First time

I just went to the gym for basically the first time and I started curling dumbbells and realised I'm incredibly fucking weak, I could barely do 3 sets of 10 reps at 12KGg on each arm and I was super struggling on my 3rd set. But then when I started working on my legs I found I could quite easily do about 60KG on the leg press, is this normal that my arms are weak as shit but my legs seem to be reasonably powerful. Or is 60KG about normal for first time on legs?

I kinda feel like one of those wacky waving inflatable arm flailing tube men right now.

Obviously your legs will be stronger. You walk right?

I always skip dumbells. I have skinny arms and don't even know which dumbbell I should use honestly.

I just do cardio and machines. I wish I was as muscled as guts

What's your height and weight? A 12kg curl (assuming you mean each arm) actually isn't bad at all for babbys first lift. 60kg leg press is comparatively lower imo

Also do squats not leg press. Also how much do you bench

>and realised I'm incredibly fucking weak
I'm jelly user. I've never been more motivated to lift in my life than when I first started out and realized how small I was. That made me want to go every single day, even though I couldn't because rest days.

Nowadays its just a routine for me to work out 4 days a week, not nearly as excited about it as I used to be

I suck at cardio because I have a lung disease, I just found out what kind of dumbell I should use by picking them up starting from 8KG and going upwards to make sure I can curl them where my form is still good but I can feel the struggle

do a set of 10 with the weight you think you should be at. If you cant do at least 8 reps on that weight, you're going too heavy.

I've never tried to bench I'm a little worried about dropping a bar on my face because I go gym on my own at 2am, is squats all in the legs because I feel like I may struggle to get the weights on the bar or whatever for when I actually have to prep it

Are you comparing your biceps to your fucking legs?

Also you're curling over a third of what you can leg press. Not only that, but you're freeweight curling 12+12=24 kg, while you're using a machine to leg press 60 kg. Which probably means you're closer to curling half of what you can leg press if you used a machine to mimic the same ease of a leg press.

Which means your fucking biceps aren't the issue. Your legs are weak as shit. You have fetus legs. I don't know how you could add these numbers up and think your fucking biceps are lagging... is this why people neglect legs for curls? Because your FUCKING BICEPS should be 1:1 with your entire lower body that doesn't have to lift your body at the time as well (ie squats)?

Oh and also I'm about 5ft 8 and weigh around 85 KG

>I suck at cardio because I have a lung disease,
Sucks to hear. I am pretty good I would say. Probably spend 30/40 minutes there and 3km Rowling in 15 min.

The thing is I'm 1,85 m and 70/72 KG. Machines are easy to figure out what is the best for me but dumbbells are very hard to figure out. I have no idea how many reps I should lift them and what the best KG is for me.
Guess I will try it again. Last time I did it with a friend my arm was sore for 3 days. Stretching it hurt my arm

Yo I had the same thing with the stretching hurt your arm, were your arms kind of locked at a 90 degree angle and bending them down hurt, because if so I'm pretty sure that's normal when lifting shit for the first time

DOMS

you won't get as sore the more you lift.

I didn't think my biceps were lagging or anything this was just my first time going gym and I felt a little weak, should I be aiming to leg press at least my own body weight or something then?

desu you should be doing squats faggot.

Same guy.

I can curl at least 70 pounds once with one arm. Which means I should be able to curl 140 pounds on a bb once. I will never do this because I don't want to tear my biceps off, and I'm happy just doing 40 pound concentration curls but this is a number.

I can leg press 510 pounds 20 times (can't go higher because ran out of weight).

My legs are still weak to me, even though I should be around 4 times my curl weight, my legs are still weak, and will be until I buy more weight and do that.

Just keep working your legs. The ratio should be even farther than what I have. Anything that gives you hell for 10 reps is more than enough for curls. But not being able to leg press bodyweight is not very good.

Just keep working on your entire body. If you want to work your biceps while also building strength, I'd recommend chin ups. Not to say curls aren't good, but you should really focus on doing compound movements to quickly make you not so weak.

Like others have said your arms are fine but your legs (and core) need training. Fortunately you'll find they get stronger fast in the beginning. Start squatting like 40kg or so and go from there. Watch YouTube videos for form. Learn deadlifts as well. Above all make sure your form is good or you'll eventually fuck yourself up. Speaking from experience.

You'll be able to easily squat your own bodyweight in a few weeks

Jep that is what I had.

guess that is true

I doubt you were even really curling that much, you were probably swinging your whole arm with it.

Nah I understand how to curl, I was using the zottman curl I think it is called, a guy showed me that I was standing next to in the gym

Do a bodyweight squat right now. If you can do that, you can leg press your bodyweight.

