What Weight Dumbbells Should I Use? Starting Weights by Exercise

Most beginners should start with roughly 3 to 5kg dumbbells (women) or 6 to 10kg (men) for curls and shoulder work, about double that for rows and presses, and a single 8 to 20kg dumbbell for goblet squats. The exact number matters less than how the set feels: you want to finish 8 to 12 reps knowing you had about two more good ones left. That two-rep test is what you use to correct the chart below for your own body, and it's the same test you'll keep using to decide when to go up.

One dumbbell weight won't cover every exercise. Your quads can handle four or five times what your side delts can, which is why a single pair of 5kg dumbbells feels too heavy for lateral raises and almost pointless for squats.

Why the weight depends on the muscle

Dumbbell exercises split into three rough groups, and each tolerates a very different load.

Small-muscle isolation work (lateral raises, front raises, curls, triceps extensions, rear-delt flyes) uses one joint and a small muscle working at a long lever. These are the lightest lifts you'll do. A 2kg dumbbell held out at arm's length for a lateral raise is harder than it sounds, and swinging a 6kg one up with your hips doesn't train your shoulders any better.

Upper-body compound lifts (presses and rows) use several muscles together, so they go heavier. Rows are usually the strongest of these because your lats and upper back are big muscles. Overhead presses sit at the bottom of the group, since your shoulders are working against gravity at full stretch.

Lower-body lifts (goblet squats, Romanian deadlifts, lunges, step-ups) involve your glutes, quads and hamstrings, the largest muscles you have. These need the heaviest dumbbells, and for a lot of beginners the limit is grip or how awkward the weight is to hold, not the legs.

Dumbbell weight chart for beginners

Weights are per dumbbell. "Pair" means one in each hand; the goblet squat uses a single dumbbell held at the chest. Treat these as starting guesses for a healthy adult with no injuries, then adjust with the two-rep test. If you're older, returning after a long break or have no strength training behind you at all, start at the bottom of the range.

Exercise	Beginner women	Beginner men
Lateral raise (pair)	1 to 3kg	2 to 5kg
Bicep curl / triceps extension (pair)	3 to 5kg	6 to 10kg
Shoulder press (pair)	4 to 6kg	8 to 12kg
Bench or floor press (pair)	5 to 8kg	10 to 16kg
One-arm row	6 to 10kg	12 to 18kg
Lunges or split squats (pair)	4 to 8kg	8 to 14kg
Romanian deadlift (pair)	6 to 10kg	12 to 18kg
Goblet squat (one dumbbell)	8 to 12kg	12 to 20kg

Notice the spread. A beginner man might use 3kg for raises and 16kg for a goblet squat in the same session, more than five times the weight, and that gap is the main reason buying dumbbells is harder than it looks. Our kettlebell weight guide covers the same problem for bells, where the 4kg size jumps make it worse.

The two-reps-in-reserve test

A chart can only get you close. To find your real working weight, use reps in reserve (RIR): how many more clean reps you think you could have done when you stopped. Researchers developed a lifting-specific effort scale built on exactly this idea, and found it a practical way to judge daily training load, in novices as well as experienced lifters (Zourdos et al., J Strength Cond Res, 2016).

Here's how to use it with a new dumbbell:

1. Pick the weight from the chart and do a set of 10 with controlled reps, roughly two seconds up and two down.
2. At rep 10, ask yourself honestly how many more you could do with the same form.
3. Five or more left? Too light. Go up one step (1 to 2kg on small lifts, 2 to 4kg on legs).
4. About two left? That's your weight.
5. Couldn't finish 10, or form fell apart? Too heavy. Drop a step.

Beginners are bad at guessing RIR at first, and they nearly always underestimate what's left. If you're unsure, take one set to the point where you genuinely can't do another clean rep, count it, and you'll calibrate fast.

Why not just lift as light as feels comfortable? Because effort matters more than the number on the dumbbell. A meta-analysis of 21 studies found light loads (60% of your max or less) built about as much muscle as heavy loads when sets went to failure, though heavier weights still won for maximal strength (Schoenfeld et al., J Strength Cond Res, 2017). Light dumbbells work, but only if the set gets genuinely hard by the end. Sixty easy curls with a 2kg dumbbell won't do much.

