Advice on Dumbbell Home Workout Program

BrentMused

Afternoon all,

I hope you are keeping safe and well.

I’m a regular gym-goer who had been working with a PT and finished up with him recently. I was delighted with the results, and how things had been going since finishing with him, but with the ongoing pandemic and gyms obviously closed as a result, it has put a bit of a spanner in the works and I’m determined to try not to let the progress of the last few months fall by the wayside.

I was just wondering if any of you who are obviously far more knowledge than me would be kind enough to have a look at and critique or advise the program I have created to complete at home.

The “only” equipment I have is a pretty large selection of dumbbells (which I’m not complaining about at all and I’m really appreciative of) but it might explaining the reasoning behind some of the exercises.

Day 1 - Chest and Back:

A1) Floor Press
A2) Chest/Pec Flys

B1) Single Arm Row
B2) Wide Grip Push Up

C1) Reverse Fly
C2) ?????

Day 2 - Arms and Shoulders:

A1) Bicep Curl
A2) Overhead Tricep Extension

B1) Lateral Raise
B2) Close Grip Push Up

C1) Overhead Press
C2) Upright Row or Shrugs

D1) Hammer Curl

Day 3 - Legs

A1) Goblet Squats
A2) RDL

B1) Bulgarian Split Squats
B2) Front Foot Elevated Lunge

C1) Reverse Lunge
C2) Prisoner Squat (slow tempo, no lockout)

If anyone would be kind enough to offer any advice or perhaps better/more effective exercises, it would be very much appreciated.

Thanks for your time and stay safe!

rubadub

Sounds like these are fixed dumbbells, so the largest is probably not too heavy, in which case your goblet squats will be probably lighter than what you are used to.

I used to put weight in a backpack and do goblet squats. Or in a makeshift weighted vest but that was using flat plates. I also did them standing on 2 boxes with a dip belt with additional weights.

The weighted vest can be a backpack which is worn on your front, and then you could have another backpack on your back, and the can hold dumbbells like this for more weight.

Cill94

I think you would do better on full body workouts if you're doing 3 days a week. Body part splits as specific as 'chest and back' really only have a place for advanced bodybuilders.

There's also a significant lack of work for your posterior chain muscles (i.e. hamstrings, lower back), and only one pulling movement.

I have recently made a free Dumbbell programme that I've sent to some clients. I can email it to you if you want. Just private message me.

BrentMused

Thanks rubadub and Cill, I really appreciate the reply and excellent advice.

Cill, I'd love to take you up on that offer please. I'll pop you a PM now.

Alf Veedersane

What kind of range of dumbbells do you have?

Cill94 is right on the leg day...apart from the RDLs, the other exercises are more quad dominant.

And a day for arms and shoulders seems excessive. Shoulder exercises could slot in nicely with Chest and back exercises.

But Cill is offering a programme that and sounds like it would have a good balance and more towards full body work so you get more frequency in.

bladespin

BrentMused wrote: »

C1) Reverse Fly
C2) ?????

Pullover, could hit both if you do it right.

BrentMused

Alf Veedersane wrote: »

What kind of range of dumbbells do you have?

Cill94 is right on the leg day...apart from the RDLs, the other exercises are more quad dominant.

And a day for arms and shoulders seems excessive. Shoulder exercises could slot in nicely with Chest and back exercises.

But Cill is offering a programme that and sounds like it would have a good balance and more towards full body work so you get more frequency in.

I've 2 pairs of York spinlock DB's and the following DB plates:

2 x 10kg
5 x 5kg
4 x 2.5kg
4 x 1.25kg
4 x 0.5kg

Yeah, I did the leg day this afternoon and whilst it was a great quad workout, 10 minutes in realised it was completely inefficient and imbalanced.

Yourself and Cill are dead right, I'll get a lot more out of full body and in truth I don't really enjoy training lower body so a full day dedicated to it is difficult. I would find it much more tolerable as part of a full body workout. I'm really looking forward to seeing what Cill has put together.

bladespin wrote: »

Pullover, could hit both if you do it right.

Thanks bladespin.

I like the pullover but without a bench I'm finding it challenging to do properly. I've tried lying back on chairs etc but can't maintain proper form.

Any suggestions for other household items I could use as a bench for the pullover? :pac:

bladespin

BrentMused wrote: »

Thanks bladespin.

I like the pullover but without a bench I'm finding it challenging to do properly. I've tried lying back on chairs etc but can't maintain proper form.

Any suggestions for other household items I could use as a bench for the pullover? :pac:

You can do flat back pullover on the floor, a bench would of course be better but I wouldn't be keen on trying a chair, I'd imagine it would be pretty unstable.

Cill94

That's been sent on to you there mate.

Anyone else who is interested is welcome to PM me their email and I'll send on to them.

BrentMused

Cill94 wrote: »

That's been sent on to you there mate.

Anyone else who is interested is welcome to PM me their email and I'll send on to them.

Thanks so much Cill, it's very much appreciated.

Had a look through it and it seems great - each day seems far more efficient than what I had put together from my fairly limited knowledge.

Looking forward to getting stuck into it now!

italodisco

Cill94 wrote: »

I think you would do better on full body workouts if you're doing 3 days a week. Body part splits as specific as 'chest and back' really only have a place for advanced bodybuilders.

