Can I lift heavy without barbells??

chellebublz

I joined the only gym I have available to me today. (Small town lol) And learned that they don't have barbell type weights. They only have machines and then they also have dumbbells up to 50 lbs in pairs. Is it still doable. Anytime I see someone talking about heavy weights it's usually with barbells =/

Any advice? I'm reading NROLFW tonight, but I haven't got far enough into it yet to have learned anything about machines vs barbells vs dumbbells. I have NO CLUE about any of this so hopefully the book will make it more clear lol

michellekicks

You can lift to gain strength on a machine. Just use what you have available. Dumbbells are good too. You want to lift as much as you can to get your prescribed reps/sets with next to nothing left over. Then you're lifting heavy.

Some might say heavy lifting is ONLY power lifting and olympic type lifting. The opinions here vary.

I say do what you can. Lift some weights. As much as you can lift in the 5-12 rep range. Low reps for strength and add weight as often as you can. Body building is a whole different ballgame.

chellebublz

Thanks. I know people say that heavy lifting is good for building muscle and burning fat, but wasn't sure if machines/dumbbells would qualify for this as well.

phjorg

machines not so much, since they are usually isolation movements. I would avoid them. Unless you're into bodybuilding.

but otherwise resistance is resistance. your body doesn't know if it's pushing a barbell, or your own body. Outputting maximal force weight to weights, or dumbbells, or whatever, it's whats needed.

And you're somewhat mistaken on what weights do. they will RETAIN muscle, not build it. And it does NOT burn fat, it burns calories, like every other form of exercise. your diet being in calorie deficit is what burns fat.

chellebublz

well that's definitely the first I've heard that weights do not build muscle. so you are telling me that this very highly recommeded book is mistaken? sorry but i disagree with that whole last paragraph.

edited: and yes i do realize that weight training mostly helps to not lose lean mass while you are in a deficit and burning calories. but i fully believe that weights build muscle and not ONLY maintain muscle......

katy_trail

the short answer is yes, yes you can. try to stick to the compound moves like
squats
lunges
dead lift
bench press
over head press
to name a few
you'll save time in the gym, and you'll work many muscles at once.
not that many other exercises aren't great
these are a good foundation tough

i thnk she's trying to say you won't build muscle in a deficit.
many say you can, for several months get newbie gains in strength
possibly if your diet is also great, build some muscle
but remember it takes many months, especially for women
to build a pound of muscle

Also, and i didn't realize this, myself till recently,
it's much more challenging doing dumb bells
so 2 50's is much harder to lift than 100 lbs on a barbell
(including the bar and clamps)

doing the machines is better than no exercise,
but you'll get much more out of it using the free weights as
much as possible.

chellebublz

I know I've read alot that you can't build muscles in a deficit, but I had no arm muscles in December and now I do. One could argue that the muscles were already there under the fat lol, but they are definitely bigger and I've been in a deficit, and all I have at home is 3,5 and 8lbs dumbbells Plus the book says as a woman you can build about a pound of muscle per month. Am I super worried about building muscle? NO. My concern is to start this now while I still have a decent amount of weight to lose so I don't end up skinny fat when I'm done.

Thanks for the advice, I will definitely keep that in mind. I'm at 225 now trying to get, idk whereever I'm happy. I'm saying 140 but who knows. My plan is alternating days between c25k and weights. And I eat about 90% Paleo so I'm just hoping to get there a few months before my wedding next June.

Gabrielm80

Can't afford hand weights. Do some reps at home with a half full can of paint. Canned food, anything heavy yet small enough to be lifted one handed. Sounds silly but works in a crunch and we as humans naturally pack away so much we usually have something that could work. I knew a guy who lifted gallon jugs of water. Empty the milk bottle? fill it back up from the sink.

chellebublz

hehe YEP I remember doing that back in February when I started 30 Day Shred. I used half gallon milk jugs filled with water until I bought my first hand weights. Then I finished Shred and wanted heavier weights for Body Revolution so I went and bought the 3lb, 5lb, 8lb set and now 8lbs are getting too easy

katy_trail

freaking loving your whole attitude about this :flowerforyou: :flowerforyou: :flowerforyou: :glasses:

chellebublz

LOL thanks much xD Gotta have a good attitude when you're in for the long haul. Started at 249.8 in December and freaked out and finally realizing that it isn't gonna be a short adventure at all. I'm trying to get to 199 by about July 12 when my mom visits from out of state that I haven't seen in like 2 years or so. I may not get there, but I'll be dang close!!!!!

phjorg

well that's definitely the first I've heard that weights do not build muscle. so you are telling me that this very highly recommeded book is mistaken? sorry but i disagree with that whole last paragraph.

edited: and yes i do realize that weight training mostly helps to not lose lean mass while you are in a deficit and burning calories. but i fully believe that weights build muscle and not ONLY maintain muscle......

weights destroy muscle. rest and food rebuilds them.

not enough food means no growth as the energy to build muscle has to come from somewhere.

