Buying free weights - newbie

[isthistoonosy]

Hi
Wonder if anyone can help me with some advice.

I'm thinking of buying some free weights, and a barbell (I already have some dumbells that can go up to 10kg each with the plates I already have). What I'm wondering is how much weight am I likely to need, I don't want to shell out for 100kgs and never get past using 40kg. '
How fast does the weight you lift tend to increase, and when does it start to level off (assuming you aren't doing competition type training)? Prob be doing things like dead lifts as I have no one to spot for me.

I was moving logs around yesterday (for the log fires) and have weighed a few bits to get some idea of where I am now. I can lift and walk around with 30kgs, can keep throwing 5-7kgs up 15m, for about 20min, but could barely lift, to chest height one end of logs (leaving the other end on the floor) weighing (at a guess) 80kgs.

Thanks

hopeful bump

Keep an eye on eBay, gumtree and the likes. We've basically kitted our gym out over 18 months with awesome stuff at the fraction of the cost.

We have dumb bell set from 2kg to 50kg which is fab for me (lower end) and DH (he's mainly using 30kg-40kg.

The bar he got and random purchases of free weights in 5 / 10 / 20kg weights to put on the bars. He's just built them up. Suppose you only need to start with one bar and perhaps up to 20kg and then keep adding.

It was more how much weight I should buy that I was wondering about. I'm not in the UK and live remotely (hence no normal commercial gym) so intend to by a bar bell and weigths but not sure what to go for, 60kg / 100 / or more-I've no idea really what amature men and women lift, or how quickly / slowly that increases.

Not sure then isthistoonosey, hope this bumps it for you

What sort of lifts do you want to train? How much weight to buy depends on that really. If you mainly want to do squats and deadlifts then you'll likely need more weight than if you only want to do presses and rows.

If I were buying weights for a home gym, I would get:
Bar (obviously!) - 20 kg
2 x 25 kg
2 x 20 kg
2 x 10 kg
2 x 5 kg
2 x 2.5 kg
2 x 1.25 kg
As well as a couple of good quality clips to to keep the weights on.

That would give me enough of a range. Obviously you wouldn't be having all that weight on the bar at once (or at least not for a while! thinking of deadlifts) but you need a range of weights to be able to increase the weight on the bar in the right increments as you train.

How quickly you improve is down to the individual, but 'newbie gains' do tend to be quicker than if you've been lifting for over a year.

Go for as much as you can get or afford... some exercises, such as deadlift you will be up to over 100kg fairly quick.... others you may never break 60kg...
I'm 5'2" and deadlift 120, squat 100, bench 60 and row 70... kg not lbs.... and aiming higher

I agree with Findo and Sock... if you're training regularly and doing the big compound lifts (deadlifts, squats etc) it's good to get a decent amount of weight available. Newbie gains are a real thing so expect to increase your lifts quickly at the start!

Make sure you get yourself a good sturdy squat rack and you'll be good to go. (I've got a squat rack and bench set up in my garage with pull up bar on the wall and a couple of other bits and bobs. Love not having to go to the gym.)