strength and muscle exercises...results?

[Xcastle]

Hi all,
I've started a 3-times a week, 90 minute, muscle strength and toning (i guess you'd call it that ) workouts and i was just curious...

How long until i should start to see results, considering the exercise is broken down into 3 sections:
Arms
Chest/abs
Legs

and each is done with 2 1kg dumbells

also...what should i start seeing first, muscle definition or loss of fat first? Or do they go hand in hand with each other? i'm just wondering...hehe

[yogibbear]

1kg? 90 mins?

I'm not sure you're doing weight training. Sounds more like swinging around a small object in your hands and legs for an extended period of time. i.e. cardio. Weight training can be done in a pretty short space of time each serssion. The key thing is to do the heaviest weight you can for each muscle group that let's you do anywhere from 12-15 reps until you literally feel like the muscle has failed and you can't lift / do another rep anymore. This way you minimise the time required to do the exercises and maximise muscle fibre rebuilding when you recover over the next couple of days.

[Grapefruit]

You won't ever see definition until most of the excess (if not all) fat is gone, but when you flex you may see the definition and definitely be able to feel it. What keeps me going with any sort of strength training is knowing that when the excess is gone, I will have all that lovely muscle underneath to show for all my hard work!

[workoutdvdworld]

I agree with some of the other members, you will definitely have to increase your weight in order to see some good results. The 1 kg weights are great for adding extra resistance for cardio exercise, but unfortunately they won't do much in terms of creating muscle. You are even better off doing exercises that only use your own body weight, such as push-ups, triceps dips, sit-ups, planks, chin-ups if you have the facilities. Otherwise, get yourself some adjustable weights so that you can vary the weight you use with each muscle group. There are great spin lock dumbbells where you buy different weighted plates. They are not as expensive as buying a whole set of fixed weight dumbbells.
Another great tool for strength training is a resistance band. You can actually do a lot of exercises using the resistance band with lighter hand weights. The band adds a lot of intensity and can leave you quite sore the next day! The great thing about it is that you can shorten or lengthen the band to vary the resistance. You can also buy various strengths of band so you can gradually increase.