The University of Fitness

Weightlifting 101: Best Tools for the Job

Stepping into the weight room first time can seem a bit daunting. Even if you consider yourself experienced in weight training, it can sometimes be confusing to pick out which tool will best suit your need. There are a bunch of different options out there, so it helps to know the pros and cons of each type of weight to make better decisions during your workout and maximize the effects of your weight training.

Decisions, decisions…

Here are a few basic types of weights:

• Barbells/dumbbells
• Kettlebells
• Bodyweight
• Weight machines
• Odd object weights

BARBELLS/DUMBBELLS: These are the most common weights in the gym, and pretty much the most often used by people who do any sort of weight training, and with good reason.   Using barbells [BBs] or dumbbells [DBs] allows a huge number of exercises targeting any muscle in the body with very precise amounts of weight.

• Pros: BBs and DBs are best suited for muscle growth and strength gains.   Barbells allow you to use the most weight, which allows for the best stimulation of muscles for strength and size gains.  Dumbbells can add another level of benefit, because even though you can’t use as much weight as with barbells, the added challenge of handling dumbbells individually activates more stabilizer muscles than barbells, and may come in handy for working some smaller muscle groups.  They’re also the most easily adjustable weights, and a steady progression of weight is key to gaining strength and muscle.  DBs and BBs are the most versatile tools, and can often be used in lieu of the other tools for other purposes, like conditioning, endurance, or fat loss.
• Cons: BBs require less stabilizing work than DBs and other weightlifting implements overall.  Though muscles can be worked with heavy weights, this type of lifting can sometimes be hard to carry over to real world application, especially if the wrong exercises/movements are being used.  For DBs, the common 5 lb. jumps between weights can be too much of a weight increase, especially for women or when working smaller muscles.

KETTLBELLS: Kettlebell training has become more popular recently in fitness circles, and it deserves the attention. Though it may have seemed like a fad, it is one of the few products that merits the hype it has achieved.  These have been used for ages by the Russians, and we all know those crazy Russians know a thing or two about training.

• Pros: Kettlebells are great for full body work, because many kettlebell exercises are explosive movements that use the body as a whole rather than just a part.  The explosive nature of exercises also creates a high workload for the body in a short time, making KB exercises great for conditioning and fat loss.  They can be used in place of cardio, which keeps workouts more interesting and engaging.  The unique shape of KBs also makes them less balanced in your hand than dumbbells, which works even more stabilizer muscles, imagine doing an exercise with a loaded suitcase, and activates the core.  The use of the full body coupled with the stabilizing function and large range of motion of KBs makes them much more applicable to real world strength than barbells or dumbbells.
• Cons: Kettlebells lose their comparative effectiveness if used as dumbbells/for dumbbell exercises.  They are also less available in commercial gyms, and more expensive to buy for a home gym since they come in set weights and can’t be purchased in variable weight units like adjustable dumbbells.  There is also a higher risk of injury with certain exercises if proper form isn’t observed since the heavy portion of the KB is not as highly controlled as a DB.

BODYWEIGHT: Regardless of where you are working out, you body is always there.  This eliminates the possibility of being limited by resources and, subsequently, allowing yourself to get caught up in excuses not to work out.

• Pros: Aside from convenience and availability, bodyweight exercise uses the whole body as a unit, much like KB training.  Unlike freeweights, using bodyweight never involves sitting down, so more muscles are used as the body is supported in some way off the ground.  Maneuvering yourself in different ways and controlling your body in space also teaches kinesthetic sense, or body control and awareness.  This is a huge benefit in sports and most other real world physical activity.   Bodyweight exercise can work any muscle in the body, requiring at most a sturdy branch and a nice hill, and it also tests your creativity by finding out novel exercises and routines. It’s also perhaps the safest mode of weight training.
• Cons: It’s hard to find fault with bodyweight training.  One of the few drawbacks is that after the initial beginner stage, it may not be challenging enough to increase strength and muscle without adding weight to exercises [like a weighted backpack once regular pullups are easy].

WEIGHT MACHINES: Now entering stormy waters.  Most knowledgeable trainers and coaches won’t even touch weight machines, and for the most part I tend to agree with them.  They aren’t pure evil, however, and we’ll see why.  This time, I’ll switch it up and start with the cons.

• Cons: They work less muscles because all the stabilizing is done for you, you only move the weight in one set path.  The “weight” you use is artificially high because it takes your weaker stabilizing muscles out of the equation.  There is no carryover to the real world, even less that with barbells, because of the grooved single dimension of motion.
• Pros: Cable pulley machines allow freedom in 3 dimensions, so they are exceptions to the above.  Traditional machines can be useful to completely exhaust a muscle – near the end of a workout after it has been already been trained hard by freeweights – to maximize muscle growth.  During a diet when muscles may be weaker, machines can be used safely instead of heavier compound exercises.  [Guys with big egos can't stand using less weight when they're weaker during a diet, and can hurt themselves by trying to lift a weight they can't.]

ODD OBJECTS: This category includes tools most likely not found in your gym.  Odd object training uses often homemade tools that aren’t traditional weights.  Sandbags, sledgehammers, huge tires, weighted sleds, heavy ropes: these are all odd objects.

• Pros: These tools are basically the definition of real world, so no worries about practical carryover there. They’re often much cheaper to buy or assemble than traditional weights.  These tools are FUN, creating a motivation to workout and a high adherence to a program that incorporates them.  They are also good for a variety of functions, such as conditioning, practical strength, and athletic carryover.
• Cons: They take a little extra legwork to track down or put together.  Also, the purposes and exercises for each object may be a little specific, so a combination is necessary since they can’t be the cornerstone of a program.  Sandbags can be messy, you need room to swing around ropes and hammers and push tires and sleds, you may need a tire for sledgehammer swings: means are a limiting factor.

I left a few things out on this list, but most of what you’d use for weight training is here.  You could find a tool for almost any job from the things mentioned above.   A good workout program should use a combination of weights, since using only one will neglect some of the benefits of the others.  A combination of two or more should be used to cancel out the disadvantages of using just one method of training.

Can you think of any other advantages/disadvantages to using the weights mentioned above?  Want to know more about something I may have left out? Share in the comments.