The RSF weight room can be daunting for a first timer. By first impression it’s a jungle of metal contraptions echoing with the low grunts of athletes hefting iron plates. It seems everyone in there knows what they are doing and they do it all with a hundred plus pounds. It’s hard enough to navigate around scattered dumbbells, misplaced towels, and the trajectories of sweaty bodies, let alone figure out what you want to do and how you’re going to do it. Where do you start?

I wrote an article about why girls (and everyone else) should weight lift, so this post is about how to weight lift if you’re looking to begin somewhere. I’m a beginner myself, so this is what I’ve picked up in my short month-and-a-half of lifting with more experienced friends and some online reading.

Before I took weightlifting a little more seriously, I considered the weight room a playground and lifting a once-a-semester social activity. I’d try out whatever machines caught my eye and didn’t keep track of what muscles I was working or how many repetitions I did as I chatted with my friend. Obviously this is not how you should weight train. The most efficient and rewarding way to weight train is to know what muscles you want to strengthen, what exercises will accomplish that, to weight lift regularly, and to keep track of your progress.

For general strength training, you can pretty much avoid the machines – the best weights are free weights, that is, weights that don’t move along a set track. Lifting free weights like dumbbells, kettle bells, and barbells are more challenging because you must maintain your own stability rather than relying on external support of a chair or wall, as with many movements in real life. This means you’ll be looking for the weight-cages, bench press racks, and dumbbells.

You can also ignore isolation exercises, that is, exercises that focus on one muscle group and one joint, such as the iconic bicep curl. Isolation exercises are good for targeting your weak spots, but the most effective and comprehensive exercises are compound, that is, they involve two or more joints and multiple muscle groups, as does most everyday activity. This includes the classics – squats, bench presses, dead lifts, over head presses, rows, and variations of those movements.

Many people avoid compound free weight exercises because it takes time to learn and perfect the form, but it pays off in major strength gains. Any weightlifting authority will stress the importance of form over weight, so it’s best to perfect your form now when you’re just starting to lift and can’t lift much weight anyways. Here are some form guidelines for basic compound free weight exercises.

The Squat

Squats give you an attractive butt and legs. They work your quadriceps (the front of your thigh), hamstrings (the back), your glutes (your butt), and stabilizing muscles in your torso. Weight can be added with a barbell across your shoulders, dumbbells at your side, or a trap bar.

Basic Form: (Video explanation here) Stand with your feet slightly wider than shoulder width apart, your feet pointing slightly outwards, and your weight resting on your heels. Look up and keep your back straight as you bend your knees in the same direction of your toes until your thighs are parallel to the ground. If done with a barbell the bar should rest on the top of your shoulders your grip on the bar should be even placed. (You can ask the desk for a shoulder pad if the bar hurts because you have no natural padding, like me).

Variations: There are variations in the placement of the bar. For instance, in the front squat the bar is held in front of the body across the chest and puts more emphasis on your quads. There are also variations in the position of your feet. For instance, the split squat is done in a lunge position.

Watch out for: Knee wobbling – when you’re struggling your knees might bend inwards – don’t do this. Keep them in line with your toes pointing slightly outwards.

Also watch out for “butt winking,” a common problem in which the back rounds and the pelvis tucks forward – you know you’re doing a squat right if you feel like you’re flaunting your butt. Booty shorts would be the appropriate attire here.

Bench Press

Bench presses work your chest, shoulders, and triceps. Bench presses are generally done with a barbell, though if the 45 lb bar is too much to begin with or you think your arms are unevenly strong, you can work with a dumbbell in each hand. It’s good to have a gym buddy to spot you on the bench press, rather than do the “roll of shame” if you can’t finish your last repetition (meaning you roll the bar down your body until you can sit up and replace the bar in the rack).

Form: Sit on the bench with your feet evenly placed before you lie down. Keep the majority of your body weight off your butt and on your feet and shoulder blades. Grip the bar evenly and distanced so that your elbows will align vertically with your hands (similar to doing a push-up, just on your back). Lift the bar out of the rack and hold it with your arms outstretched, then lower it straight down, touch your chest (somewhere around your sternum), and lift it back up to your start position – that’s one repetition!

Variations: There are variations with the incline of the bench, and the RSF has flat, inclined, and declined benches which focus the weight on different parts of your chest.

Watch out for: Unevenness of the bar. This means one of your arms is stronger than the other. You could switch to dumbbells to correct this.

Also, look out for bent wrists. Keep your wrists straight so that the weight of the bar rests along the same vertical plane of your arms.

Deadlift

The deadlift is a more challenging exercise, but great for working your back and legs. It’s also maybe the most rewarding exercise, because of all these exercises, your can lift the most weight through a deadlift. You can easily expect to be able to lift more than your own body weight with a deadlift. The deadlift is done with a barbell.

Form: (Video explanation here.) Stand with the bar over the center of your feet, spaced slightly more than hip-width apart. (If the bar is too short you can prop the bar up with plates until you can work with larger weights.) Bend your knees and reach down with your arms vertical to the floor and outside of your knees. Grip the bar evenly with your palms facing you (you can alternate your grip with one palm facing away to keep the bar from slipping if your grip is weak – your grip will be the weak point in this exercise). Lift by straightening your knees and your torso until you’re standing straight – the bar should travel in a straight vertical line. Place back down to complete the repetition.

Variations: There are wider-stance deadlifts that work your inner thighs more and stiff-legged deadlifts that stress the hamstrings.

Watch out for: Jerking the bar – this means your arms aren’t taut before you lift. Also, make sure to keep your back straight and not let your back round (“butt winking” again).

Overhead press

The overhead press works your chest and shoulders (in need of some padding in order to do those barbell squats). These can be done with a barbell or with dumbbells.

Form: Grip the bar (or dumbbells) level with your clavicle and with palms facing outward. Keep your forearms vertical and elbows in front of the weight. As you extend your arms upwards your torso should shift slightly forwards as the bar clears your face.

Variations: The overhead press can be done seated or standing. There are also variations with grip, twisting the torso, and pressing with one arm at a time.

Watch out For: Don’t arch your back as you extend your arms. Arching your back angles your chest upwards so that the motion is similar to a bench press – you want to work your arms and shoulders here, not so much your chest and back.

Now that you have some basic compound free weight exercises to work on, remember that for all these exercises you want to engage your core by keeping it tight, to breathe (exhale as you exert energy), and remember to perform each repetition to the full range of its motion with control. Once you break form, you’re done with your set. Don’t compromise your form to carry more weight.

Happy lifting!

Links:

A Comprehensive, Very Useful and Detailed Directory of Exercises by Muscle Category: http://www.exrx.net/Lists/Directory.html

The Online Version of the Popular Mark Rippetoe Guide “Starting Strength,” a very thorough guide to starting your personal program of weight training: http://startingstrength.wikia.com/wiki/Starting_Strength_Wiki

More on Free Weights: http://www.stumptuous.com/dont-fear-the-free-weights

More on the Importance of Form: http://www.stumptuous.com/worship-at-the-altar-of-the-goddess-of-form

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