I have some questions regarding lifting weights. Currently, I’m not in bad shape but I’m not in great shape either. I’m 5’9 or 5’10" and weigh around 150 lbs.
I have never been an exercise machine and I haven’t done consistent physical exercise since high school, so about 5-6 years.
About 3 1/2 yrs. ago, I bought some 25 lb. dumbbells b/c I finally decided that I wanted to start lifting some kind of weights as I had never done much of any weight-lifting before. This started out of hope that I would consistently start lifting and tone up my arms and upper shoulders.
What I do is I normally spend about 30 mins. per workout, lifting 16-20 reps. of about 4-6 different arm exercises. I won’t try to explain them but I do 4 different arm exercises and then repeat them 4 times per workout, so a total of around 256(16 average reps*16 arm exercises) total reps during the workout.
Over the first couple of years, I only did this an average of 30-33 times a year or about under 3 times per month.
In 2011, I did it 48 times, or about an average of 4 times per month or 1 time per week. The thing with me is that I will lift 3-4 times within 1 1/2-2 weeks but then go 3 weeks without lifting at all and then repeat the cycle again.
This year, I’m looking to increase my output between 50-100 times, likely in the middle of that, so maybe around 70-80 times, or 6 times per month, or 2 times per week, which is a realistic goal I think. Lifting weights is quite boring to me but I try to do it when I’m watching TV so that I can maintain my interest and kill 2 birds with 1 stone.
**My questions are:
Do you guys think that a 30-minute workout with 25 lb. dumbbells is sufficient? I am trying to increase strength and gain muscle but I am not trying to bulk up like a beast or anything. Should I be working out longer or is 30 mins. okay?
Should I buy 30 lb. dumbbells or is 25 lbs. sufficient? I originally bought 25 lbs. b/c I felt it was a good starting point but when I lift now, my arms and shoulders are not sore anymore, I feel no soreness whatsoever. So, I’m wondering if I need to buy heavier dumbbells?**
I’m just wondering at my current pace, the time I spend, the amount of reps, is this adequate enough to gain muscle tone and/or strength?
I don’t feel any soreness anymore if I am lifting consistently for a week or two, so maybe I am not lifting heavy enough weights.
Unfortunately, I don’t feel comfortable going to the gym b/c I would rather not have people watching me as I lift and it’s very boring in a gym. I’d rather be at home, have the privacy, watch what I want to watch, and then lift in my own privacy. So, that’s why I don’t run much. I wish I did. I’m in average shape, have a slight belly, actually have always had a slight belly since I could remember but the good thing is that it’s never gotten any larger. I’ve consistently stayed at around 143-153 lbs. for about the last 6 or 7 years. I’ve never eaten too much, probably my freshman year of college is when I gained the most weight, but then I learned how to eat those junkier foods in moderation as my college years went on. But, I don’t eat much fast food, and I try to eat fruits/veggies.
Doing 16-20 reps of about 4-6 different arm exercises is not of an exercise program. Design yourself a more complete body exercise plan.
You may want to think about body weight exercises (a.k.a. calisthenics) instead. You get your privacy and your ability to watch your shows in your own home and the only thing you may want to buy is a pull up bar. Maybe a jump rope.
Seriously, little beats burpee intervals, mountain climbers, push ups, pull ups, squats (moving into one legged ones as you can), crunches, and jumping rope, for overall fitness. Your arms and shoulders will get toned, but so will the rest of you.
Something’s better than nothing, but it’s true that 25lb will be too much/too little depending on the exercise. For example, I use mostly 10-20lb weights, but it varies a lot – lateral raises I use much less than, say, hammer curls (biceps). For shoulder shrugs I can do more like 30lb. That said, it’s good that you’re doing something, and if you don’t have time to go to the gym, it doesn’t hurt to do what you can. Are you varying your exercises? If you feel nothing, nowhere near muscle failure, it’s probably not doing much and you need more weight – but in lieu of that, you might try not doing the same set over and over. You can work the same muscle group a lot of ways and all will be slightly different on all your supporting muscles – some may be easy now, but ones you haven’t done a lot will likely be harder.
