Yes, you can still make progress in weight training with dumbbells that are 25 lbs. and under. While heavier weights can provide more resistance and potentially lead to faster strength gains, you can still build strength, increase muscle mass, and improve your overall fitness with lighter dumbbells.
Most guys can gain 0.25kg/0.5lb of lean muscle per week when they start lifting. That's about 1kg/2lb of muscle per month or 12kg/24lb in a year. This assumes you do an effective training program like StrongLifts 5×5, eat well, and are consistent. Muscle gains slow down after the first year.
Medium vs. Heavy Weights. For beginners, Ben recommends trying five to 10 pounds for light weights, 10 to 20 pounds for medium weights, and 15 to 30 pounds for heavy weights—or simply starting with five-pound weights for each exercise and working up from there.
Resistance training promotes muscle growth. Examples of resistance training include the use of free weights, weight machines, your own body weight or resistance bands. Suggestions include: Train just two or three times per week to give your muscles time to recover.
Lifting heavier weight (approximately 70-75% of your one-rep max) activates Type 2 or “fast twitch” muscle fibers, which are important in developing strength and promoting hypertrophy (muscle growth along with an increase in the size of muscle cells).
Indeed, significant progress can still be achieved in weight training with dumbbells weighing 25 lbs. or less. Although heavier weights may offer faster strength development, you can enhance muscle strength, size, and overall fitness with lighter dumbbells.
They sometimes think they can't train hard anymore, but if they just go lighter and do more reps, they can build muscle too.” Bottom line: “It's the effort you put in that matters most,” Hyson says. “Lifting heavier builds more strength, but lifting to failure with any weight can build bigger, more aesthetic muscles.”
Remember that you will likely gain more muscle during the initial one to three months of training, but gain less after. Overall, around 8 to 15 pounds per year is a general estimate of what to expect from gains, but some people may add more or less.
Choose a weight or resistance level heavy enough to tire your muscles after about 12 to 15 repetitions. When you can easily do more repetitions of a certain exercise, gradually increase the weight or resistance.
A good rule of thumb is that people tend to notice your weight loss when you've lost around 10% of your starting weight, so if you started at 250lbs, people will start to notice when you've lost 25lbs. Naturally, the same amount of weight loss can look different on different people.
A moderate repetition scheme with moderate loads (from 8 to 12 repetitions per set with 60% to 80% of 1RM) optimizes hypertrophic gains. A high repetition scheme with light loads (15+ repetitions per set with loads below 60% of 1RM) optimizes local muscular endurance improvements.
There is no set weight to start with when using dumbbells, some people may feel comfortable beginning at 5kg and others at 15kg. It is important to start with a manageable weight, nothing too light or too heavy, as you want to be able to feel some impact.
Prisoners get into great shape during their time incarcerated. Some of the mass monsters have some 'help', but the average prisoner's physique shows you that doing more exercise really is the most important factor, even without bars, dumbbells, or machines. Doing more physical work is the point.
Muscle tissue burns more calories than fat tissue, even when you're resting. More muscle means your body uses more energy, making it easier to lose weight and keep it off. “Investing in your muscle mass is like investing your 401(k),” says Kate.
Strength-training workouts that employ low weights and high reps are good for your heart and lungs as well as building muscles. This includes high-intensity interval training (HIIT) workouts, which entail alternating between pushing your body hard and taking short breaks.
Protein and creatine are both beneficial supplements that may help you reach your fitness goals — whatever they may be. Creatine gives you the extra energy you need to power through your workouts and boosts athletic performance, while protein helps build and repair muscles for a more effective recovery.
Rest between set durations should be based on sets/exercise (volume), and not load or training goal. General recommendations include moderate (2 min) rest between sets if performing 2 sets/exercise, long rest (3 min) if performing 3 sets/exercise, and very long rest (> 4 min) if performing 4 sets or more/exercise.
The lats tend to be one of the hardest muscles to develop.
For most folks, this means that muscles like the pectorals, biceps, triceps and even lats should be a little easier to grow, whereas the glutes, calves and traps might be tougher, since they have a higher percentage of slow-twitch fibres."