Strength Training

Hey everyone! I'm 21F and I'm looking to continue gaining muscle mass whilst keeping lean. I've spent the last few months whilst in lockdown really shedding a lot of the excess fat I was carrying, whilst strengthening my leg muscles with some basic but consistent exercises a physiotherapist prescribed me.


4 months of doing the exercises and I've toned up a lot BUT feel as though I'm beginning to get stagnant and I'm looking to add weights to my routine to continue building muscle.

I've just bought 2 dumbbells with 20kg worth of weight between them and I need to figure out some sort of progressive overload plan. Please can someone with more experience in this give me an indication on how much weight I should start off with/how much to go up by/how many reps/times per week etc etc?!

I don't track my food but I eat a very healthy, balanced diet whilst getting more protein from powder/bars.

Some basic excercise will help you.
Depending on what the pyshiotherpest told you to do should be ok.

On lifting weight like dumb bells you should start with a lower one like 6 - 8 kg and work up to a manageable limit you comfortable with.

Some local running - say start with about maximum of 5 miles and every week or so increase it till you doing whatever you feel is far enough for you.
Warm upm& cooling down excercise is important as well as otherwise sore & possibly muscles pull.

I do about a 10 mile run every few days when of work and in between I do weightlifting, excersing bike & treadmill and excersing routines at home and when weather too bad it handy to do.

Healthy diet is key too but as long as you cut lots of things out / cut down on portions size and drink plenty water for hydration then you be hopefully okay .

Everyone is obviously different when doing things like this as may take a while to get things under control.

I'm not really able to to give a program of sorts, but progressive overload need not be complicated. As a beginner, you have the capacity to improve something every single workout for a while, which could be weight lifted or number of reps. So I'd suggest recording weight and reps for each exercise and then try to improve on the next workout, even if it's one more rep at the same weight. I'd say once you're able to get more than 12 reps (other people may recommend a different number but this is in the right ballpark), increase the weight by the smallest amount your weight plates allow you to. Taking too big a jump in weight will make you hit a plateau sooner. Slow and steady progress is great.

Where to start?... Nothing wrong with starting with the lightest weights you have, especially since you only have 10kg each side. If you're increasing weight every session you'll soon hit challenging weights anyway. Focus progressing on a few key compound exercises which use lots of muscle mass simultaneously. These are things like squats, lunges, bench/floor press, overhead press and bent over rows. You can do isolation exercises (like biceps curls, triceps extensions and lateral raises) if you want but treat them as accessories. They use only one muscle and won't progress as fast so your main progress should be focused on the compound exercises.

How many time per week? It doesn't really matter. The important thing is to arrange exercises so you don't hit the same muscle groups two days in a row. The lifting stimulates muscle growth, but they grow when you're resting. The simplest thing is full body 3 times a week but there are several other ways to do it.

And of course, eat good and do a bit of cardio too