That said, your leg muscles are much bigger than your arm muscles, and you can work them out too – as well as abs – from home. Many exercises can be done just with body weight, like squats or lunges, and if they’re too easy you can use dumbbells as well.
If you’re looking for a good deal on more dumbbells, try watching Craigslist. It takes some vigilance but you can score cheap exercise equipment.
I’m not talking about an exercise program. I’m just talking about a program to get my arms more toned and my muscles larger.
This has nothing to do with losing weight. Granted, I’m in avg. shape, but I’m not the least bit overweight. I don’t have weight issues at all besides for a slight belly. I know myself and I know that doing a huge exercise program is not realistic. I am lazy when it comes to working out but I’m trying to change that little by little. First it’ll be lifting, then maybe it will be exercising the rest of my body more if I feel like I’m losing grip of my weight, but that hasn’t happened yet, so I’m not at that point yet.
Please stick with the topic at hand. We’re talking about lifting weights, not a whole exercise program. I know myself well enough by now that a whole exercise program is not in the books at this time.
As for not wanting people to watch you in the gym: I was like that at first as well, but then I realized two things: 1) Apparently, no one at the gym really gives a damn what I’m doing anyway, and 2) I’m the flabbiest, weakest, least attractive dude at my gym. The place is chock full of gorgeous 20 year old athletes with full heads of hair. Being self-conscious is pointless, because no matter what I do, the girls will never be looking at me anyway with that kind of competition around. Once I understood that, I was able to just forget about it and relax.
I’d just like to point out that getting toned arms is not as simple as bicep curls and tricep extensions. The best way to get good arms involves hitting the muscle in different ways and from different angles, which is going to involve pretty much the entire upper body: shoulders, back, and chest. (The good news is a lot of this can be taken care of with simple body weight exercises: push-ups, pull-ups, and dips. And of course, how you eat plays a huge part in it: muscle covered by flab doesn’t look nearly as toned as raw muscle.
To answer your questions:
(1) 30 mins. per day is fine for now. If you get more serious about lifting you’ll probably want to look at increasing your time spent, but I don’t think you need to worry about that yet.
(2) It depends on the exercises you’re doing]. If you’re using the same weight for a bicep curl, a hammer curl, a tricep kickback, and an overhead tricep extension, you’re not hitting the muscles as hard as you could be. However, if you’re just working out arms, I will concede that the weights for arm exercises tend to stay in a pretty narrow range, and you will get some benefit even if you use the same weight for everything.
Yea, I could probably dedicate more time towards push-ups and pull-ups. What would people suggest for those? How many reps and how often? I can do 25 push-ups fairly easily in one rep.
I was not addressing losing weight but your stated goal of “trying to increase strength and gain muscle” - even thinking about exclusively wanting firmer arms and shoulders, and not caring about what the rest of your strength or tone is, an arms only focus does not work so well.
But you want a narrow answer: your high rep program is not a design that will likely increase strength or muscle mass. To increase strength and muscle mass you need progression and in general more strength and mass requires lower reps with higher weights.
I agree with the idea of using push-ups and pull-ups, then use the dumbell for goblet squats. Unless you decide to become a powerhouse you’ll never need more weight as your leverage in bodyweight exercises can always be adjusted to make them harder (unless looking like a gymnast isn’t good enough for ya :p)
sorry dseid, didn’t mean to snap at you. I do realize though that if I wanted bigger arms, this would require using heavier dumbbells. I was wondering whether 25 lbs. is too little or just right? Some here say that it is heavy for some exercises and not heavy enough for other exercises.
What weight would be appropriate for newer dumbbells? 30? 35? This would certainly decrease my reps to probably 10-14.
How is your form with the push ups? Are those 25 you do easily done with poor form and sloppy execution, or do you do them with arms at about shoulder width (maybe just a bit wider) and go down to the floor and back up again in a smooth, controlled manner? If you are doing them the latter way, then challenge yourself to be able to do 40 in a set (a “rep” is a single repititon, or pushup).
