1) Two 10kg dumbbells will be insufficient in even the short term. The idea is to make progress over time; ie being able to lift more weight for the same number of reps.
2) You need an exercise program built around the compound lifts. That is:
* Deadlifts
* Squats
* Bench Press
* Overhead Press
* Chinups/Pullups
There's quite a few of these around; Stronglifts and Starting Strength are two that come to mind. Find one of them on the internet and stick to it religiously for a few months. Don't try to tweak it yourself.
3) To perform these properly you'll either need to join a gym or get access to the following:
* A 20 kg olympic barbell and plates
* A power rack
* A bench
You'll use the power rack to do the pullups/chinups and protect you while squatting and benching (it's much more vital when you don't have a spotter to help you if you try lifting something too heavy for you).
4) Form is vital. You can do quite a bit of damage to your body with shitty form.
5) Get plenty of rest and healthy food. Diet is probably harder to stick to than working out simply because it takes up so much time.
6) Three full body workouts each week is plenty.
7) Track your progress. It's much easier to stick to something if you can see that you're putting on muscle/losing fat/whatever. Use spreadsheets with weight/weights lifted, photos of your physique over time, the works.
The only thing i could add would be to learn the olympic lifts as well: the snatch, the clean, & the jerk. But maybe only after you've got the lifts in #2, though :)
Also, i second the recommendation of Starting Strength.
2 is more, you can do whatever program you want, unless you want to become a competitive bodybuilder, there is no need for conforming to someone else's idea of what you should do. I would suggest reading in a decent book - I like Garhammer's Strength Training - and take what you want.
3 is gross overkill.
4 With free weights and gradually increasing the weight form mostly takes care of itself. If it is actually painful, rather than just hard, then don't do it.
5 is actually general enough that I can't criticize, nice change.
6 is also true. On the other hand, relatively light, but long, maintenance workouts every day are useful in burning excess calories.
7 is good if you are trying to "progress", on the other hand it doesn't help much on a maintenance program. The best advice is to simply try to set up a program you can enjoy, then do it. Working out with someone else is generally the best motivator.
Get 'Starting Strength' by Rippetoe and buy a few sessions with a (good) personal trainer who knows power lifting. Best money you'll ever spend.
Form is important, and not always intuitive.
However, you can load up a hip sled machine with way more weight than you should be attempting and destroy your lower back or knees. Personally, I believe leg press machines and their ilk should be banned. I know too many people with fucked up knees and backs from using those (myself included.)
You are seriously limited by 10kg dumbells and if you lack space then your only option for a real free weight workout is to get a membership to a gym. Even if you could fit in a bench and more weights, you should also have access to a squat rack which you certainly wouldn't have room for.
Start out with the most basic free weight exercises for each of the major muscle groups and then go from there. Also, start out with just the bar or some small weights to get the form correct. If you don't have experience with free weights you might get a trainer to start out with you and check your form. Alternatively you might find an experienced lifting partner. If the place has mirrors you can check out your form that way as well.
Check your progress towards your goals. Those goals will also determine what sort of scheme you end up with. When starting out, you only need to hit the gym a few times per week and probably for about 45 minutes. You don't have to do anything fancy. Once you hit a plateau it's time to change it up, though you need to change things up before you hit that point.
As long as you have good form and you don't get injured then you don't have to worry about getting everything else totally right. You will learn along the way and at first you get the benefit of fast progress even with a less than perfect routine. By the time you hit a plateau then you will be far enough along to figure out how to tweak your routine.
Also, try to turn this into a lifestyle change. Otherwise you will be one of those people who buy a membership and never go. ;)
Weight lifters who don't squat (and there are many of them) end up looking like ridiculous middle aged men who have massive torsos and spindly legs. Beyond appearance, one will also have very poor power generation.
When I started, I acquired a barbell, two dumbells, a swiss ball and about 80 pounds or so of plates. I quickly got a squat rack (just something simple; you can only lift so much up to your shoulders and drop it back down safely), but I only recently got a bench. I now have over 200 pounds of plates, which I got at a used-equipment store. I've found that you need a lot of weight for a) squats and b) so you can move from one exercise to another quickly without having to move plates from the bar to the dumbells.
I also got a "power gym": the pull-up device that hangs in a door frame. With slight modification to one of my door frames in the basement, I found it works pretty well.
You need to do some sort of a squat, pull, and press at least once a week. Go heavier each workout, or at least each week.
You don't need to read any fancy books about physiology, and although I think that Starting Strength is the best book on the market for learning how to train sensibly, it's no replacement for a good coach. If you go to StartingStrength.com, there is a directory of coaches. Or, just find someone at a gym who is strong, and ask him (or her) to show you a couple of lifts. Start comparing what he tells you to videos you watch online, and go from there.
