shopping for weights

[keli400]

Hey Cathe,
I love the new workouts, and they have really inspired me to work on increasing the weights that I lift. I am wondering when purchasing a bar and weights is there anything in particular that I should consider in my decision for weights? I noticed that you list some websites that sell weights --what do you think would be a good purchase for a novice at weights?

One more question, when doing pushups do you have any suggestions for checkpoints to go through to make sure that you are doing them properly? I never feel it in my chest--I think it's more my arms and sometimes my back, and I have difficulty doing the guy style pushups.

Thanks! You are the greatest--I look forward to working out with you every time I play your DVDs!

Keli

 

[dlavie]

Not Cathe but I lift weights

I've never paid retail for weights, there's too many people selling at yard sales etc. The only thing I would buy new is a bar, I think someone at Sports Authority, Dick's or Olympia Sports could guide you through this. You won't need the heavy duty 2" diameter one yet. Remember to add the weight of the bar and collars etc to your total weight

As a novice look for a small collection of large plates, you might not be lifting that much at first, you'll want to invest in some lower weights 5, 2 1/2, 1's etc, as the incremental increases will be smaller.

For collars get the spring type for easier changes.

The only thing I blew my budget on was my bench. I bought a "cage". Its a multifunction, I can do Lat Pulldowns, Curls, Rows as well as bench. the sides of the cage have pins to hold the weight as well as a set of "panic" pins (a set right above your chest level) in case you have to bail out of a bench press, even 15 lbs dropped on your chest is going to hurt or kill.

You can probably get a nice collection of dumbells with weights from 1 to 10 from Walmart, once again you may not need to invest on the heavy ones yet.

Have fun, the equipment will last forever.

 

[keli400]

Thanks so much! That really helps! I went to Sports Authority and there was a cheap set for $60 that I thought would be okay, but I wasn't sure about the collars and then there were all of these bars. So your email helps a lot. I think I will check out Wal-Mart. Cheap is good for me.