Never done strength training before! Help!!

Apologies, you're totally right Lisa, I didn't read the post correctly. Thought she had 2, 2.5kg dumbells (which is fantastic for arm circles, crucifix, single arm tricep extends etc. but not really designed for strength exercises).

Awww, well I didn't mean to come across too strong. :-) thanks

I TOTALLY recommend the Chalean Extreme program. I am in month two and have already seen great results, and increase in my weight loss because I have more muscle, and changes in my body.

You won't be able to really get much strength training from that sized weights, however, muscle endurance (higher amounts of reps with lower weights) is excellent for your body.

I do wish men would stop coming in and saying things like this to women. At the start of a strength training programme some women can get to failure on under 12 reps with a 5lb weight. I did! These weights are 14lbs and are more than likely enough for a beginner. I still couldn't lift these more than 6 times on a bicep curl without hurting myself.

My wife would fit that profile on curls, but I got her doing deadlifts instead. She's pulling 100lbs as a newbie. So we replaced mostly useless reps of 5lbs with extremely (nearly whole body) beneficial reps of 100lbs... takes the same amount of time to do the exercise.

Since you said you don't have access to a gym, start by doing a lot of body weight exercises. . . for legs you can do lunges and body squats. If you can get to a playground, you can use a bar to do lateral pullups for back muscles. You can do things like crunches and plank for abs. For chest, work on pushups (every woman hates them starting out because we're not good at them! Give them some time and you'll learn to like them. . . they're VERY effective). And since you have a little dumbbell, you can use those for bicep curls and tricep extensions and kickbacks. . . if the weight seems light, just slow down your movement and really focus on the muscle you're supposed to be working out. It's amazing how good of a workout you can get from light weight if you slow down, control all of your movements, and think about the muscle!

Don't be discouraged by not having a gym to go to. . . there are plenty of exercises you can do to help make you strong.

Start here
http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/women.htm

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