Newbie Heavy Lifting

There are tons of things you can do at home with just a set of dumbbells and a bench. It is very important that you don't jump right in to lifting heavy, you could seriously injure yourself.

Check out bodybuilding.com for exercises, and look specifically for proper form. Proper form when lifting heavy is crucial, I've seen guys at my gym put 300+ on the bar to bench, and they barely crack their elbows, and their partner gives them a poor spot, don't do that, lol. Since your husband owns weights I'll assume he knows what he's doing, have him walk you through some proper form. Also, be sure to warm up with light weights first, you want your muscles to be warm with a good pump before pushing them to their limits.

Some example leg exercises:
Weighted lunges- just hold the weights at your sides, step forward with one foot, bringing your back knee to the ground, and step back bring your feet together, repeat while alternating which foot you step with.
Squats - Grab a heavier handweight, and hold it laterally with both hands, so that the weight is right about below your clavical, maintaining good posture, perform a squat.

You will be a little limited by the weights, for example if I were to go heavy with squats, dumbbells would never suffice. But a good rule of thumb that is easy to remember is "more than 8, add weight". If you do a set and can get 9 reps, go up in weight. Your target rep range for heavy lifting is about 6-8 (could do 4 if you went really heavy, but I wouldn't suggest it for a beginner). Sets could be 3-5 depending on how you feel, not including your warm up sets. I usually do 1 warm up, 3 heavy, 1 cool down. My cool down set is light weight and I do as many reps as I can until I can't do any more.

In a nutshell, heavy lifting means you reach the point of muscle exhaustion around 6-8 reps (or sooner). Toning generally means you can get 12-16 reps during a set before this happens (or more).

Also, heavy lifting means more sets, fewer reps, higher weight. You may see the 5x5 next to some exercises.
For toning, you may see 3x12, or something similar.

The key is to work your muscle to exhaustion during the set, and rest for 30-60 secs. Lifting heavy will bring you to exhaustion sooner than toning. Both have their benefits.

Please do all of this carefully. Working your muscle to exhaustion means you may need a spotter on some exercises. Use common sense with this method and make sure to ask for help if you think you will need it. No need to injure yourself when trying to build a healthy body.

Strong Lifts 5x5 is a good starting program. It lays out everything for you...where to start, how much to add and when. I started it not too long ago and I like it so far.

Be prepared to spend a few sessions (with recovery and rest in between) to determine proper weight to use.
Simplified approach:
http://exercise.about.com/cs/exerciseworkouts/a/weight101_4.htm Links from there have other good starting info too.

from link: ...."The easiest way to determine how much weight you should use on each lift is to guess (not very scientific, huh?):
1.Pick up a light weight and do a warm up set of the exercise of your choice, aiming for about 10 to 16 repetitions.
2.For set 2, increase your weight by 5 or more pounds and perform your goal number of repetitions. If you can do more than your desired number of reps, heavy up again for your 3rd set.
3.In general, you should be lifting enough weight that you can ONLY do the desired reps. You should be struggling by the last rep, but still able to finish it with good form."...

Good luck