I replied to your

I replied to your blog...

Your beginning weights will be unique to what YOU can do.

Hope this helps!

Depends on your goal!

It really depends on what your goals are. For strength training, lift the amount of that causes your muscles to 'fail' between 10 and 15 reps. When you can do that amount of weight comfortably 10 to 15 times, increase the weight. (Summary: Do 2-3 sets of 10-15 reps)

If your goal is toning muscles instead of growing them, increase the amount of reps (which will also cause you to decrease the weight)

Hope this helps!

J

I totally disagree with high

I totally disagree with high reps for toning. Toning and bulking are an effect of diet, not how many reps you lifted. If you are not taking in excess calories, you will tone up, not bulk.

You'd be much better served by cycling through different rep ranges. Spend 4 weeks with 10-15 reps for 2-3 sets, then 8-10 reps for 4 weeks, then 4-6 reps for 4 weeks, then start over again with heavier weights for the 10-15 reps.

That will give you much better results than just endless reps.

You know I started a

You know I started a beginner workout here once I should finish that. As far as the rep thing I would just stick with 10 reps when starting out on everything except maybe abs, like doing crunches and so on. You can do a few more of those if you like.

I would disagree with both of the guys above.
There are things to the number of reps and depending on what you are training and how you are training. For example muscles like forearms and calves respond to higher reps better. Abs and your core is another good example of this you eventually will want a nice six pack and so on and nice strong sides and lower back. However it is best to get this with higher reps in this area. Because if you use lower reps then you need to add weights to work those muscles. well when you add weights then well your abs and side muscles are muscles and they will get bigger and well no one want a big belly. There are also the lactic acid system and other breakdown system in muscles that play into the reps and also if you are training fast twitch muscles or slow twitch muscles.

So until you get some more experience do not worry too awful much about how many reps. Instead concentrate on the quality of the rep. I will use the barbell curl for example to try to answer your question. The starting weight for you should be as much as you can curl correctly for 10 reps. The key is the word correctly. If you watch a bunch of guys around curling watch them closely. The key to a good curl is to not move your hips or your elbows. You will see some guys that are lifting too much weight and they will be swinging their hips like they are trying to make love to that barbell other guys strain hard to keep their hips locked and still. Basically they are cheating by swinging their hips they are using momentum from their hips to get the weight started and their muscles are not getting stronger in fact they risk injuring themselves. A good way to gauge this is get a barbell you think you can curl then stand up against a wall with your back leaning a bit on the wall so it is flat both at the top and at the bottom. Then simply curl keeping your elbow at your sides. if your hips and/or butt come off the wall and you shoulders do not well then the weight is too heavy, both shoulders and your butt should be against the wall the whole time. But you really do want to try to lift the heaviest weight you can just make sure you are lifting it correctly. Just do it properly. Another example is Bench press, if you find yourself arching your lower back then the weight is too heavy.

Also another thing the rep itself is again the most important thing. Again do not worry about how many to start. 10 is a nice starting number if you need a number. Also a rep should be done in military precision style. The speed of your first rep should be the same as your last rep. A good rule of thumb when lifting is 3 seconds to lift and 4 seconds down. Why? Because believe it or not the way down actually builds the muscle much better than lifting, it is the slow resistance that is the key. So keeping this in mind, you start curling 3 seconds to curls the barbell up then slowly taking 4 seconds to get it all the way back down. Then repeat 10 times. However after rep 5, and oh yes I know about after rep 5, which again is why you will sometimes see people doing only 5 reps as there is a system in your muscles that about rep 5 kicks in. Anyway after rep 5 it will start getting harder. It is very natural for the body to try to speed up to get it done. This is where you will start trying to cheat and use your hips. This is where it will take some will power and you will need to force yourself not to cheat, this resisting the cheat gets easier later but you need to be aware of it, your body will not like it. In reality it is almost like going under water, your body will start fighting to come up for air. Well after rep 5 your body will want to speed up nad cheat and try everything it can to get through those last 5 reps faster, this does take some concentration. All this while keeping your perfect 3 seconds up and 4 seconds down for all 10 reps your speed should be exactly the same and this is really hard. This will take you some time to develop so do not get frustrated but always keep that in your mind on how to do a rep. It doesn’t matter if you are doing 30 reps of crunches or 5 reps of heavy deadlifts. They should all be done as perfectly as you can in the proper form and all at a consistent speed. Now keep in mind the hardest thing about this is you have to keep your ego in check. I say this because those guys that are basically humping the barbell when they do curls. They have overly inflated egos because they think they should be able to lift more than what they actually can. Where if you stick by doing good reps. You will actually pass those guys up eventually. Also you will build and tone your muscles a lot faster.