Men and Chalean Extreme

Not a man, but I did do CLX last year as a newbie to any sort of lifting. My husband joined me for a few workouts because I begged him to. While I could tell you what weights he was pushing, it won't make a difference. You need to select weights appropriate to your strength levels. She tells you several times that you should be lifting enough weight to get through the set and max out/fail by the last rep or two. So if you are getting through a set and feeling like you could be pushing heavier (and do more reps), then you need to increase your weight. Don't underestimate your strength - especially in lower body. You can pick up some big ol' dumbbells for those lower body moves. And don't feel sissy if you can't do really heavy weights at first in some of the isolated upper body exercises. All those deltoid moves (i.e. posterior fly, anterior fly, lateral raises, etc) can get really hard if the weight is much too heavy and you could hurt yourself if you start swinging stuff around to get them up there.

But the real question here is - WHY are you doing CLX? Why not get started in a compound lifting program like Starting Strength or Stronglifts 5x5? Not judging - but really, you will make better progress if you just get started in heavy lifting right off the bat and learn the form/technique.