#46: How to start lifting weights at home with just dumbbells
Welcome to 40 plus fitness for women. I'm Lynn, your host, a certified menopause fitness coach. And today we are going to be talking about a big question that I get all the time, which is that, can you really start weight training at home and see results? And the answer is an astounding, yes, of course you can.
But it requires certain things. So let's get into that.
So as you might guess, the majority of my clients are women in their forties, fifties and sixties, and they are starting weight training for the first time or coming back to it after a long break, or they've been trying it out themselves and then realized that, Hey, you know, this, this isn't quite as straightforward as I thought, and I would like some help.
And [00:01:00] what's interesting is that 90 percent of my clients actually want. To weight, train at home. I mean, I offer them the option of training at the gym or training at home with just dumbbells. And the majority do actually want to train in home. And I understand that really, really well. I mean, I started weight training at home myself when I was in post menopause.
And there were a few really good reasons for that. The first of which was. That I didn't really want to be seen in the gym, right? I did not like the way I was looking. You know, I'm somebody who's been an athlete all my life and Always used to looking firm and fit and like I do exercise and, and suddenly I wasn't looking like that anymore.
So I can completely identify with you. If you are somebody who doesn't feel super comfortable doing something [00:02:00] that's brand new to you, and then you're feeling self conscious in a new place, and you're not feeling that great about your body at that particular point in time.
So starting at home is really wonderful for that reason.
And there are other benefits to starting weight training at home. Another one is that you do not have the commute that you would to go to the gym and come back from the gym. When I was weight training at home, it was just chicks downstairs into my bedroom because I was training on this area that fit a yoga mat right between my bed and the bench that I kind of throw my clothes on every night.
And that was enough space for me. And I had my dumbbells. I just quickly change into whatever because nobody's going to see me, right? And then get going with my training. So it was super easy. And then if my kids came home or they needed me or whatever, I was there close by. So it saved me a ton of [00:03:00] time versus.
Getting dressed to go to the gym, going to the gym, parking, going into the locker room, changing clothes, you know, all those steps that are involved if you're going to the gym. So really, really nice. So anything that lowers your barrier to entry is a very, very good thing.
Another thing that's great about it is that you don't need to wait to use the equipment. Gyms tend to get very busy and especially beginning of the year or right after summer vacation when everybody's like, Oh, now I need to get in shape again. Yeah, it can take a lot longer to get through your training session when you've got other people using the dumbbells that you want or using the equipment that you would need.
Sometimes my training sessions will run over by even as much as a half an hour, just because of those slight delays in getting the equipment that you want. So training at home doesn't have that kind of risk.
Another great [00:04:00] thing about training at home is that there is so much of a lower barrier to videoing your own sets. Now I have to say that in my group program, it really takes a little bit of arm twisting to get the ladies. To actually video their own sets. But when they do, it's amazing what they will notice.
They'll be like, Oh, I thought my elbow was going a lot lower than that. Or, or, Oh, I realized that I'm actually, you know, moving a lot rather than holding my body. Still. So lots of these kinds of things that you can notice by yourself in your technique. If you are taking recordings of your sets, and I know that can be a lot more intimidating in the weight room, especially if there are a lot of people around,
and you may feel more self conscious, like getting that phone set up to record you. So that's another great part of training at home.
And then for you mothers out there, there's a benefit that you probably never even thought about, [00:05:00] which is that your kids see you weight training. Now this happened to me, even though I'm training in my own bedroom, but you know, every now and again, one of the kids would wander down or I'd tell them that, Hey, I'm going to go do my workout or whatever, and all.
Three of my children, so I've got two boys and a girl, all three of them have started weight training. And I like to think that I had a small piece of making that feel much more accessible to them, like not a strange thing. I mean, hell, if mom can do it, of course I can do it. Right? So those are some of the real benefits of weight training at home.
Now there are a few downsides and these are downsides for some people and maybe not such downsides for others. One thing for sure is that there are certain muscles that are just harder to train at home. For example, your [00:06:00] hamstrings, hamstrings in general, uh, the best way that I've found to train them is to use the seated leg curl.
