NROWLFW

mommajolynn

But before I buy the book I was wondering if y'all could answer some questions for me.

Do I need a gym membership? Can I use only dumbells?

Just wondering because the gym memberships in my area are crazy expensive...

Generalle

No you don't need a gym membership, however you will probably need to get a barbell as well as dumbells. From memory most of the exercises use these.

hailzp

You could get one of those big ball things too. I will be doing mine from home I think the book even mentions some alternatives to when they use the gym equipment.

meshashesha2012

you dont need a gym membership but you should make sure you at least have the following :

- a barbell with weight plates
- some sort of bench (can use the bench like the one you'd use for a bench press)
- dumbbells of varying sizes
- a squat rack or some other way of being able to help you get a loaded barbell up and over your shoulders when it's too heavy for you to lift it
- an exercise ball

mommajolynn

So there's no way I can do it with just dumbells? I'm working in a very tight budget

brneydgrlie

Borrow the book from your local library first. Then you can see what you would be dealing with.

nz_deevaa

So there's no way I can do it with just dumbells? I'm working in a very tight budget

I'm going to say no. You need to lift heavy, as heavy as you are able, and my guess is that dumbbells aren't going to be heavy enough.

meshashesha2012

So there's no way I can do it with just dumbells? I'm working in a very tight budget

yeah you can do it with anything but you wont get the same results since the program is built around constantly trying to increase the weight you lift (it's a strength training program). that can be hard with dumbbells

1) because dumbbells increase in increments of 5 pounds each where as with barbell you increase by as little as 1.25 pounds.

2) if you're doing something like squats with dumbbells and holding the weights up at your shoulders, you will eventually come to a point where you dont have the arm strength to hold the weights which means you will stall on your squats. for instance my last squat reps were 200 pounds. there's no way i'd be able to curl and hold 2-100# DB up to my shoulders. so the best i'd be able to do something much less than that which means my thighs wouldnt be doing anywhere near the work they could do.

3) dumbbells are pretty expensive as well.. the genius of NROL4W and any other strength training program is that it's challenging you to constantly push your weights, which means you might end up going through weights like water.

sorry not trying to discourage you, just helping you to manage expectations ahead of time. if you cant do the program in the same way it's devised then you're not going to get the same strength results.

you can check craigslist or freecycle. every now and then i check and it seems someone is always trying to give away some old oly bars and weight plates