Hi folks. I've been lifting, using dumbells and now that I'm starting to increase the weights to the point where it's a real workout, I'm wondering if the order makes a difference. It seems to me that I'm not able to lift as much on the curls as I ought to be able to. Does my order need to be changed?

Also, how long do you rest between sets? That also might be part of the problem. I'd like to add a few more things to my routine (using dumbells), so any suggestions are welcome. This is currently taking me about 20 minutes. Does that sound about right?

Here's what I did the last 2 times:
6/30/04:

Warm up - 3 minutes
1 arm row - 15~13 lbs, 12~15lbs, 6~20 lbs
shoulder press - 15~11 lbs, 5~12 lbs, 4~15 lbs
kickbacks - 15~11lbs, 12~13lbs, 10~15 lbs
curls - 15~13 lbs, 6~15 lbs
triceps extensions (dumbell in each hand) - 15~8 lbs, 6~10 lbs
wall pushups - 15 medium-hard

7/2/04:

Warm up - 3 minutes
1 arm row - 15~15 lbs, 10~16lbs, 5~17 lbs, 7~20 lbs*
shoulder press - 12~12 lbs, 6~15 lbs
kickbacks - 15~12lbs, 10~15lbs, 5~17 lbs
curls - 10~15 lbs, 2~17 lbs*
triceps extensions (dumbell in each hand) - 15~8 lbs, 7~10 lbs
wall pushups - 15 medium-hard

*Probably jumped too quick to the 15 lb on the curls, because then having to add a 2 lb dumbell to go higher, didn't work well. I usually try to do 3 sets, but, it's hard to add just one or 2 pounds using dumbells now that I'm getting into the 10-20 lb range. Also I forgot that I had already jumped to the 20 lbs on the 1 arm row the previous time. So I went ahead and just added the 20 lb set after doing the 17 lbs - normally I would just do 3 sets.

Thanks for your help!

Hi Diemde,
You might want to pick up the Body For Life book. I know a lot of people have great success with his resistance training program. I think on his program he says to rest 1 minute between set but that may be appropriate for his routine and certain factors may vary this.
Good luck and congrats on the house!

Here are a few scattered ramblings of things I like to incorporate into my training:
I generally do shoulders before chest, because shoulders are easier to injure and you want to do them when you aren't tired.

Also, start with your WORST body part. For a lot of people, this is abs - I do mine for a warmup, since I like to have all my juice for really flexing hard with my abs. If I waited to the end to do them, I'd do a crappy job because I'd be tired.

If I'm trying to make a strength increment and I feel like I'm stuck, I'll do THAT part first - for example, you might feel like you're curling 12 pounds a side FOREVER, and simply CANNOT perform the exercise for enough reps at 15 pounds. So start with bicep curls and do them while you're at your strongest.

another rule is compound before accessory - e.g. Bench/Mil press before triceps; pullups/lat pulls/rows before biceps - if you tire your small muscles by accessory exercises, you won't be about to do as much weight in compound and you will be less safe as your stabilizing muscles will be fatigued.
Abs after things like heavy squats or deadlifts or olympic lifts (snatch, clean) as you need a stable trunk for those.

now - you will not be able to max out weight on something like triceps after bench & mil press - but you've already worked that muscle anyways. If you want to max it out - do it on an otherwise off day - but you probably don't need to work it extra if you are doing compound excercises already.

LisaS - what a GREAT post! THANK you!

You got a gym log in the works, by any chance?

Archie, Lisa and Built, thanks for your help. I really appreicate it.

Archie, I do have the BFL book and that's helped quite a bit. Only problem is that he has you doing a lot of the exercises using equipment I don't have. I picked up another book, "smart girls do dumbbells" (silly title, but caught my eye ). Haven't read it yet, but maybe I'll get some ideas there, too.

Built, as always you are a big help. Maybe combining your idea of doing the worst body part and Lisa's idea of doing the compound first would be the way to go. Putting my energies first into the areas I need them the most.

Lisa, great suggestion. I'm not sure I understand all the terminology yet, but I get the drift of doing the bigger/stablizing muscles first, then moving out to the smaller muscles. That makes a lot of sense and is something I hadn't considered. And doing compound first... I'm not sure that I know yet which are compound, though. Guess I have to investigate that.

The order, combined with not resting long enough between sets is probably why I was getting too fatigued on some of the exercises I am doing.

Yesterday, I read another post on here, where someone suggested focusing on the stablizing muscles initially for about 3 months so that they are then strong enough to support adding in the other exercises. That seems to go hand it hand with Lisa's suggestion. I'm not going to stop what I'm doing, though, so I'll just need to add the other exercises.

Thanks again for your help!