Clueless on weight lifting

christinebryant80

Hi, Ive been on here for 3 weeks now and have heard lifting weights help tone the body. Now I hav 5 lb dumbbells and my hubby has a wire bag that weighs 20 pounds, that he lifts. Right now cant afford going to the gym or buying new weights. So I use the 5 lb wights doing 4 sets of 10 reps, heard thats the normal. I am also thinking about trying to do some reps with the wire bag. Now my question is how many sets and reps should a female do with 20 pounds to tone the arms. Im also trying to figure out how many calories I would burn lifting these two whights. Im 34 yrs old and weigh 243 pounds if that helps with any of my questions Thx pls help, totally clueless here

3laine75

Try googling body weight programmes, you need to be doing something that gets progressively harder. I've heard 'you are your own gym' and 'convict conditioning' are good.

Ready2Rock206

Check out the book New Rules of Lifting for women. I haven't ever followed the program yet, but I found the book itself to be very informative.

hmaddpear

Try googling body weight programmes, you need to be doing something that gets progressively harder. I've heard 'you are your own gym' and 'convict conditioning' are good.

I've not got "you are your own gym", but I do have "body by you", which is by the same author, tailored to women, and it awesome. A good progressive body weight programme. I've heard good things about 'convict conditioning' as well.

You can get a long way with strength training just with a good, progressive, body weight programme.

charleigh78

New Rules of Lifting for Women
Excellent book. Gives you all you need and 7 stages of workouts.
Good luck