So, about a dumbbell routine...

IILikeToMoveItMoveIt

I accidentally posted this on another board....It's in the right spot now!

I want to get a better routine going three days a week. Right now I am sporadic and have a loose knee which pooped out on the 11th, so I am doing some gentle walking and wearing a brace.
I don't have a bar only dumbbells up to 45 lbs. an incline bench, a 25 lb kettle ball and a 10 medicine ball. I have other equipment (recumbent bike and elliptical) but I really just want to focus on weights on those three days. As much as I want to do progressive lifting, I would run out of weights really quickly. I thought I could drag it out a bit until I can afford more weights. I do respond well to lifting. I used to unload trucks but that didn't teach me a thing about form.
I do eat at a deficit to maintenance most days (1200-1900) with the occasional crazy overdo (3500) when I have alcohol which looks like my pattern is every two weeks. I thought I could take extra advantage of the overdo days with an additional session. Here is the thing, if this is my routine do you think it will be effective enough. ( My goals are to retain muscle and build endurance, but if I gain muscle/ strength that'd be great too. I do weighted, mostly a measly 5-10lbs but I do to failure. When I can get to a next set of ten then I do that until I can add another set. I am working up to doing 50 reps per before going up in weights for that exercise.)

Squats- Sumo, Goblets, Prisoner - 30 ea.
Kettle bell swing- 30
Lumberjacks - 30-40
I'm not sure what it's called, but it's for core. Where you hold a plate over your head and do circles in each direction- 30
Wrist curls - 20
chest fly- 30
chest press- 30
shoulder press- 30
Lat raises- 20
Shrugs-30
Bent over rows-20
Curls- 30
Tricep dips-10
Heels lifts In- 30
Heel lifts out- 30
Wall pushups- 30
Twists- 50

I go easy on squats sometimes depending on my knees and is the reason I don't do lunges. They really hurt. So if there are any suggestions about strengthening that area, please share them.
As much as I would love to go to a gym, I have two little ones and no budget for an extra monthly expense. I also don't have too much room and keep my weights put away so my kiddos don't get hurt. I get equipment as cheap as I can find it and have been gifted some too. I want to get a bar, but am wary of my knees. Dead lifts sound so fun, but I guess I could use some advice with that as well. Thanks for reading and for your input!

Cherimoose

Split squats are knee-friendlier than lunges.

Romanian deadlifts

Weighted pushups

Ball walk-outs - like an ab wheel, but with a medicine ball.

jemhh

Do you do all of that in one workout? And in that order? Am I understanding correctly that you do one big set (up to 50 reps) for each exercise?

IILikeToMoveItMoveIt

jemhh wrote: »

Do you do all of that in one workout? And in that order? Am I understanding correctly that you do one big set (up to 50 reps) for each exercise?

Yes all of those, not in that particular order. Like after squats I do arms 'till my legs can go another round of 30 then the next kind of squat. Some stuff I can do straight up fifty but mostly I do them in sets of 10 back to back after a quick shake off and the a 30 sec break or so before the next one. Unless it's after squats, I wait 'till my legs can go again, however long that takes, sometimes a couple minutes... Mostly it's as quick as I can get them out. My kiddos workout with me sometimes, but mostly I don't have a lot of personal time. Hence the all at once and as quickly as possible...

Weighted push ups would be great. I do them off the wall cause my arms and chest aren't great, but I could wear a back pack for extra weight.
Thanks for the suggestions!

dlm7507

Your mystery exercise is called a halo.

My impression after reading that is that you'd likely be best served by doing fewer exercises, the hardest, and most important part of deciding what to put into a routine is deciding what to take out.

Up the weight and drop the reps. Wall pushups are a regression for people not strong enough to do pushups. If you are doing them so you can do high reps, try doing fewer reps with a more difficult version (counter top, knees, standard pushups, feet elevated, etc.).

Instead of such high reps, you might also try complexes/circuit training.

IILikeToMoveItMoveIt

Halo, awesome, Thanks for that and the input!

IILikeToMoveItMoveIt

Anybody else have an ideas of the effectiveness of this routine?

jemhh

I would raise the weights, lower the reps, and change the order. If you have dumbbells up to 45 lbs.you'll be able to progress for quite awhile. I'd probably split it up into 2 routines to rotate. Maybe:

Chest press
Chest flye
One arm row
Goblet squat
Single leg RDL
Dips
Curls


Shoulder press
Pushups
Chest supported row
Bulgarian split squat
Romanian deadlift
Lat raises
Rear dumbbell raises



Not sure what I'd do with these:

Kettle bell swing- 30
Lumberjacks - 30-40
I'm not sure what it's called, but it's for core. Where you hold a plate over your head and do circles in each direction- 30
Wrist curls - 20
Shrugs-30
Heels lifts In- 30
Heel lifts out- 30
Twists- 50

riffraff2112

two sets of dumbbells? up 45 lb each?
That is a pretty decent amount of weight. You definitely can benefit from lowering your reps. That is an awful lot of reps. I do not know too many people who perform more than 20 reps in an effort to build muscle.

Also try splitting up...as mentioned above. that is a long session, and quite a few muscles getting hit repeatedly with such high reps almost becomes cardio!