12 Different Types Of Weights (Weight Training Explained) 2024

Different Types Of Free Weights Compared (With Pictures) 

Well how Use Some of the Most Common Free Weights at the Gym

• Dumbbells
• Barbells with Olympic Plates
• Kettlebells
• Medicine Ball
• Slam Ball
• Battle Ropes
• Sled
• Sandbags
• Weight Plates
• Fixed Weight Barbell
• Clubbells
• Weightlifting Chains

Dumbbells

We might like dumbbells best out of all the gym’s tools. Dumbbells are a simple and effective way to add resistance to exercises and movements of all kinds.

They are a good choice for beginners and make it easy to get started.Dumbbells are very useful and can be used in a lot of different ways.

 Dumbbell Friendly Exercises:

You can do a shoulder press with heavy dumbbells or do tone and sculpt workouts with lighter dumbbells, so you’ll never get bored with dumbbells.

The most important thing we can say about using dumbbells is to just do it! Don’t be afraid to pick them up and use them. Second, if you’re not sure, start light.

Many people who have been lifting weights for a long time still choose very light dumbbells to warm up their muscles and get their bodies ready for heavier sets.

You can also use dumbbells on a bench to help support certain exercises like a dumbbell chest press.

Barbells with Olympic Plates

Now that you know how to use dumbbells, you should learn how to use barbells. When compared to dumbbells, barbells are more advanced pieces of weightlifting equipment.

When it comes to how they look, barbells are usually between 2 and 2.2 meters long and have slots at both ends for weight plates.

Weight plates are another kind of weight you can use at the gym. We’ll talk more about them in the next part of this article.

Barbells are better than dumbbells for workouts that require more effort and will help you get stronger as a result.

While the heaviest weight you can lift using dumbbells comes somewhere around 100 pounds, barbells when combined with weight plates, will let you lift technically beyond any limits.

Most barbells weigh around 44 pounds, which can be enough when you’re just getting started. Then, you can add plates to add more weight to what you can lift.

 Barbells Friendly Exercises:

Barbells don’t just come in one shape, either. In addition to straight barbells like standard bars and Olympic bars, the gym has a number of other kinds of bars, including:

 Standard Straight Barbell

This is the regular, straight barbell. This is ideal for bench press, deadlifts and squats.

EZ-Bar

The EZ-bar is basically a type of bar designed predominantly for bicep curls. If you want to focus on your biceps, this will allow for a more natural grip when curling, as opposed to using a straight bar.

It also tends to be much shorter than a regular barbell.

Trap Bar

The trap bar is a variation popular for deadlifting. It puts less pressure on your spine compared to deadlifting with a regular straight bar and many say it is easier for beginners.

Thick Grip Bars

Thick grip bars are thicker than regular barbells. This is useful for those who want to improve their grip strength as they do compound lifts.

Kettlebells

The problem with kettlebells is that some exercises, like the kettlebell swing, really do require perfect form, or else you could hurt yourself.

Also, if you’re buying a kettlebell to use at home, you’ll need to decide what weight to get and if you’d really benefit from having kettlebells of different weights.

Medicine balls

Medicine balls are just weighted balls that are about 13.7 inches in diameter.

Most of the time, they are used to build strength and help people get better.

Most of the time, they are used in sports medicine to help improve muscle coordination and strength.

Medicine balls usually weigh between 2 and 25 pounds, and they are very different from exercise balls, which are usually bigger.

But you can still find medicine balls at many gyms if you aren’t recovering from an injury.

 Medicine balls good exercises are:

You can even get more out of your medicine ball workout by having someone help you.

For instance, you could have someone gently throw the ball to you. Once you get it, you touch the floor with it on both your left and right sides. Then you just throw it back to the person.

You can do this with a friend or with the help of someone at the gym.

Because of this, medicine balls are one of the best ways to meet new people and make friends.

They’re also fun to use and, surprisingly, can give you a great full-body workout.

Slam Ball

Slam balls are a popular piece of functional fitness equipment. You can find them in gyms like CrossFit and 45 Training that do circuit training and at CrossFit events.

Most of the time, they look a lot like medicine balls, but they aren’t meant to bounce.

