Casual Conversation

Congratulations! I want to point out that going from 5 to 6 kilograms is, in fact, a huge jump. That is 20% more than what you were doing before, which is literally huge. That is a big accomplishment -- and also, you won't have to jump by that much in the future.

This is an unfortunate paradox for people at the beginning of their workout careers: the smaller weights are harder to move up in, because each step up is actually a pretty large percentage increase.

going from 5 to 6 is 20% more going from 6 to 7 is 16.7% more going from 7 to 8 is 14% more and so on

So eventually the next weight will only be like 10% more than the previous weight, and that's a much more reasonable amount to increase by. If each new dumbbell set feels way harder than before, just know that the next step up will be easier than the last one you just did.

Congrats on the progress, keep it up! I started lifting weights for the first time during Covid and since then I've turned into that annoying person who won't stop talking about the benefits to anyone who will listen. Before long people will start to notice, and you'll be asked to lift and carry heavy crap

I‘m a guy but i started doing pullups some weeks ago. At first i was able to do one clean and then an ugly one and now am able to do 5-6 clean ones and one ungly one. Pretty cool how fast you are able to progress. I noticed it improved my posture as well, which i like :)

Me! I did it for years while in my twenties, then stopped because of injury, bad form and other circumnstances. Now I've picked it up again but through a personal trainer. My goal is long term mobility and independence, not so much muscle growing so I strength train 3 times a week, pilates or barré 2 times a week and yoga daily to stretch and help my mental health. I love being able to do pushups and other exercises that challenge me and feeling stronger and stronger everyday. Good for you for listening to your body and what it needs, no need to risk injury to kick ass IMO.

I recently started my health improvement journey too. First swimming, then a mixed strength training swimming program.

I think the key is anything you can sustainably do long-term has the biggest life improving dividends.

and even though I can't finish all of my workouts because of exhaustion

You are completing your workouts, if you're putting your body to the point where you've reached exhaustion, or technical form failure, you have created the right stimulus for your body to improve and adapt. That's a success

You didn't mention anything about your diet, I just hope you're taking enough protein, so that you're maintaining and enabling your body improvements.

I found having an exercise buddy has been a great help in staying consistent

Related - are there any active lifting communities on Lemmy? I think I signed up to a couple a while back but haven't seen a single post. Looking at these comments, it looks like we have a number of people interested in the topic.