Or you can modify the original pushup to something a bit more challenging. There are several options here. You can do incline pushups; which are simply pushups done on a incline surface. This challenges you by placing more of the muscular strain on the upper pecs and shoulder muscles, as opposed to the larger and stronger center pectorals. (the “pecs” are all one muscle, but the upper part of the pecs are smaller)
You can also do “diamond” pushups. These are pushups in which you place your arms together and make a “diamond” shape with your hands; then doing the pushups from this starting point. These are very challenging and place primary strain on the triceps, while also working the pecs.
Just some extra ideas to work with. Hope it helps!
My friend Al Kavadlo has all the push-up options you’ll ever need for getting strong aaa123, pull-ups and squats too. Getting big will have to be someone else’s dep’t, I only know strength.
Pullups are a completely different beast than pushups. Much harder. Most people can do at least some number of pushups. However, most people cannot do a single pullup. So if you are able to even do one now, consider yourself well ahead of the class.
Assuming you can do a pullup now, work on being able to knock out a good set of 10-12 reps of your own bodyweight-using a wide, overhand grip. The last part is important. Work on being able to knock out that many reps with this grip style before you try to add any more resistant or anything. Because this grip style, 1) is the most difficult, and 2) is probably the most beneficial
That being said, there are many different grip styles to alternate from when doing pullups; with each style working the muscles a little differently. Wide-grip, over hand work the lats the most, with the primary strain being on the outer, upper lats (latissimus dorsi muscle). Close-grip pullups, usually done with a V-grip handle, work the inner lats. Underhand, or reverse-grip pullups, work the lower lats primarily, with a lot of secondary work going to the biceps.
The best way to go is the incorporate all of these into a program.
The generic rule of thumb is that the core of your weight training should be at a weight that 8 to 12 reps can be completed. If you can consistently do more than that then it is time to move on to a heavier weight. The slightly more complete answer is to throw in variety - some at a weight that you can only complete 4 to 6 reps in a set and some higher volume sets as well - but those around a core in that 8 to 12 range. How many pounds is that? That varies from person to person and from point in training to point in training and of course with each different lift being performed.
Sorry for the doublepost, and I hope you do not mind my asking, but my curiosity forces me to ask: exactly why aaa123 are you interested only in your arms?
(I am reminded of old comic ads from my youth selling booklets promising, for separate fees, “Bigger arms now!” “Strong chest now!” etc.)
I work out in my house. I have a bench, squat rack and Olympic weight set. I made a doorway into a pull up bar.
Muscles need to be challenged in order to grow. Working up to 20 or 30 reps with a 25lb dumbbell will most likely not be enough to challenge your muscles. If you are unable to get a weight set and such, you can make it work if you need to. But IMO, you will have better results with a proper weight set.
For muscle gain the general rule is higher weight and fewer reps.
You need to do reps until you have exhausted the muscle. You are not doing enough reps if you can do even one more on your final set.
When I was serious about muscle growth I would do pyramids with three sets of 8/6/4 reps at a high weight. One key consideration of using higher weights is maintaining form as when you’re right at your limit, there’s a tendency to cheat, which can result in injury or decreased results.
You ask if 25 pounds is enough. That’s not an easy question to answer. For what? How many reps? How hard is it for you to complete three sets with that weight? 25 pounds is probably good for a few excercises, but not all.
In general, I’ve found that a single set of dumbbells is not enough for a good workout. I would suggest 5 pound increements from 10 pounds to 40 pounds for a beginner. I would also recommend getting a bench, which can be quite useful.
I would also echo other posters that you should try to do a full body workout. You’ll find it better for overall health and will create a more balanced look. Finally, I would also say that pushups, pullups and situps can go a long way towards producing a great body. Professional football player Hershel Walker famously stayed away from using weights as much as possible and instead did simple excercises like pushups and situps (but literally, like, a thousand a day).
Hope it helps!