After exams in a few weeks I have a large amount of time spare and might aswell work on my fitness. Now im rather fit in terms of cycling etc but 70% of my strength is in my legs. I am rathre lacking in the upper body, muscle strength. 3 months of proper riding has killed my half toned upper body into flatnes so id quite like it back. Im thinking buying dumbells and using them along with situps?
Dont realy know where to start TBH and I have read and re-read chilled guide and TBH on sleeping and diet on sorted on. Very rarely drink, eat healthy, loooads of fruit with at least two oranges a day aswell as apple juice etc what not.
Cheers

If you're serious about putting on muscle then just 'doing weghts' and situps and eating more protein isn't a good enough plan.

You need to decide what you primarily want to achieve; being bigger muscle wise isn't neccessarily the same as getting stronger althought they're obviously closely linked.

If you want to get bigger and stronger and also fitter with your upper body you want to do a range of stuff, multiple sets of some very low rep exercises (3 - 5) for pure strength, maybe 10-12 for size growth, then higher rep bodyweight exercises etc to help your stamina levels. Although mixing stuff up like this isn't the 'best' for pure size growth - or pure fitness or whatever, it will give you great allround strength etc.

Also, make an effort to do some big compound movements rather than just doing bicep curls or whatever. e.g a dumbell press where you squat, lift a heavy dumbell, stand, raise to shoulder and push above your head, then return etc. These are great fr working multiple muscle groups simultaneously.

Anyway, tbh if you're serious you're best gettiing a book on it, check www.rosstraiing.com - it's a v good reference site for building functional stregth/fitness rather than pure bodybuilding.

All you need realy is the motivation to keep doing it... I'm lacking it at the moment

how tall are you? are you actually a 'lanky piece of s**t' as someone put it? i cant see how some proper riding has made you lose it all from your upper body, seems odd but as said you dont have to be bulky to be strong enough, i used to use weights and i noticed a difference pretty quickly when i started doing them after a break or whatever, keeping it up over time is the hard part but you'll notice a difference if you stick with it

Join a gym! and then go!!

I find the hardest part about training, is walking out the front door, once your at the gym it's easy, everyone around you is doing the same kinda stuff, really helps motivate you.

Dumbells on there own won't do much, If you were to get Dumbells, You'd need to invest in a good bench too.

Some good points have been raised here. My top tips are as follows:

Compound exercises: Don't just sit there doing bicep curls. You'll end up with big biceps, but nothing else will be developed. That's not functional fitness, it's posey fitness. So many guys at my gym do abs, pecs and biceps, cos that's what the ladies like. Taken too far it looks ridiculous! Big exercises like deadlifts, squats, bench pressing, seated or bent over rows etc. work the biggest and smallest muscles together, for a balanced and functional fitness.

Free weights: machines are good for beginners, or focussing on a specific muscle/group. Free weights draw in the core muscles and lots of supporting muscles you never knew existed. Free weights + good form = way more progress, and again it's functional fitness.

high reps, low weight: For cycling, unless you compete in the worlds shortest races, then high reps is for you. Leave the 2-3 rep sets with enourmous weights for the waxed guys with a taste for fake tan.

mix it up: don't get stuck in a "this is what my workout consists of" mindset. Keep changing it to prevent yourself getting bored.

Gym or Home: Some people can't get motivated to do anything unless they join a gym. The £40 a month direct debit is a nagging reminder to actually go. If you can get motivated to work out regularly at home, it interferes less with your life, takes less time and can be very cheap. A month's gym membership fees will get you some dumbells, a bar, and maybe a bench too. Add a situp mat and a chinup bar and you're set. As long as you know what exercises to do, and how to do them properly (good form is crucial to progress and preventing injury). A mirror helps with form too.

I use to be quite fit last year and had good upper body strength but this year i decided to start doing some more weights etc. ive put on about 10lbs since start of the year, none of that is fat btw lol

on the other hand ...

the gym is for winter work

get out on your bike and ride , do some trail building(good for upper body definition) , go for runs ,

getting out in the fresh air will do you good , will make you healthier than the air coned gym with all its bacteria (even with air con its still sweaty and horrible)

the only non bike/run work i do in the spring/summer/autumn is lower back work(your cycling powerplant) and i have a barbell in the house for that for some compounds that work the lowerback

Ok, I figured there was no point making a new thread for this.
Ive pretty much had the same idea as Maximouse, I'm going to have time to kill over the summer and it would be nice to get something out of it, and also figured if I was to give it a go, I mgith aswell do it well.
If possible I'd like to spend minimal/no money lol, so ive put together a 'workout scheme' if you like, pretty much all exercises involving weights would be two 5 lbs dumbbells with a high number of reps and i might try to get my Dads 10 lbs dumbbells next time I see him.

I dont know alot about the whole fitness/ weight training thing so any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Right, so the list so far is:
1) Dumbbell curl
2) Hammer curl
3) wrist curl
4) reverse wrist curl
5) Dumbbell shrug
6) shoulder press
7) kickback
8)bent over row
9) side bend
10)front raise
11) lateral raise
12) dumbbell bench press
13) dumbbell fly
14) dumbbell pullover
15) squat/dumbbell squat
16) sit ups/ dumbbell sit ups
17)press ups.

All of the weight training exercises came from this site so im not sure the names are right etc.

So, any advice?
Are there any muscles that im not really giving a workout with that? (im not focusing so much on lower body, i think ive got this so called 'cycling unevenness'  )

Sorry for the essay and thanks for any replies that I might get haha

cheers, Will.