Good For A Beginner?

Hi guys,

I’ve been training for the first time in about 6 years for the last 3 weeks. I’ve lost 9lbs so far down to 191lbs now total, at 5’8. Starting to get a faint outline of abs for the first time in years.

Training I’m having to train from home, I work from home, so I don’t really get a chance to get out much with my other responsibilities. It’s a big part of the reason I’m getting back in to this, I just hate most other forms of exercise and I’ve been sat on my ass for far to long.

I’ve invested in a number of dumbbells ranging from 30lbs > 75lbs. I had to buy singular ones otherwise it’d of got pretty expensive. So I’m training unilaterally at the moment, if I can actually stick to this I’ve made a promise to myself that I’ll buy a power rack + olympic weight set for my garage.

So all in all pretty good, the only thing is I’ve never trained unilaterally before and I have no idea if my lifts at the moment are poor or not.

Pretty much doing straight sets at the moment, linearly progressing session on session with 6 reps, then 8 reps, then 10 reps before increasing the weight.

I’m currently doing 45lbs for my unilateral dumbbell overhead press, 60lbs for rows, 38lbs for curls, 60lbs for floor presses. Any of these areas stick out as a weak point for a beginner to you guys? I’d like to know which I should be focusing on more than the others so I can train that muscle / lift first.

Looks like decent ratios to me.

Chuck in some overhead tricep extensions and goblet squats, perhaps some upright rowing as well.

Having only one of each DB is going to get awkward pretty quickly though I can imagine…

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Thanks.

Yeah the plan is to get the rack etc at the end of month 2. I think by that time if I can keep progressing I’ll need to be moving on to some bilateral stuff, definitely miss doing heavy bench with a barbell too!

Look up Powerblocks. I have them up to 90lbs, they are cheaper than DB’s and save a lot of space. Only downside is you can’t drop them.

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I second this. You need some posterior chain work in there.

I got a start with a second-hand rack, bench, bar, and weights. Maybe watch Craigslist for a deal.

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You can definitely add some additional volume with bodyweight training.

get a lighter db. probably like a 20. If you’re doing curls with a 38 lbs dumbbell, you’re using a heavier weight than I use. I did curls last night with 30. And that’s about the heaviest I’ll go, 35 MAYBE. If you’re a beginner, then there’s no way you’re curling properly with such a heavy weight. For reference, I row with 150+ dumbbells, I bench close to 400, I overhead press mid to high 200’s. Just something to consider.

Also, if you get a lighter db in the 15-20 range, you could start incorporating lateral raises as well.

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