To begin with, the free weights area of a gym can be a slightly daunting place; regardless of whether you’re a gym-goer or a fitness novice. Whether you’re concerned with not being able to perform the exercises correctly, unable to use the equipment correctly, make some free weights area etiquette mistake that you were unaware of, or just not enjoy it. We’ve put this blog together to help you navigate these perils and to ensure you get the most out of your free weights workout.
Getting familiar with all the ins and outs before you hit the free weights area can seriously amp up the fun in your fitness journey, ease those workout jitters, and ensure every session is hitting the mark just right. It helps point you in the right direction and hit those fitness targets.
Free weights have long been a cornerstone of strength training. While gym-goers have a myriad of equipment to choose from, free weights remain one of the most effective and versatile options. This blog explores the benefits of free weight workouts, what they are, and the best exercises to incorporate into your routine.
What Are Free Weights Workouts?
Free weights refer to any kind of weight that isn’t attached to a machine. The most common types include dumbbells, barbells, kettlebells, and medicine balls. Unlike resistance machines, which guide your movements along a fixed path, free weights allow for a full range of motion. This freedom engages more muscles, especially the stabilising muscles that are often neglected in machine-based workouts.
Free weights workouts involve exercises that use these weights to target different muscle groups. These exercises can vary in complexity, from simple bicep curls to compound movements like deadlifts and squats, which work multiple muscle groups simultaneously. Free weights workouts are known for their effectiveness in building muscle mass, enhancing strength, and improving overall fitness.
They also offer a more flexible approach to working out, as they can be used both inside the gym and in the comfort of your own home. Whereas when using fixed weights such as cable machines, weight or exercise machines and resistance bands, your body can often be placed in unnatural or uncomfortable positions. Your training is also often focused on a targeted or isolated area such your legs or arms. Meanwhile, free weights can provide more of an inclusive workout.
Using Free Weights Safely
Ensuring you use free weights safely is an absolute must. If you use them incorrectly, they can cause you significant injuries. Not only will this put the brakes on your exercise regime, making it more difficult to reach your fitness goals. As well as this, using free weights incorrectly can cause you long-term damage, requiring treatment from doctors and physiotherapists.
The Importance of the Correct Free Weights Form
Your ‘form’ is, essentially, your body shape when you’re exercising. Ensuring you hold the correct body shape – or ‘form’ – while exercising is a key part of ensuring that you both get the most out of each exercise you perform, as well as helping ensure you don’t hurt yourself while exercising.
Proper form is always important, but especially so when using free weights, or doing any other type of weight training. This is because your joints and muscles are under significant extra loads, forcing them to work harder.
The two places you should concentrate on initially when looking at your form are your core (abs, glutes and lower back) and your scapula (shoulders). By making sure these are properly engaged when using free weights, you’ll stabilise your body, protect your spine, shoulders and neck.
To help you ensure you use the correct form when using free weights, here are three great hacks to use:
- Practice – Before you start exercising with the weights, first try completing the movement without using any weights. This will help your body get used to the movement before you put it under any extra strain.
- Posture – Between each rep, do a very quick mental scan of your posture, making sure your core is engaged and your shoulders are back. This will help support the movement, making the rep more effective and reducing your risk of injury.
- Control – It’s vital to make sure you maintain control of the movement in each rep. Once you notice that your form is beginning to slip, or that you’re relying on momentum to perform the lift, you’ve reached your limit and you need to stop.
Free Weights vs. Weight Machines
Free weights have plenty of advantages over weight machines. For starters, they are much more flexible. Each weight machine in your local gym usually only works one or two muscle groups, so there are a finite number of exercises you can perform. With free weights, however, there are an almost endless number of exercises you can add to your regime, giving you a true whole-body workout.
Secondly, you can also have free weights at home and they don’t take up much space, so if you don’t fancy going to the gym that day, but still want to work out, you can do so in the comfort of your own home. They’re also fairly inexpensive – you can pick up resistance bands for just a few pounds – and don’t take up much room, so even in the most space-limited of homes you can still enjoy a fulsome exercise regimen.
The Benefits of Free Weights Workouts
There are loads of benefits to incorporating free weights exercises into your work out regime. Here, we’ve pulled together just a few of them.
