Dumbbell sizes for women

If the dumbells are challenging to you, but you are able to keep good form for the rep range you wish to increase strength in, they are right for you.

They're are many different strength levels for lifters and the only one that should matter to you is yours.

Ditto on what others have said above about comparing yourself, but it is natural to be curious so here are some thoughts based on my own very limited experience, FWIW.

Just in my observations of new members joining a "body sculpting" class that I am in at my fitness center at work, 8.8 lbs is a fairly robust amount of weight for a beginner. Most use 3 or 5 lb dbs to begin. Of course, different lifts are going to require different sized weights. In the class, our instructor tells us when to use our heavy vs. light weights (10 lbs vs 6 lbs for me) and we do 30 seconds worth of reps. Some days I feel sassier and grab 12 lb weights, and other days I need to take it easy and I will have 3 lb pink weights along with my usual set. I started with the 3 lbs as my lights and 5 lbs as my heavies.

For my "real" lifting (a program drawn up by my nephew, who is a trainer) I have 24 different workouts with about an hour of lifting for each workout. It's supposed to be a 6-week program, but I can generally fit in 2-3 "heavy" days a week, in addition to my class and aerobics days. I keep meticulous records and move on to a heavier weight when the current weight is no longer challenging and I can maintain good form. For 12-15 reps, currently I am going to use anything from 6 lbs for lateral raises to 40 lbs (combined) for chest presses to a 30 lb db for a single-arm row (I have been lifting since February but took the summer off; last June my single arm rows were at 35 lbs, lats at 10 lbs, and presses were the same; that was after 4 months of lifting).

However--I started off with 5 and 10 lb weights for the first few weeks, as that is what I had on hand till I stole an entire set of dbs from my brother in law.

As I have lifted, I have moved from wanting to measure myself by the amount of weight I was lifting ("more is better") to measuring myself by my ability to keep meticulous form...quality over quantity. The more I do it, the more I am interested in the "craftsmanship" of the lift.

Again, this is just one perspective, and I am nowhere near as seasoned as others on this site, but as a fairly recent beginner myself, I thought it might be of interest to you. Good luck with your lifting program! I have been extremely pleased with my results from lifting.

If you can do more that 8 or 10 reps per set then they are probably too light.
Definitely too light if you can do 12 or more reps for all 3 sets.
Add 2.5lbs or 5 lbs, whatever you have available as the next heaviest, and check the number of reps again.
For now, use a given weight until you can manage 12 or more reps for all 3 sets and raise the weight again.
The commonly accepted range for weight training is from 8 to 12 reps per set.

This is the basics of "progressive overload". Anything lighter is usually a waste of your time.
These methods are for any weight lifting exercise really, doesn't matter if it is dumbbell or barbell.
It also doesn't really matter if you are old or young, man or woman.

By using this method you only have to worry about comparing yourself to yourself.
Keep a log and track your workouts; day, exercise, number of sets, reps, amount of weight, etc.
You will know how much weight you are aiming for every time and for how many reps.
When you look back at your log 12 weeks from now, you will see your progress.

Some people like me prefer heavier weights (you raise the weight after 5 or 6 reps per set, for example) but no one I work out with -male or female- regularly goes above 12 reps per set.
Sticking with 8 to 12 reps per set is a fine starting point.

If you are doing 3 sets of 20 reps then you are using "pink dumbells" -ones too light to be useful for a given exercise- unless perhaps you are 70 years old and have lost all of your muscle mass or you are in some sort of PT program.

I use a wide variety. I have 15s that I use for lawnmower/heavy pants but all the way down to 3s right now for superman fly. I probably use the 8s most, for curls and overhead presses and triceps. If you get to 12-15 reps and feel the fail happening then that's your weight. You're at the top end of managing that weight, giving yourself a little push, presuming you are trying to build a little muscle.

cqbkaju wrote: »

If you can do more that 8 or 10 reps per set then they are probably too light.
Definitely too light if you can do 12 or more reps for all 3 sets.
Add 2.5lbs or 5 lbs, whatever you have available as the next heaviest, and check the number of reps again.
For now, use a given weight until you can manage 12 or more reps for all 3 sets and raise the weight again.
The commonly accepted range for weight training is from 8 to 12 reps per set.

This is the basics of "progressive overload". Anything lighter is usually a waste of your time.
These methods are for any weight lifting exercise really, doesn't matter if it is dumbbell or barbell.
It also doesn't really matter if you are old or young, man or woman.

By using this method you only have to worry about comparing yourself to yourself.
Keep a log and track your workouts; day, exercise, number of sets, reps, amount of weight, etc.
You will know how much weight you are aiming for every time and for how many reps.
When you look back at your log 12 weeks from now, you will see your progress.

Some people like me prefer heavier weights (you raise the weight after 5 or 6 reps per set, for example) but no one I work out with -male or female- regularly goes above 12 reps per set.
Sticking with 8 to 12 reps per set is a fine starting point.

If you are doing 3 sets of 20 reps then you are using "pink dumbells" -ones too light to be useful for a given exercise- unless perhaps you are 70 years old and have lost all of your muscle mass or you are in some sort of PT program.

After reading this, I realized I mistyped above--I checked my workouts and the only things that go above 12 reps are bodyweight exercises (incline pushups, bodyweight squats, etc.) On my metabolic days, the reps go up to 12 for certain exercises and 10 for the rest, and on my strength or density days, they are more in the 7-9 range to failure. They all just feel like they go to 15 reps.

In the class, we are probably doing 15 reps in 30 seconds or so, and it likely doesn't accomplish much, but it is a bit of fluffy fun that is not as fluffy as "dance aerobics". I will use the pink weights when I've pushed it really hard with my real lifting on the previous day, ha ha. (Yeah...I should probably drop that class).

It depends on what I'm doing and where I am at with my diet. If I am eating in a surplus I can overhead press 35lb dumbbells for 3-5 reps but around 30lbs is my 8-10 rep range. I can bench with 35-40lb dumbbells as well but I train specifically for powerlifting so what I can do right now is heavier.

When I started out I didn't know anything about how much I should have been lifting so just focused on being able to do either more reps with each workout or more weight. Sometimes a jump from the 8lb weight to the 10lb weight felt like too much, so I would just try to do more reps at 8lbs until I could do 10lbs.

I think in terms of deciding what weight to use you have to determine what your goals are. Hypertrophy or power? It will help narrow down a more ideal amount of reps/sets and then you can choose the weight that suits that range best.

when i started lifting the woman running the course i took refused to even discuss general strength standards. it really pissed me off; like it was info a newbie like me couldn't be trusted with. and it still kind of pisses me off two years later.

i don't think that woman realized i had no information at all about what was 'normal' and what wasn't. i think people should be given information and allowed to do whatever they want to with it.

so here you go: http://lonkilgore.com/freebies/freebies.html