What Should Beginners Learn at the Gym, Part 2

Lets talk Equipment

Assuming you read part 1 of this series, you have a big picture perspective of what you are trying to accomplish in the gym when you workout.

Pretending you are my client and we have had that conversation, at this point we need to learn about the different kinds of equipment.

Let’s now learn about the 4 primary means of resistance training.

These are ranked in the relative order I would teach them.

Bodyweight Movements

Bodyweight training was historically referred to as “calisthenics”, and it simply refers to ANY kind of resistance training movement that uses your own bodyweight as the resistance. 

Why should you use your bodyweight? A number of reasons:

1. It’s the most direct way to build muscle. Pushups, dips, pullups, squats, and lunges all train every muscle in your body. Abs can be worked with situps, crunches, and leg raises.

2. It develops kinesthetic awareness-also called special awareness, mastering your bodyweight with basic movement is an excellent way to improve overall athleticism. Moving your center mass is requisite for athleticism.

3. It gives you the strength and muscle base for external loads-Getting strong at bodyweight movements gets you stronger at lifting weights, and vice versa. Rather than think you should do only one or the other, do BOTH and enjoy the synergistic effect. 

4. Exercises can be done almost anywhere-Free weights require a gym of some kind, and machines take up space. With your body though, you are your own machine. So even if you are traveling, or have limited space, you can still perform a bodyweight workout routine and maintain your results

5. Results come FAST-Bodyweight exercises can noticeably improve week to week, and this makes training them very encouraging for new trainees 

Dumbbells

The name “Dumbbell” originates from a practice of removing the bell from large cathedral (church) bells in England hundreds of years ago. Removing the bell would “dumb” the bell.

Bellringers were recognized for immense back and arm development that came from having to manually ring these enormous bells in the large cathedrals. This was done by pulling on ropes attached to the bells. Every day was back and arm day. To practice and develop the strength for this labor, they would practice with “dumbbells”.

Over many years, this name eventually came to refer to any sort of spherical weight that was used for physical resistance training.

Dumbbells in modern times come in every kind of weight, from 1lb all the way up to 200lbs, and they vary in design. Some are solid metal, some are plated together. Some around circular, others are hexagonal.

Dumbbells are extremely versatile, and can in fact be used entirely by themselves to craft a muscular physique.

Dumbbell movements are nearly infinite. While the basic movements are tried and proven, the ways to modify them are too many to count. DBs can be added to bodyweight movements, or DB movements can be changed to target very specific aspects of a muscle. Or they can be done explosively in various ways. DB exercises number in the hundreds.

There are eight DB exercises I consider primary to learn

DB Chest Press
DB Shoulder Press
DB Row
DB Bicep Curl
DB Tricep Extension
DB Lateral Raise
DB Lunges
DB Deadlift

Machines

Machines are often marketed as “state of the art”, but in reality they’ve existed for thousands of years. Various lifting apparatuses have been discovered in many cultures worldwide, from loaded carts, to stones and logs that were meant to be picked up and flipped, to even mechanical machines that could be pressed or picked up.

Modern machines today are simple in what they do: they apply resistance along a specific direction of movement.

Machines can be superior to free weights for specific muscle hypertrophy because they are super stable, directly match a muscles biomechanical function, and allow precise adjustments in setup and in weight progression.

Often times machines are criticized as being inferior to free weights, but this is not true. Machines are MORE effective at building muscle and strength in specific muscles, and the effectiveness of a machine must be considered in the context of how it is used. Thousands of studies have proven the efficacy of machines for muscle building.

Keep in mind that the weight you use on machines does not often directly translate to free weight movements, but at the same time, getting strong on machines WILL get you stronger at free weights, and vice versa.

All tools are equally effective, and the only reason they wouldn’t “work” for building muscle is if they were used improperly. 

Cables

Cables and machines could be considered interchangeable, but cables are worth mentioning. Functional trainers are common in gyms, where two cable pulleys of adjustable heights can be used for a variety of exercises. Cables can be effective because their resistance curves are not variable, the resistance stays the same throughout the entire movement. They use pulley systems versus cams or levers. They are also very stable to use. This makes them an excellent choice for many exercises, but they also must adjusted very specifically so the line of resistance matches the muscle and exercise. Cables are usually popular for things like back exercises, as well as bicep curls and tricep pushdowns. Depending on the equipment you have available, you can train your entire upper body and much of your lower body with cables. Because of the setup though, the full potential of cables is rarely realized.

The Barbell

The Barbell has a special place in the fitness world. The barbell can be loaded to relative “infinity”, and barbell exercises are the typically the heaviest movements people will do (although machines can be comparatively greater).

The advantage to the barbell is that barbell lifts are almost all compound movements, with the load distributed across multiple muscles.

The disadvantage to the barbell is that barbell lifts do NOT work exactly the same person to person. Depending on your height, limb length, torso length, rib cage, pelvis, femur length, you may find that certain lifts work fantastic for you, while others work poorly.

Because of this, two people can do the same barbell exercise, and the effects are not equal.

While the barbell lifts can form the cornerstones of most programs, they are not the “be all end all” answer to everyone’s muscle building desires. Depending on your own anthropometrics (body dimensions) you may be well suited for the barbell lifts, or find that certain lifts do not quite fit your body structure. Regardless, it is good to be at least familiar with the lifts themselves, even if they do not all became a “main” movement in your training.  

Handling the barbell is an excellent way to develop total body strength, and learn technical setup cues that carry over in all other manners of resistance training

What about other Training Implements: SandBags, Kettlebells, Battling Ropes, Suspension Training?

While all those implements can be used in training, none of them are essential. I prefer to teach people the 5 preceding forms of resistance, and learn a repertoire of exercises that dont require specialized equipment.

In the next installment, we will get to foundational movement patterns, and you will learn how to simplify every exercise you see in the gym