**How Much Weight for Strength Training?**

[Peterlock]

Hi Folks, :wave

First, many thanks to everyone whose been putting up with me as I keep trying to figure out which exercise to add to my walking routine.

Special Kudos to Betty and Jake for not just your support and great information - but for being examples to everyone about how critical exercise is regardless of your size.

From total gyms, balancing balls, treadmills and inline skates I've been all over the map. I had settled on joining a gym but at $300 down and $80 a month I just can't swing it. A friend of mine told me that a pair of dumbbells and a weight bench was a good start for strength training so I've been pricing dumbbells on the web and like everything else you can spend $25 or $500

I currently use two eight pound weights while doing the WATP three mile so my question is how much weight? Do you move up in 2, 5 10 pound increments?

Also I'll be lifting alone (no spotter, like that's not an accident waiting to happen..LOL) in what I've been reading working the muscle till failure keeps coming up - but that for obvious reasons isn't not an option for me. I could drop the dumbbells on my head and dent my new weights!

Any advice would be appreciated

Peter ha

[spirittalker]

Peter I am certainly no expert but maybe you would be better off with a bowflex or something like that. The we don't have to worry about dented weights or dead Peters :hug

[Peterlock]

Susan, :wave

LOL years ago I bought a Soloflex it turned out to be the most expensive clothes hanger in the world.

The Bowflex from what I understand is great, but it's a question of the room and the $$$, and you don't have to be concerned about my head it's those weights you should be worrying about.

Thanks for the suggestion kiddo - did you make the ribs?

Peter ha

[spirittalker]

I did, they were yummy thanks.


Take a look at this-http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...PcY_BIN_Stores

[ttdriver]

Peter,

First off, thanks for your kind words. It makes my day when people see that exercise is important REGARDLESS of your size!! You are certainly on track!!

Second, I would suggest you check out this book: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...03330?v=glance I bought it and it has very good information in it, although alot of it is specific to men .. You can get it inexpensively through Amazon. (order it through ADBB so we can get the credit for the sale!) :hug

As for the weights, starting at 8 lbs is a good start. When you can do a full routine easily at that weight, bump it up to 10 or 12 lbs. When I first started weight training, I was using cans of veggies! (does that tell you how out of shape I was??) Now I'm up to 10 lbs and that seems to be enough of a challenge for me.

Check out the book and let me know what you think!

Betty

[snorkelman]

I have one of those Weider Home gyms. It is a fairly complete gym and i can do most exercises except military press. Anyway, it does take up space (7'X7') so it is now in my garage. I also have a treadmill.

However, your gym prices are sky high. Man for those prices, you can easily get a home gym. Even the expensive gyms like bowflex would be worth the investment, and they fold up i think.

I remember seeing some fancy dumbells once that take up a small amount of space. They are hard to describe, but they allow you to add weight onto them (so you only have a bar and weight clips onto it). That way instead of 20 different dumbells, you only have two and you can clip on whichever amount of weight you want.

Hope that helps.

-- Hey I just found them on the web. they are called Powerblock and i see them for $120 for the pair, which is very reasonable once you start looking at how much dumbells cost.

http://www.powerblock.com/info/dumbbells.html

[Peterlock]

Betty - you're terrific! I now have a picture of you working with a can of cling peaches in each hand.

Thanks for the recommendation on the book I read the reviews on Amazon and they're 100% glowing, there's a copy at Borders with my name on it - I can't wait.

Snorkleman - you're setup sounds awesome, I wish I had the room. You know I had seen those PowerBlock weights on the web and looked at the Bowflex dumbbells too but both pairs were around $500 so my initial reaction was "Yikes!"

I didn't know they made a pair for $125 - you get between 5-25 pounds with that set so I think they're perfect, thanks for the tip!

Peter ha

[ttdriver]

I now have a picture of you working with a can of cling peaches in each hand.

Actually, they were cans of corn ... :yikes It was my favorite veggie (ya know, I'm originally from Nebraska ... the CORNHUSKER STATE... and had the figure to show for it!)

Hope you enjoy the Workout book!!

