It's important to know what you're looking for when you go out in search of their first weight set. It's also important to know what to avoid. Take a few minutes to read this article, and steer you in the right direction. We'll make sure that the website you choose will be strong enough to hold up to your increasing strength, and will last your lifetime.

What sets don't have to be really expensive but they're just like anything else in that you get what you pay for. Here's a look at some things to avoid:

• Cement filled plates -- these are going to be the least expensive way to plates you can find and there's a reason for that. They are crap. Not only do they take up too much room on the bar, but they're prone to deformation and breakage over time definitely not what you want.

• Flimsy weight benches -- if your bench weight set as a badge with a framework of tubing that is less than 2 inches in diameter, run don't walk away. The only thing worse than not having a weight bench at all is having a flimsy one. When you're doing a set of heavy bench presses and go to rack the barbell in the upright bends you wish you had been more careful with your choices to start with.

• Poor selection of weight plates -- any reasonably put together weight lifting set will include at the very least 25 pound plates, 10 pound plates, 5 pound plates, and 2 1/2 pound plates. It's bad enough if you don't have anything heavier than 25 pounds. But you will be surprised how much your flexibility and progress will be stymied by not having the smaller plates. If you don't have anything smaller than 5 pounds, the single tiniest move up in weight for a given exercise has to be 10 pounds does not? A lot of the time this is simply too big of a jump for a particular exercise.

What you should be seeing in your weights set, whether it includes a bench or not is a full range of weights, hopefully including some 50 pound plates but definitely 25 is. At a minimum you should get for 25 pound plates.You should also get a quality barbell and two dumbbell handles, complete with collars.

Dumbbell weight sets

You may decide that you don't want use a barbell and all. This is a perfectly legitimate choice. There's nothing wrong with getting a dumbbell weight set. In fact, I mostly use dumbbells myself. A combination of body weight exercises and dumbbell exercises ends up to a complete workout. The other advantage of just going with the dumbbell set is the space savings. Not everybody has grown for a power rack or an Olympic weight set, but pretty much everyone can fit a quality weight bench and some dumbbells in the corner of their bedroom.

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Free Weights vs Machines

If you think you're going to be lifting any real weight, or simply want to start out first class, I recommend that you go with what Olympic weight set. Typical set will include at least 260 Pounds of weights, with plates ranging from 45 all the way down to 2 1/2 pounds. Also included will be an Olympic bar, which weighs 45 pounds itself.

If you go this direction you're also going to want to get an Olympic plate rack to hold all the plates.

How much will my weight set cost?

That really depends on you. If there's any way at all that you can squeeze it into your living space, I recommend that you go with Olympic weights. If you do, that will set you back a few hundred dollars. But look at it this way -- you only have to spend it once.

If money is a real issue right now, take a look at the used market. They're a lot of weight sets available on craigslist and eBay, and if you're careful you can find a really good deal.