Functional Strength and Muscle Engagement
One of the key benefits of free weights is that they promote functional strength. This means that the strength gained through free weight exercises translates directly to real-world activities. Whether you’re lifting groceries, playing sports, or simply moving furniture, the muscles you build with free weights help you perform daily tasks more efficiently.
Free weights also engage multiple muscle groups at once. For example, when you perform a dumbbell squat, you’re not only working your quads but also your hamstrings, glutes, and core. This holistic approach to muscle engagement results in a more balanced and functional physique.
Improved Balance and Stability
Because free weights are not fixed in place, your body has to work harder to maintain balance and stability during exercises. This added challenge activates stabiliser muscles that are often underused. Over time, strengthening these muscles can improve your overall balance and coordination, reducing the risk of injuries both in and out of the gym.
For example, performing a lunge with a dumbbell in each hand not only works your legs but also forces your core to stabilise your body. This constant engagement of the core muscles enhances your overall stability and contributes to better posture.
Greater Range of Motion
Free weights allow for a full range of motion, which is essential for flexibility and muscle development. Unlike machines that restrict your movement, free weights let you move naturally, enabling you to achieve a deeper stretch and more complete contraction in your muscles.
A greater range of motion leads to improved joint flexibility, which is crucial for maintaining mobility as you age. Additionally, it allows for more effective muscle growth, as the muscles are worked through their entire length, leading to better overall development.
Versatility and Variety
The versatility of free weights is unmatched. With just a set of dumbbells or a barbell, you can perform hundreds of different exercises targeting every muscle group in your body. This versatility makes free weights ideal for both beginners and advanced athletes, as the same weights can be used for a wide range of exercises.
Moreover, the variety offered by free weights can help prevent workout boredom. You can easily switch up your routine by incorporating different exercises, varying the weight, or adjusting the number of sets and reps. This flexibility keeps your workouts interesting and helps you avoid plateaus in your fitness progress.
Cost-Effectiveness and Accessibility
Free weights are generally more cost-effective than purchasing a variety of resistance machines. A simple set of dumbbells or a barbell can provide you with a complete workout, eliminating the need for expensive gym memberships or elaborate home gym setups.
Additionally, free weights are accessible to everyone, regardless of fitness level. Beginners can start with light weights and gradually increase as they build strength and confidence. Since they don’t require a lot of space, free weights are also perfect for home workouts, making fitness more convenient and accessible.
Customisable Workouts
Free weights offer unparalleled customisation in your workouts. You can easily adjust the intensity of your exercises by changing the weight, increasing or decreasing the number of repetitions, or altering the pace of your movements. This adaptability makes free weights suitable for any fitness goal, whether it’s building muscle, increasing endurance, or burning fat.
For example, if you’re focusing on strength, you might opt for heavier weights and fewer repetitions. On the other hand, if you’re aiming for muscle endurance, you might choose lighter weights with higher reps. This ability to tailor your workout to your specific goals is a significant advantage of free weights.
Enhanced Mental Focus
Using free weights requires a higher level of mental engagement compared to machines. You need to focus on your form, balance, and movement, which helps improve your mind-muscle connection. This connection is crucial for ensuring that you’re targeting the right muscles and maximising the effectiveness of your workout.
Moreover, the concentration required during free weight exercises can lead to a meditative state, where your mind is fully focused on the task at hand. This mental engagement can help reduce stress, improve your mood, and enhance your overall mental wellbeing.
Free Weights Exercises
Check out this great range of free weights workouts that will work your whole body. There’s something here for leg day, arm day and back day; making sure you give yourself a well-rounded workout.
Arms and Shoulders
Shoulder Press
Designed for beginners, this move can be mastered by anyone. Begin by using a small to medium sized medicine ball. Once you’re comfortable you can increase the intensity of your free weights workout by moving onto a heavier medicine ball.
- First, place the ball around an inch away from the central part of your chest.
- Lift your arms to the ceiling, extend the ball overhead and then lower gently back to the starting position.
- Repeat 10-15 reps of three sets.
One Arm Swing
- Using dumbbells this move works on your shoulders, lower back muscles and quadriceps and develops co-ordination and grip strength.