So if you're somebody who is going to train at home and you do go to the gym, let's say for aerobics classes, then maybe consider going to the weight room. Just long enough to do a few sets of the seated leg curl. To get your hamstrings worked because other exercises where you work your hamstrings are in, for example, deadlifts, if you are doing them with a little bit more of a straight leg.
So I mean, Romanian deadlifts, or some people call them straight legged deadlifts there. You use, your hamstrings more, but they are a bit challenging to train at home. So that's one thing to keep in mind. And then the other, which is tougher to train at home is a kind of pull down,[00:07:00] , motion. So when you're training upper body, some of the basic movement patterns that you want to be doing are you want to push horizontally, pull horizontally, push vertically and pull vertically and pulling vertically.
When you've got just dumbbells, you can imagine like, you know, pulling vertically would be if you're doing a pull down on a cable machine at the gym, or if you were doing chin ups or pull ups, but with dumbbells, you can't really replicate that at home. But so those are like a couple of the little bit downsides, but you know what, do not let those stop you because there will be some things that you can do to work those same muscles.
But it's just going to be. Let's say a little bit more boring in the sense that you won't have as many exercises to choose from. Right? So you might be doing the same exercises, which actually brings me [00:08:00] straight to point two downsides of training at home is that there just is less variety of exercises, especially if you're working just with dumbbells.
Now, if you're at home and you've got a cable machine and all kinds of other things, then You know, that's a different story. If you've got a setup, that's much closer to what you would have in a commercial gym. But if you're at home with a mat and dumbbells, which is absolutely plenty to start with the, there's just more of a limit of what kind of exercises you'll do.
So you'll just be doing the same exercises or rotating between the same few exercises to particular muscle groups. So in that sense, it might feel a little bit more boring.
And then, and then the wonderful issue that you may come across at some point, which is that you're going to get so strong that it might be, you know, that you need to invest in more weights or might be a little bit cumbersome to have such heavy weights at home. [00:09:00] Now nowadays there are really clever adjustable weights out there, adjustable dumbbells, where you literally like you turn the dumbbell handle.
When the dumbbell is in this kind of, holder that it comes with and depending on where you turn it to when you pick up the dumbbell, it will be heavier or lighter. And those are super duper handy.
Okay. So those were the pros and cons, but now let's talk about what you actually do when you're training at home. Now, if you have some dumbbells just laying around, that may be a good starting point for you. It really depends on how strong you are. It is impossible for me to tell you what size dumbbells.
To get, you'll need to test what dumbbells are the right weights for you. And in fact, I have a podcast episode about how to choose your starting weights. And I will link to that episode in the show notes. So check out [00:10:00] the show notes. But for example, for me, I, one of my friends had moved probably. Oh my God, 15 years ago and given me some plastic dumbbells, two different plastic dumbbells.
And then somehow I had ended up with a third set of plastic dumbbells and they were all different weights. So they were three kilos, four kilos and five kilos. What luck. Right. So I started with those. And. Um, they were actually a very good weight for me in the very beginning. Now I have to say it did not take me long to outgrow.
In other words, become too strong for those dumbbells to work for certain muscle groups. And for sure, if you think about like your legs, your glutes, um, Well, even my biceps outgrew them quite quickly. So you may need to invest in more dumbbells as you go. Now there is a secondhand [00:11:00] market definitely for dumbbells or else you can make the investment and buy the adjustable dumbbells, which just make it like that.
You don't have to have so much equipment because it's basically the one set of dumbbells that are adjustable to different weights. And then you use that same set for all of your exercises. Okay. And, but the thing that you need is you need a program, right? You need somebody to design a program for you that will hit all of your muscle groups twice a week.
And that program is going to look a little bit different if you're working out twice a week. So it'll be two days of full body workouts or three times a week. If you're working out three days a week, I generally Um, program it. So you've got an upper body day, lower body day, and then a full body day. So that again, you hit all the muscle groups twice a week, or four days a week where I split it as two upper body days and two lower body days.
[00:12:00] So you want that program designed by somebody who understands which movements are working, which muscles, right? And then. You want to follow that program, put it in a tracker. So if you're downloading this from somewhere online, or you get it from a personal trainer or whatever, stick it in a tracker. And the reason the tracker is so handy is because you want to make sure that you're applying progressive overload as you're doing your training.
