Doing it right is more important than doing a lot of it.
I’ve known more than one person whose definition of exercise is “put on as much weight as I can possibly lift without passing out.” This, unsurprisingly, is a terrible idea. Overloading yourself with weights that are too heavy for you to realistically lift isn’t going to put any kind of muscle on your bones. If anything, it’s just gonna snap your bones. You wanna know what’s way, way, way more important than having heavy dumbbells? Curling them with proper form.
Exercise forms have been engineered by experts to precisely target specific muscles in your body, and only the muscles. When you don’t work out with proper form, you could be putting unnecessary and potentially dangerous pressure on your joints and bones. Even if that danger wasn’t a concern, when you don’t stick to the proper form, your gains will almost definitely be negatively impacted.
Here’s an example for you: the simple bicep curl. To start, you need two weights you can realistically lift. It’s okay to use something a little lighter if you’re not comfortable with heavier stuff; you can make up the difference with reps. With dumbbells in hands and arms at your sides, keep your elbows close to your torso and your palms facing outward. Curl the weights slowly up toward your shoulders, while only contracting your biceps. Don’t use your elbow or upper arm and don’t try to swing your arm to create momentum or bouncing. You want to exclusively use the muscles in your biceps; if you try to swing, you’ll cheat yourself out of potential gains. Don’t extend your arms completely straight when you bring them down, either, as you could hurt your elbows.
If you stick to proper form, you’ll feel a true burn even if you’re using light weights. All overdoing it is going to get you is major soreness or worse.
