Stronglifts 5x5 for Women

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Lack of Barbells

nogreenthumb
nogreenthumb Posts: 96
in Social Groups
Hi,

Last night I started StrongLifts. I was fine using the 40 lb barbell for everything, but noticed the next size up is 60 lb.

I could use dumbells, right?

Replies

  • danirosevoelkel
    danirosevoelkel Posts: 511 Member
    Hey there. I'm also a noob ;) however I read A LOT, haha. Anyways, as far as what I can tell, you CAN use dumbbells for the lower weights, but once you start getting up there, you need a barbell, just because it's going to be harder to manage two 50 lb dumbbells VS a 100 lb barbell. Correct me if I'm wrong pros ;)
  • canadianlbs
    canadianlbs Posts: 5,199 Member
    nogreenthumb wrote: »
    Hi,

    Last night I started StrongLifts. I was fine using the 40 lb barbell for everything, but noticed the next size up is 60 lb.

    I could use dumbells, right?

    are there plates where you're doing your workouts? in most gyms the standard olympic bar is 45lb, and then you add plates to each side of the bar when you need to get heavier. my rec centres have plate sizes ranging from 2.5 lb up to 45lb and i think that's pretty standard too.

    you can use dumbbells, but they're a lot harder to control than a bar. soem people see that as a good thing, actually, since you really have to bring in all your stabilizer muscles for it.
  • nogreenthumb
    nogreenthumb Posts: 96
    There's no plates. It's an apartment gym, so the equipment is severely limited. From what I've seen there are 6 barbells, and I believe they go from 40 lb (smallest) and jump by 20 lb increments (I think).
  • lishie_rebooted
    lishie_rebooted Posts: 2,973 Member
    nogreenthumb wrote: »
    There's no plates. It's an apartment gym, so the equipment is severely limited. From what I've seen there are 6 barbells, and I believe they go from 40 lb (smallest) and jump by 20 lb increments (I think).

    You've got the fixed weight barbells and no oly bar it sounds like.
    SL is designed to be done with an oly bar and plates since the plates make it easy to increase weight in small increments.

    You can do SL with dumbbells but will probably struggle once the weights are more than your grip can take.

    There might be a link in this group about doing it with dumbbells but I know the Eat Train Progress group has an entire thread about dumbbell workouts.

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