Gym Basics: How to Choose Weight for Any Exercise

If going to the gym intimidates you, my gym basics series will give you some fundamentals to feel confident with resistance training. If you want to know how to choose weights during your own resistance training, read on!

Choosing a weight can be one of the most intimidating tasks when starting a gym habit. What kind of weight should you use? The range of options presented at a large gym can be overwhelming. Or maybe you just have a rack of dumbbells in your apartment gym, or are looking to buy a single pair of dumbbells or kettlebells for your home routine. And finally, when you're just starting, how do you know how much weight to pick up for a leg move versus an arm move, a full body complex versus a single muscle isolation?

When you're just starting out with resistance training, these considerations can be easily overwhelming. Here I will lay it all out, so you can feel confident in your choices.

A big gym can be overwhelming. This photo shows a wide range of fixed and free weights.

So what are the options?

The first step in choosing a weight is identifying your options. Most large gyms will have at least a rack of dumbbells, a cable machine, barbells and free weights, and probably some more specific machines. Maybe they have kettlebells, or fixed weight barbells.

Phew. That is a mouthful. As a fitness professional, all of these options have a place in my heart, and help lend variety to workouts. But as a beginner, it can be confusing, overwhelming, and discouraging.

So let's break it down a little. There are fundamentally two categories: free and fixed weights.

Free Weights

This category includes dumbbells, barbells, and kettlebells. From a functional perspective, these weights are the most useful, because they encourage full body engagement, challenge balance, and allow for plenty of adjustment. But if you're a beginner, these weights can be the most intimidating.

Here are the basics:

Dumbbells may look different, but are fundamentally two equal weight plates or hexagons on a short handle, often used in pairs.

A barbell is a long bar with space for weight plates. The bar itself usually weighs 45 lbs.

Kettlebells (right) and macebells (left, unlikely to see these in a gym). Kettlebells are useful for centering weight or swinging movements.

There are more options, but these are the most common, and the weights that I use in all of my programming. While there are differences, you can use these weights interchangeably. This is helpful if you go to the gym at a busy time, since no matter what, you will be able to find a weight to complete your workout.

Fixed Weights

Fixed weights are just what they sound like: weights fixed in place. You've seen these in your gym. The weights themselves are fixed in place, and you change them out by simply moving a pin, pushing a button, or making some other simple adjustment.

These are a couple of examples of fixed weight machines. Most machines have a seat, a stack of adjustable weights, and a moving component with a place for hands or feet to grab, push, or pull.

There are as many fixed weight machines as there are ways to move the body, but I will just cover the cable machine here, as each machine in a commercial gym will have its own instructions posted somewhere on the machine itself, and there are so many varieties and options that it would no longer be a "basics" article if I tried to delve into them all.

Cable machines will look something like this, with a stack of weight plates and a cable system with a carabiner or clip to change out the various handles you can attach. This one has 4 work stations, but some cable machines have just two stacks of weights and space for one person to work.

As I said before, I do not usually program a lot of fixed weight work when I'm working with clients or training myself. From a functional viewpoint, fixed weights have a lot of limitations. If you are trying to build muscle for aesthetic reasons, or increase strength, fixed weights can be useful, as they isolate muscles or groups of muscles very well. They can also be helpful if you are worried about injury. It can feel safer to have those limitations, and easier to let the machines guide your workout.

If you are going to a gym with a lot of fixed weights options and want to use them, simply read the labels on the side. This will give you a really good idea of proper form. Furthermore, internet searching the name of the machine will also bring up plenty of video tutorials as well, if seeing the machine in motion is helpful to you.

A cable machine is the most complex, simply because it is built to accommodate more than one or two movements. Virtually any movement you do with a machine can be completed on a cable machine, so if you are looking into building a serious home gym, a set of free weights and a cable machine will get you a long way.

How much should I be lifting?

Now that you know what you are lifting, whether it is a free or fixed weight, how do you know how much to lift?

This is one of the toughest skills to develop, even for a fitness professional and personal trainer. The good thing: it doesn't really matter.

Allow me to repeat.

It doesn't really matter.

So throw out pre-conceived notions about finding the perfect weight, about how strong you should be, about what weight that fitspo influencer you love, or Arnold Schwarzenegger, or Marilyn Monroe are lifting. None of it matters to you or your body.

For some movements, your bodyweight is enough, especially with a new movement or a full body complex movement.

The truth is, some clients I've worked with struggle with a single 8lb. dumbbell, and some can throw around a couple of 30lb. weights without even feeling challenged. There is a lot that goes into it: occupation; sex; age; lifestyle; medical, athletic, and injury history. It is complicated.

Therefore, allow me to make it simple.

Lift what feels heavy, but manageable.

Start at the lightest weight on the machine, dumbbell rack, or if you're confident you can manage a barbell, the empty barbell. Complete one rep of the motion. Stop.

How did that feel?

If it felt almost comically easy, if it felt like you could throw the weight across the room, or it didn't even feel like you were weighted at all, skip up a couple of sets of weight. For example, if you started with a 5lb set of dumbbells, go on up to 15.

If it just felt easy, maybe bump up another 5 lbs. and start your working sets.

If it felt a little hard, stay there and move into your working sets, being mindful that when your form begins to suffer, even if you haven't "completed" your set, you should stop.

If it felt impossibly hard, put down the weight and just do some bodyweight work. After a couple of weeks of bodyweight foundations, you will be able to move into weighted resistance training.

When you are starting, lighter with more control is better. You can push your limits with weight once you are confident in form and range of motion for your own body.

Lighter weights with more control is best for beginners.

You want to feel in control with weights as a beginner. If that means you are working with a 5lb. dumbbell, that's great. That is the perfect weight for you.

That said, always be sure you are working hard and feeling challenged. In the beginning, the challenge is just getting to the gym and getting in a workout. The weights are not as important. What is important is that you keep coming back.

Working hard and feeling challenged does not have to be about the weight you are using. Sometimes just going to the gym is the challenge. Sometimes just learning a new movement and getting comfortable with it is the challenge. And once you have a routine and confidence, than weights can become the challenge.

Now what?

In this series, I am going to cover some basic movements in depth so you can get started building a workout routine. You don't need to have a personal trainer (although it helps) or an expensive workout program. You can build a simple workout plan for yourself, and see results with consistency.

Now you know how to choose the right weight, but what are the right movements, and how often, and how long? Follow along and I'll go through the basics of building a workout plan, working out with good form, and figuring out how to meet your personal fitness goals.

If you want to skip ahead, you can always set up a free consultation and assessment with me here and we can talk through your goals and how to meet them. No obligation.