My trainer keeps increasing the dumbbell weight every week

If you've only been working out with him for 2 weeks, then saying he's increasing the weight "every week" means he's increased the weight...how many times? Not exactly alarming. And he obviously started you at a very conservative load. Are you excessively sore or do you feel as though you are in danger of hurting yourself (I'm assuming not, since he can act as a spotter)? You'd say you would only use 10 lbs on your own, yet you have shown you are quite capable of using 20lbs; sounds like he is just pushing you a bit harder than you might push yourself? Would you even want a trainer who shows no inclination to challenge you and your (perceived) limits?

Why don't you ask him what his plan for your progression is - next week he may leave the weights as-is but add another set to each movement. If you are scared of the weights he's telling you to use, address that with him.

FWIW, from week to week in each of my mesocycles, my progressions are autoregulated, but I generally increase weight and/or sets; if my loading stays the same, I'll try to beat the prior week's reps.

I am also a woman and my only goal with strength training is not to lose too much muscle while I lose weight. I deadlift aforementioned 145 pounds from the ground and about 52 pounds overhead. I've been at it for 5 months and believe me when I say I see 0 results appearance wise, if you're worried you might accidentally end up looking like an Olympic lifter. There's no magic number for what is "too much" - you just want to challenge yourself a little bit further each time if you want to see any change at all.

If you think about it, challenging our current capabilities is necessary if we want to accomplish most any outcome that not "just everyone" achieves. Most women are not "toned", right? Most of the women I've seen in my gyms - usually using machines, BTW - are not challenging themselves at all. They're just going through the motions with too-low resistance. That won't deliver results.

Lifting weights that are easy isn't going to get you the results you want. Neither is staying at the same low weight long term. You and your trainer need to find the right level of progressive challenge: Enough to create progress toward your goals, not so much that you're sore/miserable all the time.

It's going to take a while, even once you find the perfect balance. It would be good to be prepared for that. If you're patient and stick with it, results will come.

Don't worry, you won't wake up bulky with big mus,cles one morning, to the point of dismay. This kind of thing is slow. If you reach a look you like, then you move to a maintenance routine to stay there. You'll have plenty of time to assess and adjust. Extremely muscular women have put in years of hard, patient work to get that way (and some have even used risky performance enhancing drugs). It doesn't happen quickly, or by accident.

8 pounds or 10 pounds would be too light for me, for most exercises, even as a li'l ol' lady (age 67) who only strength trains lackadaisically. I'm fairly strong for my demographic, but not across the board. If you can go higher, that's what you want to do, if you want to make progress.

Best wishes for accomplishing your goals!

joowelz wrote: »

I have been working out with a personal trainer for the past two weeks and every week he wants to up the weight of the dumbbells i use to do upper body work and squats and lunges. I went from lifting 8lbs to 20lbs in two weeks. Is this normal? I always thought you should increase your weights slowly. Honestly if i were working out by myself, i would be lifting a maximum of 10lbs weights.

Yeah, he started you out very light and conservative to find your baseline to get you to where the exercise is challenging but doable. There's little point in lifting if you aren't actually challenging your muscles...it's just going through the motions.

Most beginners also have fairly linear progression on increasing weight as neuro adaption happens pretty quickly allowing you to activate more of your current muscle. Enjoy linear gains, because they run out fairly quickly too.

I'm not sure why you would only workout with 10Lbs if you were on your own...most of what you would need to move around in real life weighs more than 10Lbs. Just lifting 10Lbs over and over would pretty much do just about nothing.

AnnPT77 wrote: »

claireychn074 wrote: »

joowelz wrote: »

I just didnt realize weight lifting for a woman who just wants to get toned was this heavy/challenging.

I understand that starting lifting weights feels challenging, and lots of the influencers out there lift tiny little pink weights, but let me put it into context: if you go on holiday on a plane, you’re usually allowed to take 22kg in your hold luggage (that’s 48.5 pounds). The average toddler is apparently 26 pounds. A shopping bag filled with heavy stuff (fruit, veg, tins) can easily be 10+ pounds. So those weights you’re lifting aren’t actually that heavy - bet you can easily lift your suitcase, a child or a heavy shopping bag. Getting stronger means you will get more defined muscles, and losing fat means you’ll achieve the “toned” look you want.

I can't stop myself from adding: The bolded is true. But if the influencer is "toned", the small weights, used over and over, are not what made her toned in the first place.

Some influencers truly want to help people, no doubt. Some simply want to expand their followership to make money from endorsements, ads, and products. Either way, it's not going to be to their benefit to create videos showing the larger weights they lift for their own fitness - or lifted in the past to create it.

Lifting the larger weights would make the workouts seem out of reach, maybe even scary/intimidating to new followers, probably make the new followers feel inadequate, incapable or "less than". No one benefits from that, neither the influencers or the followers.

Demonstrating the workouts with light weights will be more effective in creating and holding followers, no matter the motivation. Further, a well-designed workout video has required many more takes - repetitions of the filming - than are shown in the final product. No one wants to repeat their truly challenging workout those multiple times while trying to look fresh and act motivatingly energetic.

Thank you Ann - that’s exactly what I was thinking but didn’t say!

I think the only thing fun about weights is progressing in strength. Otherwise it feels pointless to me and I might as well do some cardio.

With respect to @Butt_Snorkeler I fail to find any fun doing cardio, it feels pointless to me, and I may as well be spending my time lifting, lol. "Fun" is in the eye of the exerciser, as it were.

After almost 14 years of lifting, I only vaguely remember being able to increase weights every single workout, lol. These days I'm able to increase the weight about once a month, and that is for a different exercise each time. Enjoy these days of rapid advancement.