There's also a significant lack of work for your posterior chain muscles (i.e. hamstrings, lower back), and only one pulling movement.

I have recently made a free Dumbbell programme that I've sent to some clients. I can email it to you if you want. Just private message me.

I'd agree on the full body x 3 days.

I've been training since I was 14, bodybuilding.

29 years of experience, competed for the last 20 years. An awful lot of trial and error.

Full body workouts are perfect for maintaining a good physique, if programmed properly with an excellent diet and sleep you can build some muscle too.

I'd avoid the likes of bro splits, push pull legs 5 /6 days a week etc. Unless you are planning to compete /have access to alot of equipment / are using steroids there's no point frying your CNS.

Cill I'd be interested to see your routine, I'm always interested in others interpretations of routines. I'm currently training at home (I have a lat pulldown, seated row, squat stand, bench, leg curl extension combo, 280kg of plates and adjustable dumbells up to 42kg and a sissy squat) and I'm training the dogcrapp routine for the last 3 months.

Might switch to full body for a while

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ILoveYourVibes

How many reps with these dumbells can you do until exhaustion etc?

ILoveYourVibes

Cill94 wrote: »

Body part splits as specific as 'chest and back' really only have a place for advanced bodybuilders.

.

Not true. Isolation exercises are actually great for beginners because you recruit less muscles less fatigue less chance of dizziness because les PEH.
Beginners are often weak in some parts of the body and lack form for compound movements partic during the end of the workout.

Isolation exercises help with this.

In fact for beginners I would recommend they do more isolation exercises until they get better form and stronger.

Anyway if you are using dumbells etc its hard to avoid isolation exercises.

I would say compound exercises are more technical with regards to form etc. People find them 'easy' at first because you recruit more muscle groups. However its usually only that they are doing them wrong.

Beginners should focus on isolation exercises as they can focus on the form better.

Alf Veedersane

ILoveYourVibes wrote: »

Not true. Isolation exercises are actually great for beginners because you recruit less muscles less fatigue less chance of dizziness because les PEH.
Beginners are often weak in some parts of the body and lack form for compound movements partic during the end of the workout.

Isolation exercises help with this.

In fact for beginners I would recommend they do more isolation exercises until they get better form and stronger.

Anyway if you are using dumbells etc its hard to avoid isolation exercises.

I would say compound exercises are more technical with regards to form etc. People find them 'easy' at first because you recruit more muscle groups. However its usually only that they are doing them wrong.

Beginners should focus on isolation exercises as they can focus on the form better.

His point wasn't about isolation exercises vs compounds.

It was about the structure of the training, ie specifically just doing 'back and chest' on one day because they would only be exercising those muscle groups once a week. Hence the suggestion for full-body workouts

ILoveYourVibes

Alf Veedersane wrote: »

His point wasn't about isolation exercises vs compounds.

It was about the structure of the training, ie specifically just doing 'back and chest' on one day because they would only be exercising those muscle groups once a week. Hence the suggestion for full-body workouts

Good point. Accepted.


OP can i ask you....was that workout you posted based on your workouts with your PT? The one you were happy with?

Or did you come up with it from somewhere else?

Alf Veedersane

ILoveYourVibes wrote: »

Good point. Accepted.


OP can i ask you....was that workout you posted based on your workouts with your PT? The one you were happy with?

Or did you come up with it from somewhere else?

He said he created it to do at home.

Then a PT, Cill94, sent him a full body workout to do

ILoveYourVibes

Alf Veedersane wrote: »

He said he created it to do at home.

Then a PT, Cill94, sent him a full body workout to do

Chill I am also a qualified PT.

I just finished a year long course.

Look forward to learning from each other

EQF LEVEL 4.

Alf Veedersane

ILoveYourVibes wrote: »

Chill I am also a qualified PT.

I just finished a year long course.

Look forward to learning from each other

EQF LEVEL 4.

I am chill. I just pointed out that he said he'd made the workout in the OP himself and that a PT had sent him a full body workout


I would take issue the notion of doing isolation movements until you're stronger before attempting compounds.

ILoveYourVibes

Alf Veedersane wrote: »

I would take issue the notion of doing isolation movements until you're stronger before attempting compounds.

We shall have to agree to differ then.

Maybe I will change my mind at some point

Alf Veedersane

ILoveYourVibes wrote: »

We shall have to agree to differ then.

Maybe I will change my mind at some point

Being stronger at isolation movements doesnt trump having an appropriate weight to do a compound properly.

Best case scenario is you're able to start at a slightly higher weight but it's unlikely that you would have strengthened all of the key muscles for a compound through isolation movements alone and they still haven't trained the movement pattern.

ILoveYourVibes

Alf Veedersane wrote: »

Being stronger at isolation movements doesnt trump having an appropriate weight to do a compound properly.

Best case scenario is you're able to start at a slightly higher weight but it's unlikely that you would have strengthened all of the key muscles for a compound through isolation movements alone and they still haven't trained the movement pattern.

This is why i asked what is his rep max with these dumbells.

It was my first post.

Honestly OP so long as you are doing something ..just keep it goin!

Alf Veedersane

ILoveYourVibes wrote: »

This is why i asked what is his rep max with these dumbells.

It was my post

I don't know what you're trying to say.

Anyway, yeah the OP got a full body workout so he's good to go