What exactly is lifting heavy for a small person?

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Lanna74
Lanna74 Posts: 203 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Could someone explain what lifting heavy is and can one do it at home with dumbells? ( Be nice! I really don't know!)

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  • Lanna74
    Lanna74 Posts: 203 Member
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    Bump
  • gp79
    gp79 Posts: 1,799 Member
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    Lifting heavy is where you're lifting enough weight where you are at your max (where you cannot possibly do another repetition) in the 4-6 repetition range. Yes, you can do it at home with dumbells.
  • UponThisRock
    UponThisRock Posts: 4,522 Member
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    Heavy is loosely defined as doing 8 reps or less. The key is that once you do, say, 3 sets and complete all 8 reps, you increase the weight next time.

    So, when people say "heavy lifting" they really mean "focus on getting stronger," as opposed to mindlessly doing reps with light weight until you feel like your arm is going to fall off.
  • Sl1ghtly
    Sl1ghtly Posts: 855 Member
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    Using a weight that is 75% or more of your one rep max for the given lift.
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,293 Member
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    I'm small but still lift heavy, for me. I consider lifting heavy when you aim for 5-8 reps with the last couple reps in each set difficult to complete with good form.
  • Rae6503
    Rae6503 Posts: 6,294 Member
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    "Heavy lifting" is lifting as heavy as you can while maintaining good form for the desired number of reps and sets. Some programs are 3 sets of 8, others are 5 sets of 5. Just depends. You can certainly get started at home with dumbells. However, I believe that you get a lot of benefits from squats and deadlifts which are best done with the big olympic bar and a squat rack. Most people do not have these things at home. I'd love to have them at home but I don't have space for it.
  • fakeplastictree
    fakeplastictree Posts: 836 Member
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    don't feel bad. I had this same question a little while ago. :)

    And you can do it at home! I started for about 2 months doing dumbbell workouts at my house. I then got to where I needed to go to a gym because I was accumulating a lot of equipment for my small house.
  • 00trayn
    00trayn Posts: 1,849 Member
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    I'm a fairly petite 5'3" girl and I just started a weight training program. None of the exercises in the plan tell me what weight to use, but I have to be able to do 15 reps the first 2 weeks, then 12, then 10 and then 8. So the goal is to increase the weight and decrease the number of reps. I know that I chose a weight that is too light when I do my 15 reps and I could have done several more. It's also good to do sets, so if you went too light on the first set, you have the opportunity to increase the weight on the second or third set. I just do it by feel, I want to be having difficulty on the last 1 or 2 reps, but not to the point where my form is terrible and I'm about to fall over or something.

    It is very subjective, but I try to stick by this criteria. It's different for every person (and every muscle group, lower body can go heavy than upper usually).
  • Sl1ghtly
    Sl1ghtly Posts: 855 Member
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    don't feel bad. I had this same question a little while ago. :)

    And you can do it at home! I started for about 2 months doing dumbbell workouts at my house. I then got to where I needed to go to a gym because I was accumulating a lot of equipment for my small house.

    No, you decided to go to a gym so you could embarrass all the bros with your massive lifts.
  • fakeplastictree
    fakeplastictree Posts: 836 Member
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    don't feel bad. I had this same question a little while ago. :)

    And you can do it at home! I started for about 2 months doing dumbbell workouts at my house. I then got to where I needed to go to a gym because I was accumulating a lot of equipment for my small house.

    No, you decided to go to a gym so you could embarrass all the bros with your massive lifts.

    Massive schmassive. I'm sure my 15lb dumbbell curl is extremely intimidating. My veins do pop out though. :)

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