That being said, you should try squats. Do 5 bodyweight squats. If you can do that without too much issue, you should be able to squat with just the bar (45 pounds, or 20.4 kg, or 20 kg in bongland).

Look up form on squats. Read the sticky. Probably do starting strength. Ask for a spotter on bench. Also end every workout with like 20-30 pushups so you're at least strong enough to not be worried about killing yourself on bench until you get to real weight.

If you don't want to go to the gym until you think you're strong enough. Do pushups, then feet elevated pushups when you can. Do bodyweight squats. Do hip thrusts or glute bridges. Do hyperextensions.

If you want to continue going to the gym, look up a routine (probably starting strength). Follow it. If you can't squat weight, just do bodyweight and then start with the bar and follow the program. If you can't bench the bar, do pushups. If you can't ohp the bar, use small dumbells. Progress at your own pace. If somewhere down the line you find your body can't do squats, do leg press and make up for the areas you're missing with other exercises.

Basically, don't worry about what you can do right now. Everyone starts somewhere. I started with 135 ohp and had fucking hell squatting 95. I stopped squatting at 315 and have temp stopped ohp (got 195 1rm). You will get stronger. Just remember how weak you are now and use that to fuel your desire to get stronger.

Thanks for all the advice I'll do everything you said until I feel better about going to the gym at a time when it is more busy, I understand everyone starts somewhere and nobody in the gym probably gives a shit about how weak I am but I'm an incredibly nervous person so I want to train up before I go back

Here's what I did before I bought my homegym to get my ohp and bench so high to start.

I progressed to one handed feet elevated pushups for reps. They do help. The other shit I did was kind of pointless but I'll give you some sort of routine and advice now that I know better.

Pushups. When you can crank out like 20-30 of them. Do feet elevated pushups. If you ever get to one armed pushups, you are probably strong enough to not be a total pussy in bench and ohp.
Bodyweight squats (I never did them before lifting which is why my squat was shit). If you can get to I don't know, 10 for 3 sets, do bulgarian split squats. These will fucking kill your quads. Once you progress high enough, go to the gym.
Hip thrusts. There is no progression besides weight. This is the best ass exercise with the only thing close being glute bridges.

If you can find a cheap pullup bar, this would help immensely with any routine. You can also do inverted rows with a table which would also be really helpful.

And lean over a couch or something and find a way to do hyperextensions.

If you do this until you get too strong for bodyweight for more than 15 reps times 3 or something, then you should be more than strong enough for somewhat of a reasonable weight for staring strength.

I could add a lot more, but this should suffice. If you have dumbells, you can do curls and croc rows. Also weight bulgarian split squats and probably weighted glute bridges.

How are dumbell squats if I start to feel more comfortable doing bodyweight squats, are they worth doing or should I move to squatting with a bar when I go to the gym

I started with 6kg dumbbells in 17 January.
Was an obese sedentary guy, very weak.

Now I'm at 14kg dumbbells. I'm okay with this progress. Specially since I lost 22kg so far and still have to lose more, so my muscle gain is apparently hindered.

Hey man that's really impressive fair play for keeping at it, I really need to get into a good diet and exercise routine so I can go up the weights like you

Not bad. Though I highly recommend trying bulgarian split squats if you progressed past bodyweight. If you can't do them, split squats are still a bit harder than bodyweight squats.

If you can do 10 bulgarian split squats with good form, you can probably barbell squat 135 pretty easily. Though I'd tell you to start with the bar and keep going up by 20 pounds or so until you find what you can do.

That would look like this:

Warmup bodyweight squats 5 reps
Just the bar 5 reps
65 pounds 5 reps
85 pounds 5
115 pounds 5
135 pounds or one plate 5
Etc if higher

You don't have to start at a hugely hard set. Just do something you feel confident you can do and then use that for your starting point (again, starting strength)

Iirc starting strength increases 5-10 pounds every week, so you're going to want to start a little bit weaker than max exertion.

One more thing and I think I'm done here. Buy one of those thick pullup assist bands.

These are great for shoulder dislocations, and especially great for band pull aparts (rear delts and middle back) and just pulling on your arms and legs to stretch them out.
You can also get a good tricep workout with it.

Seriously thank you for everything all your info has been super helpful

No problem. I've done a lot of trial and error, plus a lot of reading so I have a lot of knowledge about random things and what's worked for me.

I hope I've helped you build a foundation stronger than what I started out with, and I hope you stick with it.

Also don't underestimate stuff like hip thrusts and ending a bench day with pushups as well. Once you're done starting strength, some of this stuff makes a great addition to any routine when you add weight.

Good luck.