A friend of mine moved and couldn't fit his weight bench into his new place, so he gave it to me. Came with some abnormal weights (20lbs, 14.3lbs, and 8.8lbs) but it's been nice to have my own bench.

My question is, is it better to do more reps with less weight, or few reps with a heavier weight? Since I won't claim to be a pro, I can manage about 8 reps with two 20s and a 14.3 on both sides (~115lbs with the bar), and I think around 12-15 reps with just two 20s on both sides. I wanted to ask around before experimenting much, such as switching our the 14.3s for the 8.8s or something.

Also, what areas do I need to focus on to maximize my upper body workout? I've been using two 25lb dumbbells for about 6 months now, and have really toned my biceps and triceps, and to a lesser extent, forearms. I give some attention to my chest and back, but am admittedly rather ignorant when it comes to the best ways to improve those with what I have. Are there any other areas I need to avoid an overdevelopment problems?

What are your goals, specifically?

Pretty sure the breakdown is something like this:

1-6 reps - strength
7-15 - hypertrophy
16+ - endurance

More or less. But it's best to shake things up and vary your workout every once in a while.

And in addition to what are your goals, what lifts are you doing? That'll help us know what you're missing.

I don't have any specific goals, per say. I'm not terribly in shape, and don't like running all that much, but I feel good after I lift. Ideally I'd like to just keep building and toning my upper body muscles. I don't plan on being an oiled up bodybuilder or anything, but I like the progress I've made since I bought my dumbbells and would like to continue with that, especially since it's something I have no trouble doing a few times each day.

As for lifts, pardon my ignorance on names or if my description is too vague:
-Bicep curl
-Tricep curl
-Forearm roll (palm up, dumbbell in hand, motion that one of my weightlifter friends taught me that would build forearm muscle)
-Chest something (standing with a dumbbell in each hand vertically, pulling back to make a flapping type of motion)
-Something something (the knee of my lifting arm is on my bed/bench, lifting the dumbbell from the floor, making an archery-like motion)

My weight bench also has a leg lift apparatus, and a similar padded thing on both sides to be lifted with the forearms upwards and inwards while in standard benchpress position.

Less repetitions is better. Now start doing squats. You can also do some bench presses when you're not busy squating.

Well, with 150 or so pounds what you can do is pretty limited, at least insofar as real strength gains. You should look into getting some more weights, definitely. It's kind of dangerous to do squats without a rack, but with weight that low you should be fine. Then again, the heaviest, and best workouts, like squats, deadlifts, and bench require much more than 150 pounds unless you're not very strong. I can only do around 150 on each>_>

Those three, really, are staples to lifting. Especially squats and deadlifts. Make sure you study the form, though, and get it right. Perfect form is better than a high weight. Just google the names of workouts and click on the links to exrx to see a quick, basic shot of it. If you want more in-depth explanations look up some articles on bodybuilding.com and dragondoor and other lifting sites. I'd just find the articles by googling, though, not by actually browsing the sites.

If your goal is to tone, though, you might want to try running even if you don't like it. Or cardio, at least. Muscle tone comes from low bodyfat percentage, and the best way to shed fat is with cardio and a good diet. Note that the weather to wear more clothes is coming on, though, so it's a good time to put on weight if you have that in mind also.

Curls are pretty good for isolating the bicep, but it's not that useful a muscle all things considered. If you're going to do curls use a barbell instead of dumbbells because that'll isolate them better, instead of utilizing all the muscles up and down your front very slightly, and inefficiently. I don't really work out muscles like biceps or triceps or forearms or abs, though, because they are stabilizers and synergists etc for the bigger lifts. In truth I don't isolate anything, because I need muscle everywhere at once.

So I just do compounds, and don't really follow a routine (though I probably should, most of them out there are made by professionals who know what they're doing). I might go and start with a set of fifteen squats or so, followed quickly by light pullovers to stretch and loosen the torso (it's good to stretch after you work out, but not before), then five pullups, then 8-12 reps on the bench press, then 8-12 on the military press, 8-12 deadlift, some calf raises, and run back through that cycle less the squats. A lot of times I'll switch out one of those for a similar workout, too. Dips instead of bench, bent over barbell row instead of deadlift, etc. I wish I could do power cleans, that's a hell of a full body exercise. But I have nobody to teach me the technique, and it's kinda tough to get.

I don't know, I'd put more effort into it but I'm tired and bored. There's probably a pretty important muscle group I'm missing>_>

I also add just whatever catches my eye at the gym from time to time. And I like to change things up a lot, otherwise it just sort of gets stale and I plateau too easily. Not that I make monstrous gains or anything.