that important
you should probably start hitting a plateau in a few months anyway and then you ideally switch to a more intermediate program
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i do have a pullup bar in the kitchen!
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