An no, your 5lbs weights over the last month did not build your arms. sorry. It's likely it's from fat loss and existing muscle is starting to show through. Alternately when doing resistance training, during rest your muscles will 'swell' after for a couple days from water retention during the repair process.

All that said, there is an exception. MAYBE someone can build muscle while in deficit under the 3 conditions.
1) someone who is very overweight
2) someone who is a beginner
3) someone who is on drugs
any combination of the 3.
not saying it can never happen, but it's rare

katy_trail

you may need to dial back your cardio with lifting heavier, you want 1-2 days of intense cardio, (or less)
and try not to have it the day before a heavy day. you want to make sure you have enough energy.

kelly_e_montana

Dumbbells are great! You don't need barbells for most stuff and in fact, in a lot of cases, dumbbells might even work better. Just make sure you are lifting heavy enough. Dumbbells can give you more natural movement and allow you to correct imbalances on different sides of your body.

Machines aren't that bad, but you don't want to rely exclusively on them if you don't have to. There are tons of body weight only exercises you can do as well. Just search for body weight exercises on Pinterest and a bunch of routines will come up for you.

If you are accustomed to using 8 lb weights for Body Rev, hopefully in a gym setting you will be knocking your reps back down to 8-12 per set instead of 16+. Then you would want to use heavier weights. You can also probably use heavier weights for chest presses, shoulder presses, squats, etc. than you would for smaller muscles like biceps and triceps. Move up!

jimmmer

Ditch the machines. Free weights like dumbbells will help you recruit stabiliser muscles and make you stronger throughout your body. Machines promote movement in one plane and lead to imbalances......

You can lift heavy with dumbbells, after all heavy is relative. It's heavy for you. You must progressively overload with weights to progress. Any intelligent program will have progression built into it, just follow a good beginners routine religiously and you'll learn form and add weight as you go. NROL4W will probably be a good way to get started......

With dumbbells you will eventually reach the point where you can no longer add sufficient weight (because higher weight db's are not available to you or your grip strength will fail). You can then milk more strength gains from dumbbells by using single leg training instead for a while (ie bulgarian split squats). Eventually, you'll want to invest in a barbell or find a facility with one if you want to keep going (and you will, once you get into moving some iron you'll find it addictive)

Vailara

From what I've understood, the main advantage of barbells over dumbbells for some exercises is that they are easy to load incrementally. There's often a big jump between one size of dumbbell and the next, and so it's difficult to move up (whereas with the barbell you can just add a little weight). It's not that the dumbbells are bad, and in fact they have some advantages. (I'm not any sort of expert. This is just something I've read).

Overhead press and bench press seem to work well with dumbbells. You might need to be more inventive with squats and deadlifts. There's a squat called a goblet squat which might work well. Personally I find these front squats much harder than back squats, but like you, I have equipment problems!

littlebutnice

new to weights

Lupercalia

well that's definitely the first I've heard that weights do not build muscle. so you are telling me that this very highly recommeded book is mistaken? sorry but i disagree with that whole last paragraph.

edited: and yes i do realize that weight training mostly helps to not lose lean mass while you are in a deficit and burning calories. but i fully believe that weights build muscle and not ONLY maintain muscle......

weights destroy muscle. rest and food rebuilds them.

not enough food means no growth as the energy to build muscle has to come from somewhere.

An no, your 5lbs weights over the last month did not build your arms. sorry. It's likely it's from fat loss and existing muscle is starting to show through. Alternately when doing resistance training, during rest your muscles will 'swell' after for a couple days from water retention during the repair process.

All that said, there is an exception. MAYBE someone can build muscle while in deficit under the 3 conditions.
1) someone who is very overweight
2) someone who is a beginner
3) someone who is on drugs
any combination of the 3.
not saying it can never happen, but it's rare

I'm guessing the confusion re: muscle building is coming from a couple different issues:

Whilst building muscle is highly unlikely for someone eating at a caloric deficit, building strength sure does happen. It seems those things are often confused in people's heads.

Fat loss revealing muscle that was already there can also seem like "building muscle".

katy_trail

it seems a combo of water in the muscles for repair and fat loss,
making it seem like muscle has been built
she's saying her muscle/biceps are larger than in december

chellebublz

It is what it is, I never noticed muscles in my arms when I was a healthy weight in the past. In my legs yes, my calves and quads use to be very muscular, but not my arms.I guess it can be called swelling if it's normal to have them swell for a month. I'm not doing this to become bulky or anything like that, just to not lose lean mass while I'm losing weight, I don't want to end up skinny fat when I'm done. And if it is just swelling or newbie gains or fat loss or whatever else, that's fine with me because it is still progress in the right direction.

