Understanding Weight Bench

A weight bench is what you may expect: a sturdy, padded bench that you lie, sit, or kneel on to lift weights. To get the most out of free weights, benches are a must.
Sure, you could lie on the ground and lift free weights, but many exercises come to an abrupt halt when your elbows smack against the floor. As a result, your muscles won’t get a chance to work to their fullest through a full range of motion. (Your elbows may not feel so great, either.) Benches come in a variety of designs. While weight benches come in four different varieties, some benches adjust to serve all four functions.

• Flat: A flat bench looks like a long, narrow piano bench, only with padding and metal legs.
• Vertical: A vertical bench looks like a formal chair — with the seat back straight up. You wouldn’t want to sit in one of these at the dinner table, but they’re quite comfortable for weight lifting. The back support prevents you from straining your lower back muscles during exercises that you perform while sitting up. The dumbbell shoulder pressuses this type of bench.
• Incline: The seat back of an incline bench adjusts so you can lie flat, sit up straight, or position yourself at any angle in between. (The angle you choose determines which muscles are emphasized.)
• Decline: A decline bench slopes downward so you’re lying with your legs higher than your head. Weight lifters primarily use a decline bench to strengthen the lower portion of the chest muscles. Most lifters don’t do much decline work because getting in and out of the position is awkward, especially when you’re holding weights. Keep in mind that you should always use a spotter if you feel that you need extra assistance.

How to choose barbell bars?

Like dumbbells, barbells, also called bars, come in a variety of designs. The most popular model is a straight bar. At most gyms, these bars weigh 45 pounds and are 6 or 7 feet long. (However, many gyms have bars in a variety of weights, sometimes as light as 15 or 20 pounds. If you’re not sure how much a bar weighs, be sure to check with a staff member.) If you want to lift more than 45 pounds, as most people eventually do, you choose from an array of round plates weighing 11⁄4 to 45 pounds and slide them on either end of the bar.

(The plates have a hole in the center.) For example, if you want to lift 75 pounds, you slide a 10-pound plate and a 5-pound plate on each end of the bar. Some plates have additional holes cut in either side to make them easier to pick up and carry; the holes function like built-in luggage handles. These plates are a brilliant invention and have probably helped prevent many accidents and backaches.

Be sure to use collars at the gym and at home. Collars, cliplike or screwlike devices, temporarily secure weight plates on the bars. The collars prevent the plates from rattling around or sliding off the bar as you push or pull the barbell. Mirrors have shattered from runaway weight plates. Some health clubs require that you use collars. In addition to straight bars, most health clubs and equipment dealers have a number of exotic-looking bars with various twists and bends in them.

The most common is a W-shaped bar about 3 feet long called the EZ-Curl, which is designed to make certain triceps exercises more comfortable. Some gyms and equipment stores also have an array of straight and EZ-Curl bars with weight plates welded to the ends. These barbells are convenient to use because you don’t have to slide weight plates on and off. If you want to switch from 75 pounds to 85 pounds, you simply put the 75-pounder back on the rack and pick up the 85-pounder. No muss, no fuss. These welded bars are often shorter and less bulky than the traditional bars, so they’re more comfortable for many arm and shoulder exercises.

However, you typically won’t find these fixed-weight barbells weighing more than 150 pounds. For many barbell exercises — particularly certain chest and leg exercises — you may need a lot more weight than 150 pounds. With traditional bars, you can pile on up to 600 pounds (not that we expect you to do this right away). Some dumbbell exercises just don’t feel as good as when you use barbells. Any seasoned lifter can tell you that nothing is quite like doing the bench press —the quintessential meat-and-potatoes chest exercise. Many lifters gain a great sense of satisfaction from being able to press so much weight. Even though the dumbbell chest press is a perfectly good exercise, it may not deliver quite the same amount of satisfaction (probably because you can’t lift as much total weight).

For example, if you can do the dumbbell chest press with a 20-pound dumbbell in each hand, chances are good that you can lift at least a 60-pound barbell because your weaker side always limits you, and it’s more difficult to coordinate moving two separate units, instead of one single barbell.

Choosing dumbbells

Dumbbells come in pairs, and at most health clubs, they’re lined up on a rack from lightest (as light as 1 pound) to heaviest (upward of 180 pounds). By the way, the super heavy dumbbells are mostly for show, considering that about .0000001 percent of the population is capable of lifting them. Dumbbells come in many shapes and materials. Some have hexagonal ends so they don’t roll around the floor. Others have contoured handles so they fit more comfortably in your hand. Dumbbells are made of shiny chrome and gray steel. Others have rubber coating, so if some yahoo drops them, the weights won’t dig a hole in the floor the size of Australia.

Dumbbells allow each arm to work independently. If one side of your body is stronger than the other — a common phenomenon — this imbalance is apparent when you’re working with dumbbells. Your weaker arm may start wobbling or may poop out sooner than your dominant arm. Using dumbbells helps correct strength imbalances because each side of your body is forced to carry its own weight, so to speak. By contrast, if you use a bar, your stronger side may simply pick up the slack for your weaker side.

