Weights for Women

moe5474

I just began adding weight lifting to my workouts (which I have loved), but I would like to know what is going to be most effective: heavier weights with lower reps, or lighter weights with higher reps.

And what is considered "heavier weights"? Two 10 lb dumbells?

Everything is getting firmer and tighter, but not smaller. I'm guessing the "smaller" part will come with time??

kalynn06

I just began adding weight lifting to my workouts (which I have loved), but I would like to know what is going to be most effective: heavier weights with lower reps, or lighter weights with higher reps.

I've done both, but from everything I've read, the way to actually gain muscle is higher weight lower rep, the idea being to exhaust the targeted muscle in less than 90 seconds. I think, going lighter at first, while you learn form, is very helpful. You should then increase the weight as it becomes too easy for you to complete the exercisers.

And what is considered "heavier weights"? Two 10 lb dumbells?

There is no "right" weight. Heavy is whatever gets you to the point of exhaustion by the end of the set. Some exercises, for me, that's 15 or 20 lbs. For some, it's 5-10. While I was rehabbing my shoulder, 2 lb weights were infernal torture devices. Heavy is an individual thing.

chezileigh

To improve strength and muscle bulk you would need to progressively overload the muscle, meaning you would need to be slowly but surely lifting heavier and heavier weights. This needs to be maximal exertion (fueled anaerobically) so only a small number of reps should be possible, otherwise the weights aren't heavy enough to have this effect.

Lifting lighter weights and increasing the number of reps you can do is an endurance activity. It will improve muscle tone and endurance and if you do enough of it, it should improve aerobic capacity too.

Aerobic exercise is widely accepted to be more beneficial to general health than anaerobic exercise.

Hope this helps I can elaborate a bit if needed.