Free-Weights for Beginners

Every gym newie must be acquainted with weightlifting power tools - the free weights. Free weights are bars with weight plates on each end. Barbells have long bars while dumbbells have short bars. To hoist a barbell, it takes two hands while a dumbbell is lifted with one hand. In some cases, you can do some exercises using two hands on a single dumbbell. Both equipments are called free weights because they're not attached to any chains, cables, or weight stacks. You are free to do with them whatever you want, although we recommend using them for strength training.

Most gyms hold a wide array of dumbbells - lined up from lightest, usually 3 pounds, to heaviest, as much as 120 pounds. At larger gyms, you can choose from a selection of bars welded with plates to each end, starting with 20 pounds and increasing in 10-pound increments. Virtually every gym has bars without weight plates on each end. The bar alone usually weighs 45 pounds. To increase the weight, you attach round plates with a hole drilled through the center and secure the plates with clips called collars. An assortment of these weight plates - typically from 2'/2 pounds to 45 pounds - sits on a rack near the bars. If you want to lift 75 pounds, you add a 10-pound plate and a 5-pound plate to each side of the 45-pound bar. After you're finished, be sure to remove these plates and put them back in their proper place. Otherwise, you risk unfriendly stares from the staff and the guy who uses the bar after you.

Free weights pose many uses for the person who loves to work out. A weight machine is designed for one particular motion only while a single pair of dumbbells can be used to perform literally hundreds of exercises. For instance, you can push dumbbells overhead to work your shoulders, press them backward to tone your triceps, or hold one in each hand while you squat to work your thighs and butt muscles. You can change the feel and emphasis of an exercise by simply changing the way you grip the bar or dumbbell.

Another important benefit of free weights is that they work your muscles in a way that closely mimics real-life movements. Machines tend to isolate a particular muscle so that the rest of your muscles don't get any action; free-weight training requires several muscles to move, balance, and steady a weight as you lift and lower it. Free weight exercises allow you to strengthen muscles that wouldn't get much work if you were doing isolation exercises with machines. Some people find that they gain strength and increase in size faster when they do the majority of their exercises with free weights. Finally, you'll never look more impressive than when you're slinging around massive hunks of metal.

However, using free-weights have some draw backs too. For some novices, free-weight exercises are hard to get the hang of. You need more instruction than you do with machines - there are a lot more mistakes to make and injuries to avoid. Also, free-weight exercises require more balance than machine moves. And If you're short on time, a free-weight workout probably will take you longer than a machine workout. Instead of simply putting a pin in a weight stack, you might have to slide weight plates on and off a bar.

And lastly, don't think that barbells and dumbbells are for advanced weight lifters only. Beginners can use 'em, too. However, anyone using free weights needs to be very careful, even with lightweights.