Increasing Dumbbell Weight

Exercising is hard enough as is, but it’s made harder by the stigma of using small weights. Many people talk about not feeling comfortable in the gym because they feel like they are being judged for using small weights. Don’t let that hold you back from exercising to improve your health, decrease your pain, and reduce your risk of injury.

People need to use light weights for many reasons:

• They’re recovering from an injury.
• They have arthritis or another condition that makes movement difficult.
• They're new to exercise.
• They’re muscles have atrophied due to age or health problems.
• They're avoiding injury.
• They’re pregnant or recently gave birth.
• They’ve had an exhausting day and just want light exercise.
• They’re focusing on exercise form.
• They’re focusing on increasing their range of motion.

Increasing your weights is important, but only when you are ready. If you do so before you're ready, your risk of injury is no longer decreased but instead increased.

If you’re struggling with increasing your weights during your exercise journey, don’t be discouraged. People say that you should be increasing your weights every couple weeks to a month, and if you can’t do that, then you might as well not lift at all.¹ However, for many, that’s just not possible. For everyone, it’s not really even advisable to increase dumbbell weight that quickly. It can be incredibly difficult to increase weights. There’s a good reason why. 

Let’s think about it mathematically:

• Increasing from 1 lb to 2 lb is a 100% increase.
• Increasing from 2 lb to 5 lb is a 150% increase.
• Increasing from 5 lb to 8 lb is a 60% increase.
• Increasing from 8 lb to 10 lb is a 25% increase.
• Increasing from 10 lb to 15 lb is a 50% increase.
• Increasing from 15 lb to 20 lb is a 33.3% increase.

You get the point. The reason why you're struggling to increase your weight is because it takes a long time to prepare your muscles enough to tackle percentage increases that high. 

The secret to effective exercise is repeated hard work. If you feel stuck on 5 lb dumbbells, but it still feels like hard work, then you’re not stuck. Your body is still working on using that extra weight, and it's still effectively exercising. Whereas, if you’ve been using 5 lb dumbbells for a couple of years and they’re starting to feel easy, then you’re probably ready for a new weight. However, don't be surprised if increasing your dumbbell weight to 8 lbs feels almost impossible and you’re only able to use the 8 lb dumbbell for part of your workout.

If you would like to progress to heavier weights, then start your set with heavier weight and then add in the current weight you have been doing for a while. For example, you perform a bicep curl with 5 lb weights, but you want to move up to 8 lb weights. First, start your set with 8 lb weights and do as many as you feel like you can. Then, complete your set with the 5 lb. Each time you repeat the exercise, start with the higher weight. Then, drop to the lower weight when you fatigue and you cannot maintain your form.  

The point to remember is someone else’s light weights might be weights that are heavy enough for you to get a good workout. All that matters is you’re putting in your best effort everyday you show up.

Sources:

1. https://newsroom.unsw.edu.au/news/health/lift-heavy-or-smaller-weights-high-reps-it-all-depends-your%C2%A0goal 
2. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17461391.2018.1450898?journalCode=tejs20   
3. https://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/wk/jsc/2022/00000036/00000002/art00012