Free weights help you build muscle, train for sports, burn calories and tone muscles. Depending on which you use and how you use them, you can use the same free weights to create different workouts. Understanding how to use dumbbells, barbells, kettlebells and other free weights will help you get the most variety out of your equipment.
Free Weights
Free weights are those that are not attached to an object. Machines that use weight stacks and cables, or those with resistance bars or bands, restrict how you can move the weights, limiting the number of exercises you can do. Common free weights include barbells, dumbbells and kettlebells.
Strength Workouts
To build maximum muscle, use free weights at high loads and low volumes. This means heavy weights and fewer repetitions. A classic bodybuilding workout is the Reg Park 5 by 5, performed by doing five sets of five repetitions of an exercise. You start with warmup sets at 60 percent and 80 percent of the maximum weight you can lift, then finish with three sets at 100 percent. Common strength exercises include squats, curls, leg and chest presses, flyes, row, kickbacks, deadlifts and lunges.
Endurance Workouts
If you want muscles for go, rather than just show, use free weights to create muscular endurance workouts. Circuit training is a popular endurance workout, consisting of more reps with lighter weights. You can perform many of the same exercises used for strength workouts --- simply change loads and volumes. Try 10 to 12 reps of an exercise at roughly 50 percent of your max, take a short break, then start a new exercise.
Cardio Workouts
You can use free weights to burn calories with very low loads and high volumes. Use less than 50 percent of the maximum weight you can lift to create exercises that won't fatigue you after a few minutes. The longer you can go, the more calories you burn. Kettlebell swinging and dumbbell circuit workouts are common choices for free weight cardio workouts. Starting in a squatting position, swing the kettlebell between your legs, then up and out in front of you to about shoulder height as you drive with your hips to a standing position to create a high calorie-burning workout. Small-framed beginners can use a nonweighted barbell bar to perform squats, lunges, presses and other exercises for longer periods. Those with more muscular endurance can add light weights to create aerobic workouts.
Core Workouts
A kettlebell is an unstable weight, because the handle creates an uneven distribution of the mass. For this reason, you recruit your core muscles to stabilize your body for many exercises. Swinging is a common kettlebell workout that improves your core while you burn calories. Doing crunches while holding a single weight in your hands helps increase the benefit of ab workouts.
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