Reply to Do I have to use heavy weights?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]For general health and fitness, it doesn't really matter if you are doing sets of 15-20 (with relatively light weights) or sets of 5-7 (with relatively heavy weights). But to build strength, you do need to be using weights that are heavy enough to really challenge you. You don't have (and probably shouldn't) go to exhaustion, where you literally couldn't do another repetition if your life depended on it. But the last rep of the set should feel quite difficult and give you the sense that you couldn't do more than a few more.

Also, it's generally more efficient to do exercises that engage multiple large muscles, such as rows, deadlifts, and squats. You will naturally use heavier weights for those than for exercises like shoulder curls and bicep curls.

For instance, according to https://exrx.net/Testing/WeightLifting/DeadliftStandards60LB, an untrained, 97 pound woman in her 60s should (on average) be able to deadlift 30 pounds. Unless you are a frail, small, elderly woman, deadlifting with 10 pound dumbbells won't help. (And the standard for a "novice" 130 pound woman in her 40s is 115 lbs. [/quote]

These deadlift amounts aren’t with dumbbells are they? I would pull a back back muscle if I lifted that! I usually do 15lbs for each dumbbell (30lbs total) and do it nice and slow, and feel it in hamstrings and glutes. [/quote]

NP: I lift weights regularly - 57F - Goal is overall fitness, decreased body fat %, bone strength.  I deadlift 70lbs currently and I try to bump it up 5lbs every other time I go which is 3x's a week.  I use a 45lb barbell plus plates. [/quote]

Thank you because I am about the same. Not sure where mid 40s woman should be able to deadlift 115 pounds came from. I am mid 50s and work out twice a week with a trainer and have for two years. Not even deadlifting 100 pounds yet.[/quote]

I think there’s a difference between dumbbells and a barbell. If you’re using a barbell you can lift higher weights more easily. [/quote]

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