Ahem. You could crush more weight than you can imagine! If you ever wanted to take the plunge!
I have 3’s and 5’s and 8’s on the way. I don’t use the 3’s anymore and 5’s could be challenged. I think 8 is going to be a good next step.
I also like the ones that have a grasp that is coated and a little grippy.
I’m curious, how are you folks using your weights? I thought some pages back at least a few of you were carrying heavy sacks of soil in your gardens?
As @Midwest67 mentions, I’m assuming “you” (the royal you 
) can lift at least 20 lb sack of soil, correct? Bending down properly and picking up a sack of soil (or similar implement) is a wonderful exercise called the deadlift. Or just hold the sack of soil with both arms and squat down and up, assuming you’re healthy and w/o a medical issue that would prevent you from doing so.
There are plenty of weighted items around the house that you can likely use, like luggage.
^ That’s not me working in the garden!
I stream short videos from Fitness Blender when I use the weights. I hope to build up to more but I am extremely weak in upper body strength (always have been) so I’m taking it slow.
@sushiritto I have always felt that my weekend yard work in the spring, summer and fall (extensive squatting, lifting, carrying, reaching, pulling and pushing as I weed, dig, mulch, trim, rake and mow) are the best workouts.
I have been working on my push ups lately. I’ve never been able to do much in this area (there was a time not too long ago when I couldn’t do more than 1). As my arms have toned from a summer of tennis, I’ve been inspired to see if I could improve with them. I read somewhere that the ability to do 40 consecutive pushups is a great assessment of cardiovascular health. I’m up to 12, so … still a long way to go (but a big improvement over where I’ve been).
@sushiritto I’m not carrying bags of dirt in my living room! 
Oh I carry plenty of weight in everyday life - I DO garden - a lot and push a lawnmover 2x a week April-November. I also handle the delivery of 30K books a year to various medical clinics which I have to haul from my office down an elevator, into my car and out in our community.
BUT that is not focused weight energy. I mean, I could use giant soup cans too but that’s a little awkward. Hand weights are designed for the job. They are good to have.
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2724778
@DeeCee36 The ability to do 12 pushups is awesome!
I’m not sure what is meant by “focused weight energy,” I wasn’t a physics major. 
Light hand weights are limiting. Dumbbells are limiting. Are they better than nothing? Absolutely! But you can only go so far with them. In order to develop strength beyond just hand weights (dumbbells) requires heavier weight. That’s why I used soil bags as just one example.
“Odd object conditioning” is part of my weekly workout. Odd objects can include sandbags (or soil bags) and they can be used to pickup (deadlift) or squat, two of the major powerlifts. I also lift them and put them on a shelf at roughly chest height, which is actually a “power clean.”
Also, I’m not suggesting you carry soil bags into your living room, but certainly one can clean, squat or deadlift them outside for sets of repetitions. During shelter-in-place, you should see all the various alternatives people came up with in order to get their exercise.
I am a wimp. When I was doing fitness lunchtime classes at work (mostly many years ago), I usually used 2, 3 and 4 lb dumbbells. I even bought a set of my own 3lb to store in the fitness center closet, to make sure they were always available for me (otherwise if I didn’t arrive early, the small supply was gone from earlybird wimps and/or people doing high weights with multiple dumb bells per hand).
Today was a glorious day here in Colorado. I rode my bike to the local lake trail and ran 5k loop. I considered a bike loop too, but slept a little late today and wanted to go home for late breakfast. My upper body “exercise” came from gardening. Once I am sweaty and full of sun block, it makes sense to get some yard work done.
@sushiritto , I could do reps of soil bags outside - but I don’t want to. That is beyond my interest or likelihood to stay consistent with. Also, not my starting point!
Why are you against people CHOOSING to purchase a couple of hand weights?
@sushiritto Nothing against hand weights, just pointing out their limitation. Also, pointing out that there are probably heavier alternatives available in and around the house.
I sometime lug around bags of mulch. Oh my, it REALLY makes a difference whether they are wet (often the case when I load them at the Lowes parking lot) or dried out.
I’d love to talk DB hand weights & their limitations, but I’ve got some ex-coworkers coming over for Happy Hour & I’m running out of time!
@colorado_mom you are not a wimp! Everyone has a starting point - accept and embrace your own style and place to hang. If it’s 3 pound weights great. If it’s 10 pound weights great. If it’s a soup can in each hand to start - GREAT.
I shared in other places that this was my weekend of coaching 6 games. With my 2 younger teams, I’m on the field as a referee/game facilitator so am moving the whole time.
This lead to a 11K step day on Saturday. On Sunday, I added a walk to the field about 1/2 mile with all my coaching stuff (pop-up goals, bag of balls, coach duffel bag) and after my last game my wife met me at the field (my D took car home with stuff) and we walked to Mexican joint so I ended the day with 16.5K steps.
@jmnva06 I can tell you LOVE coaching - I hope the kids and parents realize how much you do! I have a special spot in my heart for all my son’s soccer coaches.
