Ask HN: Free weights, do you use them?

Okay, a few thoughts:<p>1) Two 10kg dumbbells will be insufficient in even the short term. The idea is to make progress over time; ie being able to lift more weight for the same number of reps.<p>2) You need an exercise program built around the compound lifts. That is:<p>* Deadlifts<p>* Squats<p>* Bench Press<p>* Overhead Press<p>* Chinups/Pullups<p>There's quite a few of these around; Stronglifts and Starting Strength are two that come to mind. Find one of them on the internet and stick to it religiously for a few months. Don't try to tweak it yourself.<p>3) To perform these properly you'll either need to join a gym or get access to the following:<p>* A 20 kg olympic barbell and plates<p>* A power rack<p>* A bench<p>You'll use the power rack to do the pullups/chinups and protect you while squatting and benching (it's much more vital when you don't have a spotter to help you if you try lifting something too heavy for you).<p>4) Form is vital. You can do quite a bit of damage to your body with shitty form.<p>5) Get plenty of rest and healthy food. Diet is probably harder to stick to than working out simply because it takes up so much time.<p>6) Three full body workouts each week is plenty.<p>7) Track your progress. It's much easier to stick to something if you can see that you're putting on muscle/losing fat/whatever. Use spreadsheets with weight/weights lifted, photos of your physique over time, the works.

This is too big of a subject to be addressed at hacker news. Just do your research on the web. Honestly, you will probably get as much misinformation here as you will get anywhere. It also depends on what your goals are.<p>You are seriously limited by 10kg dumbells and if you lack space then your only option for a real free weight workout is to get a membership to a gym. Even if you could fit in a bench and more weights, you should also have access to a squat rack which you certainly wouldn't have room for.<p>Start out with the most basic free weight exercises for each of the major muscle groups and then go from there. Also, start out with just the bar or some small weights to get the form correct. If you don't have experience with free weights you might get a trainer to start out with you and check your form. Alternatively you might find an experienced lifting partner. If the place has mirrors you can check out your form that way as well.<p>Check your progress towards your goals. Those goals will also determine what sort of scheme you end up with. When starting out, you only need to hit the gym a few times per week and probably for about 45 minutes. You don't have to do anything fancy. Once you hit a plateau it's time to change it up, though you need to change things up before you hit that point.<p>As long as you have good form and you don't get injured then you don't have to worry about getting everything else totally right. You will learn along the way and at first you get the benefit of fast progress even with a less than perfect routine. By the time you hit a plateau then you will be far enough along to figure out how to tweak your routine.<p>Also, try to turn this into a lifestyle change. Otherwise you will be one of those people who buy a membership and never go. ;)

At the beginning of April, I picked up a book called "The New Rules of Lifting". I like it, because it explains how to do a variety of exercises of six kinds: squat, deadlift, lunge, push, pull, twist. Also, it describes a few programs, which I find very good for motivation as it gives you specific things to do on a regular basis.<p>When I started, I acquired a barbell, two dumbells, a swiss ball and about 80 pounds or so of plates. I quickly got a squat rack (just something simple; you can only lift so much up to your shoulders and drop it back down safely), but I only recently got a bench. I now have over 200 pounds of plates, which I got at a used-equipment store. I've found that you need a lot of weight for a) squats and b) so you can move from one exercise to another quickly without having to move plates from the bar to the dumbells.<p>I also got a "power gym": the pull-up device that hangs in a door frame. With slight modification to one of my door frames in the basement, I found it works pretty well.

People have gotten way too technical with this.<p>You need to do some sort of a squat, pull, and press at least once a week. Go heavier each workout, or at least each week.<p>You don't need to read any fancy books about physiology, and although I think that Starting Strength is the best book on the market for learning how to train sensibly, it's no replacement for a good coach. If you go to StartingStrength.com, there is a directory of coaches. Or, just find someone at a gym who is strong, and ask him (or her) to show you a couple of lifts. Start comparing what he tells you to videos you watch online, and go from there.<p>Jim Wendler (of EliteFts.com) likes to say that he's glad the internet didn't exist when he was learning how to train because it forced him to go out there and just lift instead of wanking around on internet forums and trying to find the perfect 8 week program.

I would suggest that you can get a lot out of 10kg dumbbells by being creative and very aware. Figure out things to do with the dumbbells that are difficult, then do them carefully with constant awareness of possible injuriousness. Asymmetrical stuff is helpful since most of our activities don't happen on both sides at once (for instance, like carrying groceries) So carry one dumbbell around the house or office with you while you do other things. Set it down. Pick it up with each hand. Put it under the desk. Then fetch it out. Do the things you do every day but do them with weight. Standard weightlifting is great but it can ignore all the smaller muscles that we use every day that support the larger ones. Just don't hurt yourself by either doing the right thing too much or the wrong thing once too often.

Also, if you're already in decent shape and have the time to devote at least an hour per day to working out, I highly recommend P90X: <a href="http://www.beachbody.com/product/fitness_programs/best_sellers/p90x.do" rel="nofollow">http://www.beachbody.com/product/fitness_programs/best_selle...</a><p>You've probably seen cheesy late night informercials for it on TV, but it really is a GREAT way to build muscle and lose weight if you dedicate yourself to it and have the willpower to push yourself to the limit.<p>But don't just take my word for it. It has 4.5 out of 5 stars from 500+ people on Amazon.com: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000TG8D6I/ref=cm_sw_su_dp" rel="nofollow">http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000TG8D6I/ref=cm_sw_su_dp</a>

In college I used to weight train 6 - 7 days a week. I've never been able to get results out of a single set of weights. You really need a full range of weights and a full set of benches (incline, decline, upright, etc) to build any muscle mass.<p>Since you can't really increase mass, you should think about doing a relatively high number of reps and whatever exercises you can come up with. You'll at least maintain muscle tone doing that (you may drop some muscle mass or add fat, depending on your diet).<p>If you just want to be healthy, you can't go wrong with an aerobic exercise (whatever fits your current circumstances). I live in a crowded city and running saves my sanity.

I would suggest reading The Poliquin Principles (<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Poliquin-Principles-Successful-Strength-Development/dp/0966275209" rel="nofollow">http://www.amazon.com/Poliquin-Principles-Successful-Strengt...</a>)<p>It provides a great insight into not only the difference between light and heavy weight but also reps and timing.

I highly recommend replacing those 10kg dumbbells with a set of adjustable dumbbells like <a href="http://www.powerblock.com/blocks.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.powerblock.com/blocks.html</a><p>I purchased a set about 7 years ago and it's probably the best fitness/workout related purchase I've ever made in terms of overall use and value.

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