Free weights are an incredible tool in the fitness arsenal. Unlike weight machines, they can be adapted easily to meet the needs of anyone who uses them. The same dumbbell can be used for lunges and shoulder presses, for bench presses and for rows, for calf raises and shoulder shrugs; free weights are simply versatile.
On top of that, they can target multiple muscles at the same time through the activation of what have been called accessory or auxiliary muscles. This phrase refers to muscles used in an exercise meant to target other muscles, such as a bench press exercise engaging the triceps as well.
However, exercising with free weights has a higher chance of going wrong compared to exercising with machines. There are safety features on machines, like guided paths of motion and guards that can catch the weight if necessary; on free weights, there are no such features. You are the safety measures.
As a Physical Therapist, I encourage people to get exercise any way they can, and with the right training and a couple of free weights, there are thousands of effective exercises that can be done nearly anywhere. So, to give a little bit of motivation and information, here are some simple Do’s and Don’ts to using free weights!
Do Learn Proper Form
I have a nephew that plays for a high-school football team that does regular team lifting. He relayed to me that their coach taught them new exercises that they can do with free weights, showing them the proper form required to do these new exercises.
The trick? His coach used a PVC pipe to teach them. If you don’t know, a PVC pipe is a hollow plastic pipe that weighs next to nothing, but can be about the same thickness as a dumbbell handle or other freeweight. The coach made every participant in the workout use PVC pipe to practice the correct technique for a full day before the players were allowed to use actual weights.
Now, my nephew was initially embarrassed at the thought of using a near-weightless pipe as exercise equipment, but he learned quickly that it was really good at learning the proper form to use while exercising with free weights.
You may not have PVC pipe, but you still can learn the proper form of an exercise before attempting it. Do the motion of the exercise using a can of beans, water bottles, or even your imagination before attempting it with an actual weight, and when you do attempt the exercise, do so with a light free weight, so as to not strain yourself.
Improper form doesn’t just hurt your body, but it also makes exercise less effective. You’ll waste time and energy endangering yourself if you do not learn proper form. YouTube and other resources are available to help you! So, Do Learn Proper Form!
Do Warm-Up and Cool-Down
Learning how to warm-up your muscles before exercise is generally a good idea, but it becomes more important when free weights are involved. As I mentioned earlier, more muscle groups are involved when using free weights, and sometimes, you might not think to warm these muscles up when planning a workout.
According to the National Health Service, warming-up before exercise not only helps prevent injury, but it also “primes the connections between your nerves and muscles, which improves the efficiency of movement.”
Warming-up can be done by simply mirroring without weights the movements you will do in the exercises with weights. It can also be done by doing things like jogging in place, jumping jacks, arm swings, lunges, and squats.
Cooling down is a great way to help your muscles begin the process of recovery on a good note by allowing your muscles to slowly become relaxed. Cooling down can mean lightly doing the exercises you’ve done earlier, gently stretching muscle groups, or doing a light jog or walk.
Don’t Do Sudden Movements
Although we aren’t characters in a monster movie, we still shouldn’t make any… sudden… movements… while exercising. If you are doing a bicep curl, do it slowly. If you are doing a lunge, do it slowly. If you are doing a tricep extension, do it slowly. If you are doing literally any exercise–free weight or not–do it slowly.
Injury risks shoot through the moon when sudden movements are involved, and people using free weights are particularly prone to moving too quickly. It can sprain joints, tear muscles, and cause severe back pain (even if the exercise isn’t for your back).
Moving slowly through an exercise is hard. That’s what makes it good for you. Take your time with your motions, and move deliberately. This increases the time your muscles have to work, and eliminates any momentum you might gain while swinging the weights around. Most free weight exercises are done with all parts of the body in a fixed position, except for the part that is doing the exercise. Sudden movements can tug on the fixed portions of your body, like your spine, shoulders, hips, and knees, and add unexpected tension to these areas.
Does this mean you have to use lighter weights? Maybe. Does it mean that you will see better results and have safer workouts? Absolutely.
Don’t Ego Lift
This is a hard one for so many people. Ego lifting happens when someone is lifting to show off rather than work out, often picking weights that are far too heavy for their exercise in order to show how strong they may be. Ego lifting is dangerous for all exercises, just like sudden movements, but with free weights, they make everything worse.
For starters, ego lifting inspires people to lift way more than they can. For machine lifting, this just means an ineffective exercise with a slightly larger risk of injury. For free weights, on the other hand, this can mean ruining your body for the sake of your pride.
Deadlifts are a popular free weight exercise that involves grabbing weight on the ground and, well, lifting it straight up. It is meant to be done with the legs, but if the weight is too heavy, people start lifting with their back. Ego lifting can take someone whose personal record deadlift is 200 pounds and tell them to add on another 20,30,40 pounds to that. Then, that person feels the burn in their legs, realizes they can’t lift up with good form, and tries to lift essentially with their spine. This is how people end up slipping disks and pinching nerves.
Now, are you a bad person for wanting to push yourself in the gym? No. However, you’re also not a bad person if you stay safe, and focus on getting the most out of your exercise, and not on telling your friends your new record.
Finally, Do Enjoy Your Workouts
I don’t want to scare people away from using free weights. Most of my favorite exercises are done with free weights, and I’d hate to be the person that keeps you from enjoying a workout. That being said, I’d hate for people to not get the most out of their workout, and I’d hate even more if people got hurt exercising.
Free weights can be the biggest and best friend to people wanting to exercise. The simplicity of their design (i.e., they’re just heavy things to hold) opens up a world of possibilities, allowing whatever exercise you want to do to be done effectively. Free weights can target the core, arms, legs, and back all in the same exercise, making them perfect for full-body activities. Beyond that, they can just be held while doing other activities, like stationary biking, jogging, walking, and even swimming, all to great effect.
So, what’s the lesson here? Be safe, be smart, and be active!
