ya know the kind in a pyramid stand all different sizes...

and ive been using them to do bicep curls, tricep lifts behind my body kinda holding the weight and on my knees lifting the weight backwards and behind me with a straight arm and also lifting weights with arms held out sideways up and down and also holding weight with both hands behind my head and lifting it up and down..

are these the most effective ways to use them?

i want to tone and also create new muscle if possible.. i can do about 10 reps before my muscles ache... but the next day i cant feel it... am i doing enough or with heavy enough weights?

Krista has a wonderful site here

http://www.stumptuous.com/cms/displa...le.php?aid=144

I adore her!

I've given the link to "all dumbells, all the time" But I really think you'll enjoy her entire site.

In my opinion FWIW, you aren't lifting heavy enough if you can do 10 reps before you start to feel it. An 8-10 rep range is pretty good for building new muscle but you should be feeling around rep 3 or 4 I'd say and by the end of the set you should be pretty much done. Not just a little sore, but to the point that you absolutely can not physically do another rep...failure in other words. When you can do 10 reps and feel like you could keep going then it's time to move up in weight. This is how I've been judging the proper weight for myself and I've been seeing some terrific progress. It's tough, it hurts (so good ) and it's so worth it. Susan provided an excellent resource too, I also recommend checking out that whole site, you'll learn alot there.

I was told in one of the threads here (I think it was top 10 ineffective gym exercises) that lifting weights behind your head could injure your neck muscles and shoulders. What's your take on this, chickies?

It very much depends on what you are doing and whether or not your form is correct. What exercise were you thinking of?

Mel

http://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/showthread.php?t=81247
Exercises numbers 6,7.
I have a weird back anyway, so I just figured any behind the neck exercise was not a great idea, even using small dumbbells.

You really can't do the same exercises with dumbbells, so I wouldn't worry about it.

There are ways to perform those exercises correctly without injury. If you aren't working with barbells or an actual lat pull down machine, it's not an issue.

Mel

good to know! thanks for the clarification

I use the Hypertrophy Specific Training method with 5 reps. Krista at Stumptuous recommends checking it out too