Weight Lifting Exercises

Lifting weights is great for your overall health, no matter what your age is. Weight lifting exercises help you lose fat, gain muscle and strength, and have more overall energy. Lifting weights can also help you build stronger bones, ligaments, and tendons, increase your flexibility, decrease muscle aches and pains, and lower your risk factors for many diseases.

In addition to all the excellent physical benefits, lifting weights has some great psychological benefits as well, including boosting your mood and confidence and contributing to better mental and sexual health.

Women in particular begin to lose muscle mass once they hit their thirties, losing an average of 8% of their muscle strength each decade. When this muscle is replaced with fat, you begin to burn less calories each day, which is why weight training for women is an excellent strategy for burning fat. One study found that women who did 25 minutes of cardio exercise and plus a total-body weight lifting routine for 12 weeks significantly reduced their body-fat percentage and blood pressure and increased their strength and endurance significantly more than those who only did aerobics.

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Let’s look at some weight lifting exercises for each of the main body parts:

Weight Lifting Exercises: Back

Dumbbell Row
1. Bend at waist so your body is at a 45 degree angle facing the floor, feet shoulder width apart
2. Grasp dumbbell with one hand and pull straight up to side of chest, squeezing your back muscles at the top
3. Slowly lower the weight back down
4. Once you’re done with one arm, switch arms and repeat

Barbell Row
1. Bend at waist so your body is at a 45 degree angle facing the floor
2. Grasp barbell with hands about 24” apart
3. Pull bar up to chest, squeezing shoulder blades together at the top
4. Slowly lower the weight back down
5. Note: alternate your grip between wide and narrow to work different parts of the back

Dead Lift
1. Place barbell on floor in front of you, standing with feet shoulder width apart
2. Bend down and grasp bar with palms facing toward you
3. Keeping your back straight, knees bent, and head up, stand straight up, using your legs to lift the weight.4. Lean back slightly at the top of the movement and feel your lower back muscles contract
5. Note: make sure your core is strong enough to handle this exercise…focus on core exercises to build strength in your lower back and midsection and reduce your risk of injury

Inverted Row
1. Lie with your back on a bench (with a barbell on the rack)
2. Grasp the bar above you like you’re going to do a bench press
3. Pull your body up toward the bar, squeezing your shoulder blades together at the top
4. Slowly lower your body back down and repeat

Good Mornings
1. Rest barbell on your upper back and shoulders using a light weight
2. Keeping head up and back straight, bend over at the waist until upper body is perpendicular to the floor
3. Slowly raise your body back up, using your lower back to propel you body upward
4. Note: make sure your core is strong enough to handle this exercise…focus on core exercises to build strength in your lower back and midsection and reduce your risk of injury

Other good back weight lifting exercises: pull-ups/chin-ups, lat pull downs, long bar row, power clean, shrugs, seated row, seated pullover

Weight Lifting Exercises: Biceps

Barbell Curl
1. Grasp barbell with underhand grip with barbell resting at your things
2. Stand straight with your legs shoulder width apart
3. Curl bar up toward your chest, keeping your upper arms tight at your sides and your back straight
4. Slowly lower back to starting position
5. Note: alternate your grip between wide and narrow to work different parts of the bicep muscle
6. Note: really focus on keeping your upper arms close to your sides and do not rock your body back and forth to lift the weight

Standing Alternating Dumbbell Curl
1. Grasp dumbbells with palms facing your sides
2. Stand straight with your legs shoulder width apart
3. Curl dumbbell in right hand up toward your chest, turning your wrist halfway up so your palm is facing your body
4. Squeeze your bicep muscle hard for a few seconds at the top
5. Slowly lower the weight back down and repeat the movement with your left arm
6. Note: this exercise can also be done sitting done but standing engages your core muscles more

Hammer Curl
1. Grasp dumbbells with palms facing your sides
2. Stand straight with your legs shoulder width apart
3. Curl dumbbell in both hands up toward your chest, making sure your palms are facing in for the whole movement
4. Squeeze your bicep muscle hard for a few seconds at the top and slowly lower the weight back down

Isolation Curl
1. Grasp dumbbell in one hand, palm facing in
2. Bend your body forward at 45 degree angle with your arms out in front of you about 12”
3. Keeping upper arm as straight as possible, curl weight up, flexing muscle at top of movement
4. Lower dumbbell, switch arms and repeat

Other good biceps weight lifting exercises: incline dumbbell curl, concentration curl, preacher curl, cable curl

Weight Lifting Exercises: Chest

Barbell Bench Press
1. Lie with back flat on bench, feet firmly planted on floor
2. Grasp barbell slightly wider than shoulder width apart
3. Slowly lower bar to mid-chest level then explode back up, squeezing chest at top
4. Note: alternate your grip between close and wide grip to work different parts of the chest (close grip = inner chest, wide grip = outer chest)
5. Note: do incline bench presses to work your upper chest and decline bench presses to work your lower chest

