Some of the equipment in gyms can be confusing to use, which can cause injury to the person using it, and others. This is an overview explaining the regular equipment you would find in most gyms :

The barbell is one of the most diversely used pieces of equipment in the gym as it can be used to train almost any part of the body. Some of the more common lifts using the barbell are the bench press, squat and dead lift, the three lifts used in competitions. The barbell is a long metal cylinder normally weighing 20kg (Olympic bar) and can fit weight plates onto each side. These plates can range from 2.5kg up to 25kg in standard gyms. Although its main use is for the exercises above some of the other popular lifts are the bent-over row, shoulder press, and hip thrust.

The dumbell the most commonly used piece of equipment across the world, normally coming in pairs of the same weight. The dumbell’s are hold in a hand each and can be used for a multitude of exercises with the most popular being bench press, shoulder press, and bicep curls. The reason dumbells are more common than barbells is because they are cheaper, and they can target specific muscles more easily, whereas a barbell is normally used to target a group of muscles. Dumbells are frequently used to target leg muscles with exercises such as Romanian deadlifts, Bulgarian split squats and the goblet squat.

The easy bar, which is a lighter, smaller, curlier version of the barbell, is another piece of gym equipment, though it is not as common as it has limited use in targeting muscles, or there is a better alternative. The two main uses of the easy bar are bicep curls, which can achieve a great amount of tension, and skull-crushers, which target the triceps but there are better alternative exercises.

On machines in the gym, you are required to set the weight yourself. If the machine has something like the stack in the picture above, simply take out the pin and insert it into the hole of the weight you desire, keeping in mind the weight is cumulative. Some gyms use weight plates to add resistance to the machines and you have to find the bar and place the desired weight on. From that point the machine shoud have a small guide to instruct how to use the equipment.