Betty

[Jake]

Powerblocks are great but personally I prefer to be able to move up in weight higher than 25 pounds. After you max that out you are stuck with some very expensive warm up dumbbells. I'd recommend two adjustable dumbbell handles, they are 4$ a pop at walmart or other stores in the area. Than they sell 2+5+10+25 plates all for varying prices from 2$(5)-15$(25). Grab a few 5's and that would get you started you can adjust as necessary and buy more plates. Much cheaper than the 125$ for the powerblock.

Heres one of my dumbbells, its just a simple golds gym dumbbell handle, and two 25 pound golds gym plates. Very versatile as you can add and remove weight with no limits. http://xs25.xs.to/pics/05165/golds2.jpg

[Peterlock]

Jake,

Funny you left this message - I went to Omni Fitness they're a chain so there's probably one near you.

Anyway, the Powerblocks were nice but I thought the same thing, I would catch up to the 25 pounds soon and you can't add on to them. The next set up goes up to 45 pounds but it's $249!

Long story short, I hit Target and picked up pretty much what you described - bars and Plates by a company called York, 45 pounds worth of plates for each bar and it cost me 35 bucks - it's a start.

I also grabbed a balance ball now all I need is a bench and I'm good to go.

Between you and Betty I'm gonna end up looking like Aaaaaaaaaaaaahnold

Peter ha

[ttdriver]

I have no doubt you will look like aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahnold!! Better, in fact!!

Betty

[Jake]

Sounds great Peter, York is a great company they are extremely tough so you don't have to worry about dropping them.

[joeschmo]

checkout this bench from walmart, i got mine last week and it works fine. at $50 w/shipping the price is great and it has flat, sitting, incline and decline positions, folds up for easy storage. only thing that isnt so great is that it lacks a leg holder for declines and situps but i've found a towel wraped around a dowel works great.

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.gsp?product_id=3377252

[sadie147]

Jake,

Funny you left this message - I went to Omni Fitness they're a chain so there's probably one near you.

Anyway, the Powerblocks were nice but I thought the same thing, I would catch up to the 25 pounds soon and you can't add on to them. The next set up goes up to 45 pounds but it's $249!

Long story short, I hit Target and picked up pretty much what you described - bars and Plates by a company called York, 45 pounds worth of plates for each bar and it cost me 35 bucks - it's a start.

I also grabbed a balance ball now all I need is a bench and I'm good to go.

Between you and Betty I'm gonna end up looking like Aaaaaaaaaaaaahnold

Peter ha

Hi Peter, My hubby has been lifting for years, and swears by free weights and benches(his are all York as well). He says you get the best range of motion, and have far more options than you do with any machine (you can do several exercises for differnt muscle groups just with one set of dumbbells alone). As a couple of people above have said you can get some pretty good benches at some pretty reasonable prices.

For the amount of weight you lift, I have heard if you can lift it 8-10 reps till failure (you CAN'T lift it once more) that's a good weight. If you can lift it more than that it's not heavy enough. You should also use this as a forumula onces you get into a routine, make sure you don't get too used to the weight you're lifting and you keep upping the weight to the next weight level that you can only lift to failure (it's easy to keep going with the same weight not realizing you could be lifting heavier!)

I'd stay away from any Bowflex products, for anyone that doesn't konw they've had more than one recall, and many lawsuits pending from injurys caused by their equipment.

[Peterlock]

Hi Sadie! :wave

Thanks so much for the tips and info, I've been lifting for a few days now and I love it. I used to enjoy it years ago (before gaining the weight) but never really got into it seriously.

Thanks to all the people here who've helped me get started I've saved a small fortune. And the free weights allow me to go at my own pace and adding more weights isn't expensive at all.

I only have the dumbbells but I think for now that's just fine and I've got an excellent book that Betty suggested that has entire body workouts using just the dumbbells.

And thanks for the heads up about Bowflex, I was looking at one of their weight benches - but not anymore!

It's still so hard for me to believe that two months ago I literally couldn't walk up a flight of stairs without sweating like mad and coughing my lungs out The first time I tried the WATP one mile I couldn't make it through to the end. Now I do the three and four mile with 12 pound weights and am up to an additional two mile walk outside...it just amazes me.

I've said this before, but I really believe had Dr. Atkins lived his future books would have really stressed the critical value of exercise to a much larger extent.

Sadie, thanks again for the suggestions - especially learning when to increase your weight I had been wondering about that!

Peter ha