I decided to quit doing Body Revolution for a little bit while I do NROLFW, they seem to have alot of room for substitution for ppl who don't have access to barbells and work out at home.

runfreddyrun

yes, free weights are better in a way than machines because you build up the stabilizing muscles, but machines are fine, especially if you like using them and are consistent on them. lift heavy, and try to increase your weight every few weeks.

have you seen some of the guys that work out using the machines? they are huge! of course you're going to build up muscle using them.

you could always start out on the machines and then in a few months move to free weights.

chellebublz

I've never used a machine, actually Ive only used dumbbells so far lol. Later today in my workout I will be doing a machine for the first time with lat pulls, should be interesting. And when I say I live in a small town with a small gym, what I really mean is that the most people ever there when I am has been 3 other people. And all using cardio equipment, mainly ellipticals. I've only seen one person using weights since I started there lol. So yea I am completely on my own with this

krhn

I joined the only gym I have available to me today. (Small town lol) And learned that they don't have barbell type weights. They only have machines and then they also have dumbbells up to 50 lbs in pairs. Is it still doable. Anytime I see someone talking about heavy weights it's usually with barbells =/

Any advice? I'm reading NROLFW tonight, but I haven't got far enough into it yet to have learned anything about machines vs barbells vs dumbbells. I have NO CLUE about any of this so hopefully the book will make it more clear lol

I base all my workouts around dumb bells and my multi gym at home... The gym is largely used for lat pull downs, chest press, tricep extensions other than those exercises I incorporate everything solely on dumb bells...
Simple answer is yes you can but if your mind set is purely building strength then within time say 6-12 months you can easily out grow/power those weights and need more !
For bodybuilding, you can switch the regime/routine round to target the slow/fast twitch muscle fibres accordingly so in theory it'll take longer till you reach the higher weights but strength or building muscle purposes ... You'll come out on top! :glasses:

BeachIron

I'm not going to say don't use the machines, but I would build your exercise routine around the dumbbells if you don't have access to barbells.

I would, however, over time figure out a way to have access to barbells if you are serious about lifting. Your leg workouts, at least, will quickly outpace even the 50 pound dumbbells.

mudmonkeyonwheels

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/wotw3.htm

A good all round dumb bell workout. Most exercises can be done with either with small variations.

Shawshankcan

People take the phrase heavy lifting too literal. It is not about the actual weight you use, but rather the intensity to which you train. You don't want to pick weights that won't challenge you and you can do whole singing away. Really, it means choose weights that will take you to near failure.

JoanB5

Enjoying this thread.

If my arms swell or rest or get fed or it's muscle or strength or lengthening or fat loss or calorie loss...I just want me some arms, dad-gum-it! :explode: :ohwell:

JNick77

Machines are definitely not great for this. Machines provide leverage that often remove supporting muscle groups from the exercise. The bonus with compound movements like the squat, deadlift, and even bench press is that they are truly full-body movements and almost all muscle groups are recruited to some degree for supporting the movement.

Can you use DB's, yeah you can. The issue comes with progression in that you typically can't make small jumps with DB's because if you compare DB's to BB's, it's often 10lb weight jumps where 5lbs is typically better. Also, you can't replicate the Back Squat with DB's. There is NO replacement exercise for the Back Squat, don't let anybody tell you there is because there's not. You can Goblet Squat and Bulgarian Split Squat but they don't work the same as a Back Squat with a barbell.

If that's all you have available to you then use it to the best of your abilities.

averytds

No gym access here. Probably couldn't afford it anyways. I started with body weight, soup cans, milk jugs, whatever I could find. Then I remembered one of my kids had a Bodylastics band set ($40-$50 set maybe) that went up to 147lbs. I sorta absconded with that and began scouring craigslist everyday. I started stronglifts 5x5 and was okay on presses, but quickly was outpacing on the lower body stuff. Finally had the perfect set pop up on Craigslist just this last week.

I'm in heaven now, but I'd still be getting by fine with the bands if necessary. They may not be perfect, but I was able to do a lot with them. Even used a 38lb band as a warmup this morning on the OHPs.

Lindsay_1984

I have the same problem because my apartment gym only has dumbbells and a bench and I want to start heavy lifting.

I am going to try the following lifting workout tonight with the dumbbells.

Do a warmup before each exercise starting with low weight, gradually increasing weight, then high weight for the set/reps below:
DB(dumbbell) Squat, 3 sets 5 reps, with 3 minute rest between
DB Lunge, 3 sets 8-10 reps, with 2 minutes rest between
DB Bench Press, 3 sets 5 reps, with 2 minutes rest between
DB Rows, 3 sets 5 reps, with 2 minutes rest between
DB Overhead Press, 3 sets 8-10 reps, with 2 minutes rest between
Push-ups, 3 sets 8-10 reps

So...that is my plan, we'll see how it goes!

gracielynn1011

Hey all, There is a lot of good information in this thread! I have been doing the workout at the link below for 3 weeks now. I really like the workout and have added some weight. I started with 14lb dumbbells and have moved to 19lb. I will have to purchase some more weights to add to my bars to go further.

My main reason for posting is to ask some of the more experienced lifters here what they think of this work out. Any suggestions or feedback about the routine?

http://www.muscleandstrength.com/workouts/dumbbell-only-home-or-gym-fullbody-workout.html