How can I train with light dumbbells

David2435465786794

I have been working out for one year and the heaviest dumbbells I have are 25 lbs but they are too light for me now I do1 not have any acces to any other material or to a gym. Do you guys know how I can keep training?

Leo_King84

More reps, less rest time between sets, slower movements to increase time under tension. If you do like a 1 raise, 2 second lower try doing 3 raise and 6 second lower. You'll find you'll get less reps overall because you're tripling time under tension.

Retroguy2000

For isolation work, I like Myo-reps. So e.g. 30s or 15s after finishing the previous set, start the next set. Repeat until you cannot get more than 5 reps. I do that with ez-bar curls, and get sets of maybe 10, 8, 7, 6, 5 with 30s between. You can also take more time on the eccentric, with recent studies showing total rep times of 2-8 seconds is ideal. Another tip is don't go to lockout where there is no tension, e.g. in a chest press don't bring the db's to vertical above you. That keeps the tension on for the whole set.

Some exercises are harder than others at the same weight, e.g. some harder options here where 25 or 2x25 may be enough for a hard workout:

Quads : Bulgarian split squats.
Hams : Lying leg curls.
Chest : Fly's.
Shoulders : Seated Arnold press.
Biceps : Seated incline curl, spider curl.
Triceps : Skull-crushers then immediately into close grip press.
Upper back : Face pulls, put 1 or 2 db's in a large towel, twist the ends to become handles to grip, bend over, with butt against wall if needed.

You're a bit more limited for the lats and middle back with those db's. Do you have anywhere you can do pull-ups? Or a place to do dips, or a firm table you can lay under, for inverted rows with bodyweight?

Another option is bands, they're quite cheap, and could let you do more things at higher resistance.

Check the local second hand market for higher db's or a set of adjustable db's too.

Leo_King84

Retroguy2000 wrote: »

For isolation work, I like Myo-reps. So e.g. 30s or 15s after finishing the previous set, start the next set. Repeat until you cannot get more than 5 reps. I do that with ez-bar curls, and get sets of maybe 10, 8, 7, 6, 5 with 30s between. You can also take more time on the eccentric, with recent studies showing total rep times of 2-8 seconds is ideal. Another tip is don't go to lockout where there is no tension, e.g. in a chest press don't bring the db's to vertical above you. That keeps the tension on for the whole set.

Some exercises are harder than others at the same weight, e.g. some harder options here where 25 or 2x25 may be enough for a hard workout:

Quads : Bulgarian split squats.
Hams : Lying leg curls.
Chest : Fly's.
Shoulders : Seated Arnold press.
Biceps : Seated incline curl, spider curl.
Triceps : Skull-crushers then immediately into close grip press.
Upper back : Face pulls, put 1 or 2 db's in a large towel, twist the ends to become handles to grip, bend over, with butt against wall if needed.

You're a bit more limited for the lats and middle back with those db's. Do you have anywhere you can do pull-ups? Or a place to do dips, or a firm table you can lay under, for inverted rows with bodyweight?

Another option is bands, they're quite cheap, and could let you do more things at higher resistance.

Check the local second hand market for higher db's or a set of adjustable db's too.

For lats you could probably get away with just laying on floor, holding weights in your hands with arms outstretched then keeping them straight, lift the weights to above your chest. A skull crusher without bending the elbows. If you wanna throw in some shoulder, go all the way so the weight reaches your stomach then back up above chest then back down to above head. Whilst front delts stretching, lats contracting then whilst front delts contracting lats are stretching.

For middle back you could do bentover rows or pendlay rows.

Retroguy2000

Leo_King84 wrote: »

Retroguy2000 wrote: »

For isolation work, I like Myo-reps. So e.g. 30s or 15s after finishing the previous set, start the next set. Repeat until you cannot get more than 5 reps. I do that with ez-bar curls, and get sets of maybe 10, 8, 7, 6, 5 with 30s between. You can also take more time on the eccentric, with recent studies showing total rep times of 2-8 seconds is ideal. Another tip is don't go to lockout where there is no tension, e.g. in a chest press don't bring the db's to vertical above you. That keeps the tension on for the whole set.

Some exercises are harder than others at the same weight, e.g. some harder options here where 25 or 2x25 may be enough for a hard workout:

Quads : Bulgarian split squats.
Hams : Lying leg curls.
Chest : Fly's.
Shoulders : Seated Arnold press.
Biceps : Seated incline curl, spider curl.
Triceps : Skull-crushers then immediately into close grip press.
Upper back : Face pulls, put 1 or 2 db's in a large towel, twist the ends to become handles to grip, bend over, with butt against wall if needed.

You're a bit more limited for the lats and middle back with those db's. Do you have anywhere you can do pull-ups? Or a place to do dips, or a firm table you can lay under, for inverted rows with bodyweight?

Another option is bands, they're quite cheap, and could let you do more things at higher resistance.

Check the local second hand market for higher db's or a set of adjustable db's too.

For lats you could probably get away with just laying on floor, holding weights in your hands with arms outstretched then keeping them straight, lift the weights to above your chest. A skull crusher without bending the elbows. If you wanna throw in some shoulder, go all the way so the weight reaches your stomach then back up above chest then back down to above head. Whilst front delts stretching, lats contracting then whilst front delts contracting lats are stretching.

For middle back you could do bentover rows or pendlay rows.

A pullover yeah. I would think that's much easier with one db than two, and if so 25 is likely far too light. And it would help to have a bench, which they don't mention. Even 2x25 if they can get it to work, is probably light.

Bent over row is great, but again 2x25 is probably light. Same weight with chest supported row would be more challenging, but they'd need a bench for that.

AnnPT77

There's a quite lengthy list of ways (32+) to increase strength training intensity here, with descriptions:

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10877279/30-tips-to-increase-strength-training-intensity

Some of those won't apply in your scenario, but others you could consider/do.

On the bench question from above: For a while, until I got an official bench, I used a coffee table. It's a very, very, unusually sturdy coffee table, admittedly; and it has a completely flat top.

My point is not so much "use your coffee table" as it is to suggest you look around your home, think about exercises you could do with some elevation (or other support), and consider whether you may have something that would work - safely! - in a pinch. If you have a bench, or can get one, that's obviously better.

claireychn074

Also think about combining bands with the dumbbells: standing DB pullovers (that’s probably not the actual name but you get the gist) with a band around the DB and standing on the bottom, will give you a nice weight at the top. Same for things like bent over rows, stand on the band and it can really increase the difficulty of the exercise.

I2k4

Agree with the above on bands. By coincidence came across a new post by James Grage (Undersun Bands) with a short workout using what look like 25lb DBs:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ViCQDZ_jHGg

(I much prefer to do squats by doubling a band underfoot (lifting "suitcase" style, like a deadlift but quad-engaging) rather than looping single over the traps, and light bands with DBs can progress split squats nicely.)