Hello as you may know from my other post Im just getting into lifting. my question is can I gain strenth and mass by using a lower weight? here is a example I,m wanting to gain strenth and mass in my arms I have a set of 80lbs dumbells but it's pretty hard for me to curl. (4 times max), I am wondering if I work out with 35lbs dumbells if my mass and strenth will incress enuff to curl the 80s with out as much effert? let me know what you think.

Originally posted by tommyboy84:
Hello as you may know from my other post Im just getting into lifting. my question is can I gain strenth and mass by using a lower weight? here is a example I,m wanting to gain strenth and mass in my arms I have a set of 80lbs dumbells but it's pretty hard for me to curl. (4 times max), I am wondering if I work out with 35lbs dumbells if my mass and strenth will incress enuff to curl the 80s with out as much effert? let me know what you think.

Here's what ususlly happens with weights... If you want to tone you need less weight but more reps, otherwise if you want mass and strength use Higher weight and less reps.

However, if you're just beginning, 80lbs is way too heavy. You're might hurt yourself. Start with a lower weight! Since you said you're looking to gain more mass than tone, try doing 5 sets of 5 reps. On the 5th rep it should be difficult to life. If not, increase the wieght by 5. Continue this pattern for all your execises. This helped myself gain noticeable gains in about 1-2 weeks.

As long as you constantly challenge your body, you will constantly change it to how you want it!

_Abs

If i'm reading this right...you're currently doing bicep curls using 35lb dumbbells and you want to eventually get up to curling with 80lbs dumbbells??!

That would be impressive. I dont think I've seen too many people able to bicep curl with 80s.

I can already curl an 80lb dumbell but it's very hard (4 reps max on a good day). but what I've found is that I may have what you could call (brut strenth) but when I do sets with the 35lb dumbells I can only do 3-4 sets of 10 reps befor failure. So I was wondering If I keep using the 35lb dumbeels if it will give me the mass and strenth needed to do sets with the 80s?

Also I was wondering how important it is to keep the palm of your hand pointing up?

When doing curls you should start with the palm of your hand facing the side of you body and as you curl twist your arm so that the palm faces up at the end of the lift. Same rotation on the way down.

If you can curl 80lb dumbells for 4 reps (and I've never seen this done before by anybody and I've been lifting for 20 years), then what you are doing with the 35lb dumbells is a waste of time and you will reap no benefits. 35lb is less than 50% of 80lb and at that weight you can derive no strength gains from something that wouldn't even be considered a warm up.

One other thing, I find it hard to believe if you can do 4 reps at 80lb, that you would reach failure with 35lb after only 10 reps. That doesn't make sense. I think failure with 35lb would be at least 20 reps, if not more.

Bicep curls can be done many ways. I coudl explain a few interesting techniques but i don't want to post something that large right now (i need to get all my workout stuff on my site!).

But you can't gain muscle mass without heavy lifting. Strength comes from being able to move large objects. You'll get that trying to curl 80 lbs! lol If you can do it, then just keep doing it until you can do it more times, your strength will go up. But if it's too much, you'll have to go a lil lower.

Working with low weight doing high reps, you'll work your muscular endurance at that weight and be able to perform longer and harder at that weight. The choice is yours for what you want to gain.

chezz
I dont reach failure at 10 reps of 35lbs. I reach it after doing 3(sometimes 4) sets of 10 reps and thats a precher curl and i do at least 3 sets of them two times a day. when doing standing curls i can do 50+ reps. If i cant reap any benifit from it then why are my arms so sore?