Weights

liveforfit

I'm pretty young, I'm a teenager. I've never lifted weights before, so how many pounds would be a good starting weight? (What I mean is, would a 2 pound dumbbell be good for first starting strength workouts?) And also, how often should I move up a pound. (After a month or two, should I move up to a 3 pound dumbell?)

JennLifts

How old are you? From my understanding, serious lifting isn't recommended before 16. However, because of the lack of know how, and the possibility to cause injury, I'd suggest you hire a trainer for a bit, or make friends with body builders with great form and knowledge.

liveforfit

I'm 14. What do you mean by serious lifting? My plan would to do strength training 2-3 times a week, for perhaps 15 minutes at a time. Do you think that'd be okay?

taso42_DELETED

Jennw10 just beat me to what I was going to write. You may want to look into that. Just found this link: http://kidshealth.org/teen/food_fitness/exercise/strength_training.html
"Powerlifting, competitive weightlifting, and bodybuilding are not recommended for teens who are still maturing."
But that seems to imply that just general strength training is ok? Not really sure.

Anyway, to answer your main question, assuming that it's ok for a growing teen, you would generally set the weight based on how many reps you're aiming to do. If you're doing, say, 15 reps, then you should be lifting weight that is hard to lift 15 times. If you feel like you can keep going and going, increase the weight. If you just barely made it to 15 and can't do a single rep more, then you've got the right weight selected. After a few weeks, you will likely be stronger and be able to increase it by a few lbs.

JennLifts

I'm 14. What do you mean by serious lifting? My plan would to do strength training 2-3 times a week, for perhaps 15 minutes at a time. Do you think that'd be okay?

By serious I mean like strength and muscle gain. Honestly, 3lb weights aren't going to do anything. Anyways, If you go to a gym, I would ask them about it. But to be straight about your question, you're not going to kill yourself. I don't think you'll see much of a change either, though. Just be aware of proper form

liveforfit

Okay, thanks. Do you think it'd be reasonable therefore to start off with 5 pound weights? I'm skinny, tall, and pretty scrawny. I'm basically weak haha.

allystone

Hopefully you have accsess to the gym. If you do, do stuff like bicep curl, a 5 pound weight is great probabbly for you. If you can do more than 12 reps then move up in weight. Try to do that with both arms 3 times. So 3 sets and 8-12 repitions. Follow this rule for bench press. Just grab some weight that you can do around 8 times and lift. Another good exercise for girls is pushups, just try to increase every time you do it. To gain muscle your going to gain weight but look alot better. Hope i helped!