Beginner got couple of questions.

[dwang98]

I like to work on my biceps and I am looking to buy dumbbell for dumbbell curls. My budget is tight so I like to know if you need a pair of dumbbells for dumbbell curls? Will a single dumbbell be sufficient for this purpose? Can I workout one arm and switch to another with single dumbbell?

Also, I took a weight trainning class in high school and I remember the instructor talking about the best way to weight trainning is to do a lot of reps, and keep doing reps until you can't do it anymore. If you keep pushing yourself and do couple extra reps, it is those couple extra reps that really helps in building your muscle.

However, I read couple posts on the internet and it seems like the best weight trainning is to do a set of small reps and do couple sets of small reps, so which method is correct?

[nitrowendigo6]

I like to work on my biceps and I am looking to buy dumbbell for dumbbell curls. My budget is tight so I like to know if you need a pair of dumbbells for dumbbell curls? Will a single dumbbell be sufficient for this purpose? Can I workout one arm and switch to another with single dumbbell?

Also, I took a weight trainning class in high school and I remember the instructor talking about the best way to weight trainning is to do a lot of reps, and keep doing reps until you can't do it anymore. If you keep pushing yourself and do couple extra reps, it is those couple extra reps that really helps in building your muscle.

However, I read couple posts on the internet and it seems like the best weight trainning is to do a set of small reps and do couple sets of small reps, so which method is correct?

well that coach was talking about going to failure. and yes, that does help in muscle growth. However, just going to failure by doing about 30 reps isnt doing much, as that isnt creating a whole lot of overload. Btw how many reps do you consider a lot? If its more than 15, you can definitely increase the weight, as doing any more reps means the weight is too light. Rep amount also depends on your goals. For size, do high amounts of reps, and for strength, do low amounts.

[We_Big]

1. Get a gym membership
2. Clean up your diet, eat high protein food and no junk
3. Work the entire body throughout the week, not just biceps
4. Follow a routine
5. Read stickies
6. Dont listen to the weight training instructor
7. Lift heavy, GENERALLY 5-10 reps depending on the exercise

hope that helped

[NSWK]

To answer you question yes you could get away with one dumbell and on the amount of reps since you are a begginner i would say you would want to do atleast 3 sets of 8-12 reps. More then that you won't gain much mass.

Also i extremely discourage only working out biceps. Sure it may be the most 'popular' muscle but it grows slowly and you will not see noticable results for a long time. The majority of your arm is triceps so your arms would look much more massive if you worked both biceps/triceps. I'd like to add that if you only work out your arms I wouldn't expect more then .5 lbs of muscle in a year(just a rough estimate) if you work out your entire body since you are a begginner you could gain about 10 lbs of muscle(more or less) if you worked hard and did it correctly.