Because they don’t bounce back, you can “slam” them on the floor, which is a fun and effective way to work out.

 Slam Ball Friendly Exercises:

Battle Ropes

Battle ropes are a fairly new addition to gyms, but if you like functional HIIT workouts, you should definitely use them.

Battle ropes are just thick, heavy ropes that are used to fight. By looping them around a fixed point, you can do many different things.

Even though it might seem easy to shake the rope in a “wave” motion, your shoulders, arms, and back will soon be on fire.

Battle ropes are also often underrated and only used for shoulder or HIIT workouts, but you can get very creative with them and work a lot of different muscle groups. We often use them instead of slam balls because you can “slam” them to the ground and they won’t bounce back up.

Using battle ropes for just a few minutes will surely get your heart rate up and your muscles tired… This is a great piece of equipment to use if you don’t have much time.

 Battle Rope Friendly Exercises:

Sled

To get the most out of a sled, you need some space, which many gyms don’t have. However, this piece of equipment is great for functional workouts, especially for people who want to work their legs without doing common moves like squats or lunges.

A sled can be pulled or pushed… You can also attach a battle rope to it and pull on it while sitting to get a workout for your upper body.

Most sleds let you just put barbell plates on them to change how hard they are.

A lighter sled is better for a workout that focuses more on cardio, while a heavier one requires more strength and power.

 Sled Friendly Exercises:

Sand bags

Cubbells are a common type of free weight, but sandbags are not. Because sandbags have more flexible shapes, they can be used instead of barbells, dumbbells, or weight plates for exercises that use those items.

That means you can use them for a wide range of exercises.

 Sandbags Friendly Exercises:

One of the best things about sandbags is that you can do a lot of different exercises with them.

You can also buy sandbags in a variety of sizes and weights. There are sandbags that weigh as little as 5 kilograms and others that weigh as much as or even more than 40 kilograms.

Weight Plates

Without weight plates, barbells cease to be helpful beyond a certain point. Weight plates are indeed what determine how heavy you lift.

There are basically two types of weight plates. One, standard weight bars that come with a smaller 1-inch diameter hole, enough to fit a standard bar. The other one is Olympic weight plates that are usually bigger and have a bigger 2-inch dia hole to fit Olympic bars.

Although both are technically different, their uses are not differentiated.

Speaking of how to use weight plates for workouts, you can either use them with barbells or even alone.

 Weight plates Friendly Exercises:

Those are the exercises you can do with nothing but your own body weight. But if you use it with barbells, you can do a lot more workouts and pretty much any exercise we’ve talked about for barbells.

Why are weight plates great?

• They are available in many different weights. Most of the time, these plates can weigh anywhere from 2.5 pounds to 45 pounds.
• Also, you can always put together as many weight plates as you want to make them heavier. So, weight plates allow you to lift as much as you want.
• Even less space is needed to store weight plates. You can stack plates on top of each other without taking up much floor space.

Now, let’s look at what it doesn’t do well. Putting weight plates on barbells is hard to put together and even harder to take apart. You might be able to bench 225 pounds or squat 450 pounds one day, but then you’ll have to take all those weight plates apart.

Clubbells

Clubbells, also known as Indian bells, is a type of workout weight that has been used since centuries ago. They are long, cylindrical weights with an arm holder in the top.

Although clubbells saw a dip in popularity in the last century, they are now regaining popularity. The reason, they are excellent for improving strength, stamina, as well as balance along with hand grip.

 Clubbells Friendly Exercises:

Almost all of these exercises are great for your core, shoulders, arms, chest, and even legs.

You can also use clubbells to improve your grip strength. That may be one reason why wrestlers in Asian countries like India still use them.

Weightlifting Chains

Last but not least, we have weightlifting chains that come as rather rough-looking free weight types.

Imagine you are doing triceps dips; while you can not use any other kind of free weights, weightlifting chains might come as a relief.

 Weightlifting Chains Friendly Exercises:

Most weightlifting chains on the market weigh between 28 and 60 pounds. That means they can really make your workouts harder.

But that also means they are not very good for people who are just starting out.

Famous weightlifters like Rock Dwayne Johnson may have used these chains in their workouts. But you won’t be able to use them until you reach that level of skill.