Dumbbell Fly
1. Lie with back flat on bench, feet firmly planted on floor
2. Grasp dumbbells with palms facing in
3. Raise dumbbells straight up then lower out to each side (palms facing in), elbows slight bent
4. Return to starting position
5. Note: do incline flyes to work your upper chest and decline flyes to work your lower chest

Dips
1. Hold your body straight up on parallel bars of a dip station
2. Lower body as far down as you can by bending at the elbows
3. Push your body back up using your arms, chest, and shoulder and repeat

Other good chest weight lifting exercises: pushup, cable crossover, lying pullovers

Weight Lifting Exercises: Shoulders

Standing Shoulder Press
1. Hold dumbbells at sides and raise up to shoulder height
2. With your palms facing forward, raise dumbbells up at the same time as high as you can
3. Slowly lower the weights back down and repeat
4. Note: this exercise can also be performed sitting down, but standing helps engage your core muscles better

Standing Barbell Press
1. Raise barbell to your chest with your hands facing forward a little more than shoulder width apart, back straight and knees slightly bent
2. Press bar up as high as you can
3. Slowly lower bar to your upper chest and repeat
4. Note: can also be performed sitting down

Upright Row
1. Hold barbell at waist level with palms facing toward you hands slightly more than shoulder width apart
2. Pull bar straight up until it reaches just under your chin, keeping the bar as close to your body as possible
3. Slowly lower the weight back down and repeat
4. Note: do not swing your body to move the weight…focus on slow, controlled movement

Standing Lateral Raise
1. Stand straight up with your knees slightly bent, grasping two dumbbells at your sides with your palms facing in
2. Keeping your arms straight, raise dumbbells out to the side so both arms are pointing straight out to the sides
3. Slowly lower the weight back down and repeat

Seated Bent Over Rear Dumbbell Raise
1. Sit on the end of a bench, grasping two dumbbells at your sides, palms facing in
2. Bend forward until your chest is almost touching your legs
3. Raise dumbbells to shoulder height, squeezing your rear shoulder muscles together at the top of the movement
4. Slowly lower the weights and repeat

Other good shoulder weight lifting exercises: dumbbell front raise, shrugs, cable lateral raises

Weight Lifting Exercises: Triceps

Lying Triceps Curl
1. Lie with your back on a flat bench, grasp a barbell like you’re going to do a bench press, and raise it straight up in the air
2. Keep your upper arms straight and lower the bar toward your forward, bending at the elbows
3. Return the weight to starting position and repeat

Lying One Arm Dumbbell Curl
1. Lie down with your back either on a flat bench or on the floor
2. Hold a dumbbell straight up, supporting your upper arm with your other hand
3. Lower the dumbbell down toward your opposite ear, keeping your upper arm straight
4. Raise the weight back up and switch arms

Triceps Press Downs
1. Stand straight up with your feet shoulder width apart
2. Attach rope or straight bar to high pulley
3. Keep your upper arms tight at your sides and lower the weight down, squeezing your triceps hard at the bottom
4. Return to the starting position and repeat

Other good triceps weight lifting exercises: dips, incline bench press, overhead extensions, overhead curl

Weight Lifting Exercises: Legs

Squats
1. Rest barbell on upper back and shoulders
2. Stand straight up with feet shoulder width apart
3. Squat down until upper thighs are at least parallel to the floor, keeping lower back slightly arched and focusing on using your legs to propel your body downward
4. Using your legs, explode back up to the starting position and repeat
5. Note: switch up the position of your legs from a narrow to a wide stance to target different parts of your legs
6. Note: squats can also be performed with dumbbells or without weights (see the exercises to do at home section)

Dumbbell Lunge
1. Hold two dumbbells at your sides with your palms facing in, keeping body straight
2. Raise one leg and take a giant step forward, lunging down as far as possible
3. Raise your body back up and switch legs
4. Note: lunges can also be done with a barbell or without weights

Dead Lift
1. Place barbell on floor in front of you, standing with feet shoulder width apart
2. Bend down and grasp bar with palms facing toward you
3. Keeping your back straight, knees bent, and head up, stand straight up, using your legs to lift the weight.4. Lean back slightly at the top of the movement and feel your lower back muscles contract
5. Note: this exercise is also in the back exercises section because it’s an excellent all-around exercise that really works your back and legs

Seated Calf Raise
1. Sit down at calf machine, placing your thighs under the leg pad just above your knees
2. Raise your toes upwards as far as possible and lower the weight down as far as possible, focusing on squeezing your calves at the top and stretching your calves at the bottom
3. Repeat movement

Other good leg weight lifting exercises: leg press, leg extensions, leg curls, good mornings, hack squat, standing toe raise

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