Several good reasons to use dumbbells and barbells

A friend of ours was lying on a weight bench holding two dumbbells over his head when his cat hopped on the bench. While trying to shoo the cat away by squirming around, our friend kept the weights overhead for so long that he tore a rotator cuff muscle. The point of this story isn’t to scare you away from using free weights. In fact, the best approach to strength training combines free weights and machines. Just know that barbells and dumbbells require plenty of concentration. If you follow the safety tips free weight training is perfectly safe. Here are several good reasons to use dumbbells and barbells:

• Free weights are versatile. With barbells and dumbbells, you can do literally hundreds of exercises that work virtually every muscle group in your body. Most weight machines, on the other hand, are designed to perform only one or two exercises.
• Free weights give your muscles more freedom to move. Suppose that you’re lying on a bench pushing a barbell above your chest. You can press the weight straight up over your chest, or you can move your arms a few inches back so you’re pressing directly above your neck. Or you can position your arms anywhere between. All these movements are perfectly legitimate ways of doing the exercise and working your pecs, and some motions may feel more comfortable to your body than others.
• Free weights involve several muscle groups at once. For example, chest press movements work your chest, shoulders, and triceps. However, when you perform these movements with a barbell, you also call on your abdominal and lower back muscles to keep your body still and to keep the bar balanced as you press the weight up. With the equivalent weight machine, you don’t have to worry about holding the bar still, so your abdominal and back muscles don’t get much work.

Understanding Weight Training Equipment

The most intimidating thing about weight training is the equipment. You can examine a weight machine for half an hour —looking it up and down, walking circles around it, touching it, prodding it, even reading the instructional plaque posted on the frame — and still have absolutely no clue where to sit, which lever to push, or what possible benefit you derive from using it. Heck, even a simple metal bar sitting on a rack can leave you scratching your head.
Handling the bewildering nature of weight equipment consists of two points.

• First, relax. With a bit of practice, weight training contraptions are actually easy to operate.
• Second, be happy that you decided to take up weight lifting in the 21st century. Back in the 1800s, fitness enthusiasts lifted furniture, boulders —even cows! Although we personally have never tried hoisting farm animals over our heads, we feel confident that today’s weight training devices are a major improvement.

In this chapter, you discover the basic strength-building tools found in health clubs and home equipment stores. You also receive a detailed account of the pros and cons of each equipment category:

• Free weights (dumbbells and barbells)
• Machines
• Rubber exercise bands and tubes

And, with a little guidance, you decide which type of equipment is right for you. This chapter also reveals the answers to the big questions:

• Should beginners stick to machines?
• Do barbells build bigger muscles?
• Can you get strong without using any equipment at all?

How to Analyze your workout log?

Your journal gives you positive reinforcement no matter how often you choose to record your information. Watching your progress over time also gives you a big boost. If two months ago you could barely eke out 10 repetitions with 30 pounds on the leg extension machine and now you can easily perform 10 reps with 50 pounds, you know you’ve accomplished something. Not only does a diary keep you motivated, but also recording your workouts helps achieve better results. If you’re dedicating plenty of time to your weight training but aren’t getting stronger or more toned, your workout diary may offer clues as to why you’re not seeing results. Scrutinize your diary and ask yourself the following questions:

• Am I getting enough rest? Maybe you’ve been lifting weights every other day, but your body actually needs two rest days between workouts. An extra day of rest may give you more oomph when you lift.
• Am I working each muscle group hard enough? Your log may indicate that you’ve been neglecting a particular muscle group. Maybe you’re averaging only four sets per workout for your legs compared to six or seven sets for your other body parts. Perhaps that’s the reason your leg strength seems to be lagging.
• Am I getting enough variety in my workout? When you flip through your diary, maybe you see the words biceps curl three times a week for the past three months, but you rarely see any other arm exercise. Maybe you’ve fallen into a rut. Add new exercises or vary the number of sets and repetitions you’ve been doing. Or mix up the order of your exercises.
• Am I lifting enough weight? Maybe you never write down the words “tough workout.” Perhaps picking up the 10-pound dumbbells for your biceps curls has become such a habit that you forgot to notice that those 10-pounders now feel light.
• Am I doing my cardiovascular exercise before my weights or after? Maybe you’ve been stairclimbing for 30 minutes before your weight sessions — and, therefore, are pooped out before you even lift a single weight.

How to Record information in your log?

Some people benefit so much from recording their weight routines (and cardiovascular workouts) that they jot down information daily. Other people find the paperwork annoying and prefer to keep a log for, say, one week every couple of months as a reality check. No matter how often you use your log, jotting down many or all the following details is a good idea:

• Your goals: At the start of each week, jot down specific workout goals such as, “Push extra hard on back and biceps,” or “complete eight push-ups.”
• The name of each exercise: We’re talking specifics. Don’t just write “chest”; write “incline chest fly” or “vertical chest press.” This way, you know whether you’re getting enough variety. Plus, you’re forced to know the name of each exercise. We know people who’ve worked out for years and still refer to the dumbbell shoulder press as “that one where you push the dumbbells up.”
• Sets, reps, and weight: Note how many repetitions you performed and how much weight you lifted for each set. Suppose that you did three sets of leg curls — first 12 reps with 30 pounds, and then 10 reps with 40 pounds, and then 7 reps with 50 pounds. You can note this by writing “3” in the set column, “12, 10, 7” in the reps column, and “30, 40, 50” in the weight column.
• How you’re feeling: We’re not asking you to pour out your emotions like a guest on Oprah. Just jot down a few words about whether you felt energetic, tired, motivated, and so on. Did you take it easy, or did you act as if you were in Basic Training?
• Your cardio routine: Record how much cardiovascular exercise you did — whether it was a half an hour walking on the treadmill at 4 miles per hour or 15 minutes on the stairclimber at level 6. Also, note whether you did your cardio workout before or after you lifted weights.
• Your flexibility routine: Record the amount of stretching time and how your stretches felt. If you’re feeling ambitious, you can record the names of the stretches or come up with names for your standard stretching routines.