Thanks so much. You are correct. I really do love it and I think my parents get it.
I mentioned earlier my goal for improving my upper body strength is to have an easier time getting my kayak on/off my roof rack and portaging it across a causeway. The kayak weighs around 50 lbs. So will my weights which currently go up to 15 so a total of 30 approximate this? No they will not. But will doing reps with these focused on different upper body muscles help? I hope so. I also want to do more, I haven’t figured out a TRX mounting location in my house but if I do that my body weight will be more than the kayak. I do other body weight exercises as well. And I might join a gym sometime in the winter when I fell I have reached my limits of what I can do at home with what I have.
Rode the Peleton bike for an hour on my own- didn’t do one of the classes. Will try to get out for a walk later.
@jmnva06 I also want to say that I appreciate your coaching enthusiasm. When my kids were younger, their coaches were SO important in their lives.
I’ll blather on about hand weights here, but with the understanding this is NOT criticism. I’m a BIG believer of meeting yourself where you are! I’m not going to give anyone crap for doing a routine that gives them joy and satisfaction.
I started out using DBs and doing a simple weight lifting program, adding tiny bits of weight, maybe every few weeks.
In my head, I sorta kinda saw strength training (weight lifting) as an “exercise”. In the same way that one would bike/hike/run 3 miles three times a week, I was going to lift weights three times a week.
The lifting weights with DBs did not involve a lot of weight and I was doing a very similar routine week to week & I did not increase the weight very much or very frequently.
At the time, I did not understand how building muscle mass works. There needs to be a large enough disruption in homeostasis. Hey, this weight is ASKING something of my body. This is stress. Your body recovers (sleep and food) and builds more muscle in response. You adapt and can lift more.
There is nothing wrong with doing a cardio video with hand weights. However, it is limiting if one wants to build muscle. Your body will quickly adapt to the routine and the hand weight and it no longer imposes a stress-adaption response.
The same thing can happen in the gym. You might notice people go in and do the same barbell routine each time — years go by and their bodies look the same. Bench 150# for sets of five. Squat 250# for sets of five. For a man, that’s not a lot of weight. If he is doing the same routine each time, he is also not imposing a stress-adaptation response and not building muscle mass.
My podcasts have covered this topic a lot. Women in particular will say things like, “I don’t want to get bulky”, or “I don’t want to lift heavy, I just want to get my arms toned”.
Toned = building muscle under your (increasingly loose) skin. Sarcopenia is coming for us all.
In the Starting Strength program, the Novice Linear Progression, they will take, for example, an under-muscled woman in her 60s and get her doing low bar back squats, deadlifts, bench, press, and chins (or lat pull-downs). Those are the major exercises the program uses for building a foundation of strength.
If she cannot squat the bar (45#), you can try the women’s bar (33#) or a training bar (15#) or even air box squats. Wherever one starts, it’s the progressive overload that drives the stress adaptation response to build muscle.
So, 33# on Monday. 38# on Weds. 43# on Friday. 48# on Monday, etc, until 5# jumps are too much and 2.5# jumps are appropriate.
As a novice, one will get strong VERY FAST. You can easily double your lifts in 4-6 months – and you will see the results of your efforts.
This kind of muscle building is not possible using small weights. Your body will adapt to it very quickly. 5# might make you sore at first, then it’s easy. You can add volume instead of adding weight – but older people have to be careful with volume (injuries). My podcasts say masters lifters can tolerate heavy weight more than they can tolerate a lot of volume, with connective tissue usually being the weak link.
So, circling around, I wouldn’t want someone to start with “I want my arms to be more toned” and to limit themselves to hand weights under 10#. You might put in the effort only to be frustrated by the results months later.
Everyone’s time is valuable, and if you want the biggest bang for your buck, and want to build muscle, lifting heavier is where it’s at. It’s a lot EASIER to lift with a barbell. Imagine pushing something heavy over your head. A single thing held in both hands/arms/shoulders is more stable than holding something in each hand and pushing it overhead.
Re: DBs I started with something like these: https://www.dickssportinggoods.com/p/fitness-gear-standard-dumbbell-handles-pair-16fgeufgstndrddbhwba/16fgeufgstndrddbhwba
I had plates in 1.25# 2.5#, 5#, 10#. I also ended up buying a set of micro-plates off of eBay so I could add as little as 1/2# to the DBs. I was able to do DB bench press, one arm rows, seated overhead press, and goblet squats.
There are lots of great DB or Kettlebell exercises – the trick is if you want to build muscle is to find a way for sufficient progressive overload.
I hope this post is taken in the spirit of sharing information! Take what you can use and throw the rest out! Also, everything I said about building muscle applies to building bone strength too. Lifting heavy will increase bone density because it is asking something significant of the skeletal frame.
There are a lot of good articles at Barbell Logic and Starting Strength. There might be a great barbell gym near you and you don’t even realize it!
The equipment shortage is real, sadly, so setting up at home with BBs or DBs could prove to be a real challenge.