Progressive dumbbell temporary substitute

Oishii

I miss SL so much! I have a few weeks when I hope to get back into it (I'm on holiday, the 8 year old isn't, there is a crèche for the 2 year old), but after that I go back to my normal life where all my childcare favours are used up with work responsibilities and I want a social life, to spend time with my family, etc too.

I had planned to set up something for SL at home, but I found the bench press terrifying without a spotter. Someone in the main forum suggested Dumbbells instead, so I was wondering if anyone knew a dumbbell routine with a similar progression and full body approach to SL. Any ideas?

canadianlbs

i think you can just do the same old bench press, but expect the dumbbell weights to be much lower as free weights really call on your stabilizers. i was barbell benching in the 70's recently when i tried a few dumbbell presses, and iirc even 20lbs in each hand made me feel like a total poseur. it would be a lie if i pretended i went straight into dumbbell benching just to recover my cred, though.

i've seen two alternatives on my fridays with mr t - who is not into having his clients get hurt. one is to bench in the rack, in which case you'd probably need a rack with adjustable safety rails so you can bring them down to the level you need. the other is to use the big 'trainer' plates that are the same size as 45's but weigh much less, and just bench from the floor. you lose a little rom since your elbows can't go past your back, but i have seen some of mr t's people doing that so presumably there's enough clearance underneath them.

ShrinkinMel

My brother says you leave the pins off then you can dump them off but that even might be scary for me. I was watching videos and he was peaking and it was a fail compilation type video and he said no that guy should have had the pin off so he could dump. He dropped it on his face and chest. OUCH

I see a lot of guys doing both barbell benching and dumbbell at my gym. In the same workout? lol Maybe targeting different parts. I'm not too in on it. Still learning a lot. I wish I could get my brother to come show me how. Maybe I'll get a guest pass and have him come show me somewhat. He can't really squat or deadlift he has degenerative disc problems and had back surgery. He also had to give up his ATV and bike riding at the dunes for awhile. I feel bad for him.