I've only been trying to lose weight for 3 weeks now. It's not as daunting as it seems and I have loved taking up exercise! However, I would really like to tone up my arms and gain a bit more strength so I am looking in to doing a little light weight lifting a few times per week. I am a bit confused by what weight of dumbells to buy as a starting point though - I can't afford to join a gym so was hpoing to do a few regular exercises at home. What weight range would you guys recommed for a beginner?
I would say 5 lbs through 25 lbs would be good, in whatever increments you could get with 5 being the most.
For doing back exercises you'll need the heavier weights and doing lifts like chest presses and rows will increase upper body strength in general and work your arms. That weight range should let you do a full body workout several times a week as a beginner.
"Toning" necessitates building some muscle which means you'll need to challenge your muscles enough and keep doing it. The weights must be heavy enough for the muscle to be about pooped after 3 sets, 15 reps max each. As a beginner you may want to start at 2 sets
I would just start with a simple set of like 2 pd, 4 pd, 6 pd barbells, 2 of each. it really depends on how strong you are to start wioth, but for me when i started the 6 pounds (3 kg) was an awfull lot.
For reference, you could check out krista's site on womens weightlifting (you can googel it at "woomen weightlifting". She has a lot of good stuff including advise on dumbells and an all dumbell workout.
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10 week challenge - 7 WO per week - ended
How heavy??