Jim Wendler (of EliteFts.com) likes to say that he's glad the internet didn't exist when he was learning how to train because it forced him to go out there and just lift instead of wanking around on internet forums and trying to find the perfect 8 week program.
You've probably seen cheesy late night informercials for it on TV, but it really is a GREAT way to build muscle and lose weight if you dedicate yourself to it and have the willpower to push yourself to the limit.
But don't just take my word for it. It has 4.5 out of 5 stars from 500+ people on Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000TG8D6I/ref=cm_sw_su_dp
Since you can't really increase mass, you should think about doing a relatively high number of reps and whatever exercises you can come up with. You'll at least maintain muscle tone doing that (you may drop some muscle mass or add fat, depending on your diet).
If you just want to be healthy, you can't go wrong with an aerobic exercise (whatever fits your current circumstances). I live in a crowded city and running saves my sanity.
mon - 100 bicep curls - 100 hammer curls
tue - 100 shrugs
wed - rest
thu - 100 shrugs - 100 bicep curls - 100 hammer curls
fri - rest
sat - 100 shrugs
sun - rest
Several weeks in now and I have bulked up a bit, but not a very large amount. Quite willing to hear recommendations/tips about what I'm doing. I have trouble finding time to get out and get much aerobic exercise, but find I can get some reading done while I lift weights in front of my screen or lift them while wait for food to cook.
EDIT: oh, and I go in lots of ten, so 100 = ten reps of ten if I've got my terminology right
#1 - if you can read while you exercise, you're not exercising. if you want to accomplish something meaningful with weights while "waiting for food to cook", you're in for a world of disappointment.
#2 - a decent olympic bar and basic assortment of plates (5/10/25/45) can be had on craigslist for cheap ($30). you're going to outgrow those 10lb dumbbells in a week.
#3 - you're only working two of the smallest muscle groups there are. you need to focus not on building biceps, but building an overall strength base and level of fitness. this is best achieved with BASIC BARBELL MOVEMENTS - squat, deadlift, bench press, overhead press, barbell row, clean, lunge, etc. research and learn these movements, they're the key to unlocking both mass and strength gains. body weight exercises like dips and pullups are crucial as well. (and for the love of god, if there's one thing that you take away from this, it's that you have legs and they're the biggest muscle group you have... work them!)
#4 - find a popular template such as the stronglifts 5x5 (http://stronglifts.com/stronglifts-5x5-beginner-strength-tra...) or one of the Westside for Skinny Bastards programs (http://www.defrancostraining.com/articles/38-articles/60-wes...). these will give you a basic understanding of how to build a program around the common lifts.
#5 - diet is equally as important as what you're doing with the weights. sleep is the other leg of the tripod.
#6 - set goals. and have fun. :)
EDIT: there's another thing i should add that is absolutely crucial --
please learn to perform these lifts properly. study videos online, look at pics of other lifters, and practice with a broom stick. hell, you'll gain more in a month from practicing the basic movements with a broomstick than you would from continuing your current program for five years. i cant stress enough that these movements are the basic building blocks of all strength fitness, and when done properly they can transform you into a lean, mean animal. when done improperly, however, you risk everything from looking like a fool at the gym to eventually blowing a disc in your lower lumbar and spending the next two years rehabbing rather than achieving your fitness goals.
double edit-- http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1401515
reference this older post of mine for more detail on some program templates, and definitely look into "never gymless" if you're interested in what you can achieve without weights.
My diet is mostly chicken stir-fry with rice, or something based on baked beans for dinner. I'm trying to cut back on pasta because of weight gain but still have it with beans or vegetables once a week.
I often miss breakfast, but when I don't it's muesli or weetbix, on rare occasions porridge.
Snacks are mostly bananas or ham and cheese wraps. Also carrots with hummus, or cuppa soup. My lunch is usually some mixture of these. I only drink once a week, sometimes once a fortnight.
My schedule is approx. 8:30am breakfast, 1pm lunch, 6:30-7:00pm dinner. Usually with a snack before lunch and maybe after dinner.
My height is about 179cm (5 foot 10?) and my weight sits around 98kg (215.6 lbs).
Hope this is what you were after.
Edit: forgot to mention microwaved potato as a fairly common lunch
Where I am staying I don't have room for a bench, so I've been slightly limited in what I can do. Any suggestions for working around that?
I am also very interested in squats/building up my legs and have been trying them out and practicing the correct form the past few days.
Thank you for the links and advice.
and honestly, all you really need a bench for is bench pressing. until you have access to a gym or just have more space, you can work on pushups and eventually weighted pushups.
It provides a great insight into not only the difference between light and heavy weight but also reps and timing.
I purchased a set about 7 years ago and it's probably the best fitness/workout related purchase I've ever made in terms of overall use and value.