#86: What Dumbbells Do You Need to Start Strength Training at Home?

Thinking about starting weight training at home but not sure what size weights to buy? 

In this episode of 40+ Fitness for Women, I break down everything you need to know to pick the right dumbbells and start your strength training journey—even if you're new to lifting.

In this episode, I cover:

• How to choose the right weights based on your current strength level
• Why starting with just two pairs (one light and one heavier) is often enough
• Tips for finding affordable dumbbells, including adjustable options and secondhand sources

If you've been holding back on starting strength training because you’re unsure about weights, this episode will give you the confidence to get started—without overthinking it!

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• Adjustable Dumbbell Recommendations to help you find the right fit for your needs >>
• My Beginner Home Training Program, that uses just a few weights and your body weight to get you started on your strength journey >>

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to 40+ Fitness for Women
• 0:39 Choosing the Right Weights: It Depends
• 2:04 Getting Started with Available Weights
• 2:51 Adjustable Weights and Where to Buy
• 4:10 Summary and Final Tips
• 4:55 Beginner Program Insights
• 5:48 Conclusions

Transcript

#86: What Dumbbells Do You Need to Start Strength Training at Home?

Welcome to 40+ Fitness for Women. I'm Lynn Sederlöf-Airisto, your host, and I'm a Certified Menopause Fitness Coach, helping women to build the bodies that they want to spend the rest of their lives in. 

And today we are going to cover a question that I get asked probably the most by women who are thinking about starting weight training at home.

And that is. What sized weights should I buy? So let's get into this. It's going to be a short and sweet episode. So my answer is always, it depends. It really depends on how strong you are. For example, you might be somebody who has been going to a lot of bootcamp classes, body pump classes, and all that.

And you have got a little bit of muscle on you already. So in that case, your beginning weights are going to be very different from, let's say, my, one of my clients. who had been ill for a very long period of time, bedridden for a year, and so is building back her normal muscle. That's why I cannot give you an exact recipe.

And the other thing that it's going to depend on is what exercises you are doing because some muscles are stronger than other muscles. So, for example, if you are working your thighs, it may be that you are stronger there than your biceps or your shoulder muscles.

So there's going to be some variance in there. But having said that, I will say that don't let this be the reason that you don't get started. Just get some weights, so I would start with something like, two or three kilo weight. So that's about. Four to seven pounds, something like that for a lighter weight. And then one that's a little bit heavier than that. So one or two kilos heavier or four or five pounds heavier. 

For example, when I started, I just happened to have some plastic dumbbells laying around the house and they were three kilos, four kilos and five kilos. So that's about six and a half, nine and 11 pounds. So if you have something laying around, just get started with that. Now, if you're going to go buy something, then adjustable weights that go from about one, whatever it is, kilos or pounds to about five kilos or till about 10 pounds.

And if you can get adjustable weights that are very quick to adjust where you don't have to be screwing things on the ends, that would be ideal. I have a link in the show notes to some very quickly adjustable weights that you can take a look at for an idea of what these are like, but essentially just get started with something. And then, as you notice that you're getting stronger, go ahead and get some more weights. 

Personally, I have yet to buy a new dumbbell ever. Okay. And I have bought adjustable dumbbells and I've bought some plastic dumbbells for my parents and I bought them from reuse centers. And online, because during the lockdown, a lot of people bought a lot of exercise equipment and now they're just gathering dust in the corners. So it's very likely that you can get some dumbbells at very low price.

So to summarize, Let's not make this too difficult. Get yourself something that's fairly light and something that's a little bit heavier to start with. Which would be something like a six pound weight and 11 pound weight or five pounds and 10 pounds, right? Something like that get your hands on a program and get started and then you'll be able to figure out like where Your strength actually is and it will change very quickly in the beginning. So even if you were to buy Exactly the right weights for day one You Probably by week three, you're going to be strong enough that you'll need to increase those weights a little bit.

 And I'll mention that, for example, in my beginner program for at home training, the lower body exercises, many of them are already challenging with body weight. So most of the students start out. applying simply body weight and they get started and they notice that oh this is tough already with just the body weight and then they can start adding small weights so if you are starting with me, you actually don't need a whole lot of weights to get started. Once you've 10 weeks, then maybe you'll need to start investing in some more weights, but you can definitely get started with just. a couple different sized weights and your body weight in the program. 

All right. So till next week, I wish you happy training.