So what that means is that as your body gets stronger, each individual muscle group or muscle, depending on, you know, whether you're doing a compound or, or an isolation exercise, as those get stronger, you need to, challenge them more and more and more. Otherwise they will stop developing, right?
They'll just stagnate at that point.
You want to be sure that you are taking recovery days [00:13:00] just like everybody else, right? So the training session is the stimulus for muscle growth, but the growth actually happens during the recovery time. So you need to wait, uh, at least. 48 hours before you work the same muscle group again. And now how quickly you recover is individual.
And it can also depend on the kind of training that you're doing. So you'll notice that if, when you go back, To work out the next time, if you feel like you're not able to lift as heavy as you were last time or match the reps at least, or go up in reps, then maybe you haven't taken enough recovery and other things that can affect recovery are like, let's say you went out partying.
So, so you put some poison, i. e. alcohol into your body, or you haven't been sleeping or you're stressed out because. broke up with your [00:14:00] boyfriend or Christmas season or whatever it is. So those kinds of factors can also affect how quickly your body recovers from the workouts. And then the last ingredient that you need to be sure that you're taking care of is Protein, which is important because that is what muscles are built up.
So as you eat protein, you're giving your body amino acids, which are the building blocks of muscle, your body, then can use those amino acids to. Build your muscles to grow them stronger. And by the way, your body does not store amino acids for future use. So you need to be consuming them on a daily basis in order to maintain and build your muscles.
But essentially working out at home, you know, you do your program the two, three or four days a week you do, intense lifting where [00:15:00] you are always pushing yourself to do a little bit more and a little bit more. Take those form videos, take advantage of the fact that you have all the privacy, right?
You can take the video, look at yourself. If you don't know what to look for, absolutely get a coach to look at your form videos for you and to give you. Tips on how to tweak your form and then do those exercises over and over again. When you're given a program, I would say, I mean, honestly, a lot of personal trainers say, Oh, at least six weeks, but man, when you're starting out weight training, you could probably do the same exercises for three or four months before you really have got the hang of it and really are able to start pushing your body.
This is my experience from working with women who have just started out that if I had switched them after six weeks, I think it would have [00:16:00] really been a setback for them because then they have to learn new exercises when they're just feeling familiar with the first ones that they were given.
So. Be prepared to be doing the same exercises for an extended period of time when you start out and then gradually switch exercises as your coach recommends.
And then just a final point about equipment. So in addition to the dumbbells that you have, so, I mean, like I said, those can be some assorted dumbbells that you get from friends and family, or you can invest in some dumbbells, get a yoga mat so that you can do some of the exercises lying on the floor.
And then you'll need a sturdy bench for things like Bulgarians split squads or doing hip thrusts and these kinds of things. And if you are going to invest in the next piece of [00:17:00] equipment. I would suggest an adjustable bench, i. e. one of those benches where you can get it to sit all the way up at 90 degrees and then down at various angles all the way to flat, because those adjustable benches actually enable you to do a lot of interesting things with your dumbbells as well.
Okay. So I guess in summary, there are so many pros to starting to weight train at home. Absolutely. You are going to get stronger and build muscle if you're following a program and applying progressive overload as you go. And all you really need is dumbbells. And a good program and then to consistently follow it.
I mean, it couldn't be simpler. Two days a week is plenty to start with. If that's all you can fit into a week, do that. Get familiar with that. If you have more time, you could do three or four days a week, [00:18:00] but starting weight training does not require, you know, four days a week. So Yeah, let's make that clear.
And if you're looking for help to get started, then please check out my programs. I have self study courses where you can get started today if you want, and those allow two, three or four days a week training either at home or at the gym. So for those of you who are listening who would rather go to the gym, then that is a possibility as well.
And the other option is to join my learn to lift with Lynn program. And I launched that. In January, and then two or three other times a year, kind of depending on, how much time I have and how many people are on the wait list are interested in getting started.
And with that, I wish you a wonderful week. And hopefully those of you who've been listening, who haven't gotten started yet, get going. [00:19:00] I hope this lowered the barrier for you just a tiny bit more.
Have a great week and happy training.