If I start lifting 5 lb weights will it make my arms bigger? or does that only happen to men?



They are thin now, I just thought perhaps I could get them nice & toned up a bit for summer.



your thoughts & ideas please:

OH! could someone move this to the Fitness board? (if it doesn't belong here)



Thanks!!

Well, if you're not eating, you won't gain muscle. Maintaining muscle requires energy, and you only get that from calories, ie. food. Eat lots of protein first, and then use the weights.

yep, you need to eat to build muscle. also, if five pounds is already easy for you to lift, lifting it won't really help you.

It remains in this forum until you've proven this is not related to dietary and weight issues.



I think the Freudian slip was appropriate and telling.

Muscle can't be increased without extra calories. Ditto to what everyone already said.

i'm going to ditto everything that everyone else has said



and charity -

Ditto to making sure to eat enough calories. Building muscle requires energy, not just protein.



That said, if you intend on building muscle, you might want to focus on two things:



1) Form

2) Mass of the weight and ammount of repetitions

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First, you might want to get a book on weight lifting, or check one out from the library. I recommend anything from the Gold's Gym series. Ideally, if you can afford it, go to a professional trainer, even is just once.



Basically, if you have bad form, you are likely to injure yourself, or more commonly, get absolutely no results.

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After focusing on form, you can start thinking about the mass you lift, and how many times you do it. 5lb weights are really close to nothing if you are using any large or medium muscle group. If you lots of reps (upwards of 20), you will "tone" up, but not nessesarily build more muscle. What you might need to do is to use different weights for different muscle groups. Use the 5lbs for shoulders. Use 15lbs for back, pecs, legs, etc.



The basic idea is that with large mass and low reps, you build muscle. With low mass and lots of reps you maintain tone.



But you can read this all for yourself, or even better, talk to a personal trainer. I hope this helps.

No. Even men have to lift heavy weights consistently and persistently to get very big. It is something you have to go very much out of the way for. Women who don't take drugs will not get "manly muscular" like the female bodybuilders.

Your question is kind of hard to answer.



Is 5# a challenging weight for you? What types of exercises are you doing?



Aside from the "eating right" thing, which is very important, you need to be doing the right type of exercises.



Don't worry about look "manly." It won't happen.



I agree with xrodolfox. You need to read a book or some articles/magazines about this to learn proper form, types of exercises, etc.



That said, doing a few bicep curls with 5# weights may help you develop a little muscle, if those 5# weights are challenging. But if you can squeeze out 12 reps without any problem at all--and do another 10 or 20--then you aren't lifting heavy enough to see a result.

You get no permission to lift weights until you eat.

What they said. You shouldn't be exercising unless you're eating.

You need good calories (vitamin packed) to gain definition. And 5lbs won't do diddly squat, to make you huge! LOL, don't worry 5 lbs won't make you big.

if you work out without eating your body will burn what muscle you do have to fuel itself. so without eating enough (which while working out is lots) any kind of work out will only make you worse off right now.

Yes you do need more calories if you're going to be working out. When I was in regular highschool our P.E. teacher made people lift weights (there was a special weight room) so I liked the challenge of trying to lift a lot so I gained a lot of muscle in my upper arms (which I didn't like the look of really). Of course I ate more then then I do now, or I would be too weak to lift all the weight. Also lifting so much weight at less amount of repetitions led to gaining more bulky muscle in a shorter amount of time.



I read some of your posts and it seems like you're definitely not overweight so again if you're planning on working out make sure to eat quite a bit more.