When to go up a weight

Use a simple rule: once you can do two more reps than your target on every set, increase the weight. If your plan says 3 sets of 8 to 12 and you hit 12, 12, 12 with good form, go up and accept dropping back to 8 or 9 reps. That's close to what the American College of Sports Medicine recommends for novices: train in the 8 to 12 rep range and add 2 to 10% load when you can do one or two reps beyond your target (ACSM position stand, Med Sci Sports Exerc, 2009).

The practical catch is that 2 to 10% of a 4kg dumbbell is 0.1 to 0.4kg, and nobody sells those. Moving from 4kg to 6kg is a 50% jump, which is why lateral raises and curls stall so often. Before you make that jump, squeeze more from the current weight: add reps up to 15, slow the lowering phase to three seconds, or pause at the top. Then move up and start back at 8.

How often? The NHS recommends strengthening activities that work all the major muscle groups on at least two days a week. Two or three full-body sessions is plenty to make steady progress for the first six months or so, and our full-body dumbbell workout is a good template.

What dumbbells to buy for home

This is where the chart above earns its keep. Look at the range you'll need across all your exercises, then buy to cover it.

Upper body only, lighter goals. A few fixed pairs are cheapest. For most women, 4kg, 6kg and 8kg pairs cover raises, curls, presses and rows for the first few months; for men, 6kg, 10kg and 14kg is a sensible trio. Hex or rubber dumbbells in these sizes are inexpensive, and a dumbbell set with rack bundles them if you want somewhere to keep them.

Full body, including legs. Here fixed pairs get expensive and bulky, because you'd need everything from 2kg to 20kg+. A pair of adjustable dumbbells that runs from about 2kg to 24kg covers the whole chart for women and almost all of it for men, and for many people it lasts years before the top weight becomes the limit. We've done the cost and space sums in are adjustable dumbbells worth it; the short version is that once you'd otherwise buy more than four or five fixed pairs, adjustable usually wins.

Already lifting, or a bigger man. Consider a set that goes to 30kg or more per hand, since rows and Romanian deadlifts outgrow 24kg within a year for a lot of men.

Two dial-type pairs fit the 2 to 24kg brief well. The ATIVAFIT pair adjusts from 2kg to 25kg per dumbbell across ten settings with a quick dial, and was around £246.49 at the time of writing. Our ATIVAFIT adjustable dumbbells review covers the details.

Check ATIVAFIT 2 to 25kg dumbbells on Amazon

If you'll mostly train upper body and want to spend a little less, the EnterSports 20kg pair covers 2kg to 20kg in ten levels and was around £212.47 at the time of writing. That top weight suits most women and beginner men; see our EnterSports adjustable dumbbells review for where it falls short.

Check EnterSports 20kg dumbbells on Amazon

For more options across price points, our best adjustable dumbbells UK guide compares the field.

Common mistakes picking a weight

Using one pair for everything. It's either too heavy for your shoulders or too light for your legs. Most people's home routine needs at least two different weights, often three.

Swinging the weight up. If your hips or lower back jolt to start a curl or raise, the dumbbell is too heavy. You're training momentum, not the muscle you meant to.

Staying light for too long. Lots of women in particular sit on 2kg dumbbells for months out of worry about getting bulky. Building noticeable size takes years of hard, deliberate training and eating for it; adding a couple of kilos to your rows won't change that.

Chasing heavier weight with shrinking range. Half-rep shoulder presses with 12kg aren't better than full reps with 8kg. If the range shortens when you go up, go back down.

Ignoring grip. On Romanian deadlifts and lunges, many beginners hit grip fatigue well before their legs tire. That doesn't mean the weight is too heavy for your legs; it means you need a few weeks for your grip to catch up, or a goblet hold for squats in the meantime.

The short version

Pick a starting weight from the chart for each exercise, adjust it until a set of 10 leaves you two reps in reserve, and add weight when you beat your target reps by two on every set. If you're buying, check the full range your exercises need first; for full-body training at home, that range almost always points to an adjustable pair rather than a pile of fixed dumbbells. Then work through the best dumbbell exercises with it.

Recommended reads

• The best adjustable dumbbells in the UK
• Are adjustable dumbbells worth it?
• What weight kettlebell should I use?
• Dumbbell set with rack: sizes and costs
• More home gym guides