>Start at 10 pound dumbbells
>Slowly build up in strength over a year and a half to the point that I am at 25 pound dumbbells.
>Most people consider 25 or even 30 to be baby starting newbie levels of lifts.
I'm glad to be progressing but I feel like the weakest manlet if I feel like I'm struggling with most people say I should take for granted.
Also at what point levels of lifts with dumbbells can you even hope to leave DYEL territory? 40, 50, 60?
What are you doing with those dumbbells
masturbating. im trans btw.
bumping for a real answer because I also need this information
I took the starting strength pill back in the day, then moved to SL. I rocked 25-30 for curls for like 2 years even when I hit a 1000 PL total. I might have been at 35's at that point, but I don't remember. I was strong as fuck for the most part, and normies thought I was 'jacked" but I was not aesthetic at all. Don't worry about it too much and just keep putting in the work.
>>Most people consider 25 or even 30 to be baby starting newbie levels of lifts.
for what lift?
Carry on
Please tell me you're doing anything besides just DB curls.
For further clarification when it comes to my scapations, side lats and zottmans and hammer curls I do 10 to 15 pounds
They don't say but google it and you'll find threads like "Is it even worth lifting with weights as light as 20 pounds?" on reddit or random bodybuilding sites.
Basic things like mentioned above, some overhead presses, Farmers Walking, floor presses and rows.
On leg days I do Fire Hydrants, shit I forgot the name of, squats, lunges and deadlifts.
For abs I do jack knives.
>hammer curls I do 10 to 15 pounds
Wtf? I did fully supinated curls and I was at 25-30lb by 6 months at least. I just kinda stalled there for a long time
I guess to be fair, I'm a true 6ft and about 175 lean. Maybe your a woman, or even worse a m*nlet
my nigga, a year and a half? you must be the most inconsistent mother fucker on the planet or you consider a workout 3 reps
I go through these exercises with 10 reps each for a set.
My upper body day starts with an arnold into the lateral, scapation, zottman, hammer then farmer's walk.
I do a couple of push ups before I get down on the ground.
I started with 10lb dumbbells and knee push-ups because I was too weak to do a normal one. Everybody has to start somewhere.
Where are you at now user?
I've never had the problem of not being able to do normal push ups but I've never been fit or active. I went from skinny fat to semi-fat to back to normal after a few months of cutting lately. I moved up from 20 pounds then a month ago at the end of that cut.
ok and how often? there is a lie here somewhere.
I try to do upper body and leg days twice a week, with cardio/running in the park on the same day or rest days as I can.
There are a few weeks where I am unable to fit them in but those are rare.
>I go through these exercises with 10 reps each for a set.
Something is wrong somewhere. I doubt you are going to a high level of exertion. If you are able to do 10 reps (as a beginner) you should probably be able to do 11 reps the next time. Or go up a couple pounds and then do 5-10 reps, and then go in again and do that higher weight again for another 1-2 reps. It's called progressive overload and it's the foundation of strength training. If you just go and do the exact same shit over and over again, of course you aren't going to see any improvement.
When I feel like I've gotten used to it I raise the weight of the dumbbells by 5 instead.
Its just it takes a long ass time for it to feel like it's not a lot of exertion or danger to my shoulders in the case of laterals.
In any case I'll try raising the amount of reps for tomorrow. At what point of reps would you recommend increasing the weights? 15, 20?
there's 'rep ranges', but shoot for like 10-12 for 3-5 sets. If you can do 12x5 and it doesn't murder you, then you definitely need to up weight. For DB shit, 3x8 that wears you out is the minimum volume you want to shoot for.
NTA but can you build muscle with only 1-2 sets if you're doing lots of different exercises for the same muscle groups?
5x12 and 8x3 I mean, I'm fucking tired.
How the fuck did it take you a year and a half? After 2 months I've gone from 10lbs to 30lbs.
Depends on the volume of the sets. 2x25 is a lot of volume, but it has a very specialized purpose. In a very general sense, extreme strength is 3-5 reps, general strength is 5-10, hypertrophy is 10-15, and over 15 is endurance.
yes. total amount of sets are the driver, not the literal exercise. which approach works better isn't clear though, and kinda depends on your goals
Here's my routine if you want it since it gave me those results way faster than whatever routine you've been following.
It's Natural Hypertrophy's dumbbell only workout.