- In the squat position, swing the weight between your legs and quickly drive yourself forward. Then move the dumbbell upwards towards your head and straighten up.
- Repeat and then alternate arms between your 10-15 reps of three sets.
Legs
Single-Leg Hip Bridge
With a medicine ball, we move our focus onto working the legs, glutes and core with the single-leg hip bridge.
- Lie on your back and lengthen your arms out frontwards. Hold the medicine ball with both arms, ensuring your elbows are slightly bent.
- Bend the knees and bring heels to the floor. Engage your core by bringing your right leg to the ceiling and flex your right foot. Remember to keep your knee a little bent.
- Shift your attention to your core and glutes muscles by thrusting your hips into the air. Your weight can be supported by your shoulders and left leg.
- Hold for a single count and then slowly begin returning your body back to the mat.
- Repeat and then alternate arms between your 10-15 reps of three sets.
Core
Barbell Lunge
To assist you in achieving those perfect six-pack abs and developing vital core strength, try out the barbell lunge. Your core will be working twice as hard to keep the spine neutral, due to the position you are holding the bar and weights in.
- Select your desired weight, if you’re unsure start with 5kg on each side until you feel comfortable enough to increase it.
- Place the barbell with the weights across your back. Move forwards with your left foot and step into a lunge. Both legs need to be bent and the back of your knee as close to the floor as possible.
- Lift yourself back up and then repeat 10-15 reps of three sets.
Back
Deadlift
Using a weightless Olympic bar, the deadlift not only concentrates on targeting the back, but also the glutes and hamstrings.
- Stand with feet hip-width apart and place the Olympic bar on the floor.
- While ensuring you are keeping your back flat, chest up and bottom low, firmly grip the bar with the hands. Make sure this is a little wider than the position of the feet.
- Driving with legs, maintain arms straight down, shoulders back and stand up straight. The back needs to remain flat and the bar close to your body.
- Repeat 10-15 reps of three sets.
Glutes
Goblet Squat
This exercise is brilliant for any fitness level and uses dumbbells to focus on targeting your glutes and promoting both thoracic and hip mobility.
- Position yourself with feet set more than shoulder-width apart.
- With both hands, hold the dumbbell in front of your chest. Then sit back into a squat and drive back up and repeat.
- Repeat 10-15 reps of three sets.
Warming up & Cool Down
Warming up before a free weights workout is essential for preparing your body for the physical demands of the exercises. A proper warm-up increases your heart rate, enhances blood flow to your muscles, and raises your body temperature, which helps loosen up the muscles and joints. This process improves muscle elasticity and flexibility, reducing the risk of strains, sprains, and other injuries. Additionally, warming up activates the nervous system, improving your focus and coordination, which is crucial for maintaining proper form and control during free weight exercises.
Cooling down after a free weights workout is equally important, as it helps your body transition from intense activity back to a resting state. Cooling down gradually lowers your heart rate and helps prevent dizziness or lightheadedness that can occur if you stop exercising abruptly. Stretching – or using tools such as a foam roller or Theragun – during the cool-down phase helps to relax and lengthen the muscles that were engaged during your workout, reducing muscle soreness and stiffness. Moreover, cooling down aids in the removal of metabolic waste products – like lactic acid – from the muscles, promoting faster recovery and preparing your body for your next workout session.
Importance of Rest Days
While some of us can be defined as dedicated gym bunnies, others may struggle to find the motivation they need to take regular trips to the gym. Although it’s vital for our overall health and mental wellbeing to remain active and take part in physical activity, it’s equally beneficial to give our bodies the adequate time needed to rest, repair and recover a couple of days a week.
Over-exercising, whether that’s cardio exercise, or using the free weights can put added strain and stress on our bodies. This can then lead to a number of harmful side effects. These include fatigue, loss of appetite, difficulty sleeping, changes in your mood, lowered immunity, decreased performance and a number of other factors.
A number of factors can contribute to the amount of rest time needed. These include age, the number of weekly workouts you do, the intensity of those workouts and your fitness levels. Getting at least eight hours of sleep a night and eating the right foods will also aid in fuelling both your workout and recovery.