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Old 09-12-2007, 02:00 PM
Blarg Blarg is offline
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Join Date: Jun 2004
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Default Re: Working out with just dumbbells

I'll add in some suggestions for heavy exercises, which can help a ton on strength of course, but some of which can do a lot to add mass, too.

For legs: the pistol, or one-legged squat. Hold onto a doorframe or bathroom or kitchen counter or a big table for balance. Try to keep from rounding your back too much, especially your lower spine. Squat on one leg and keep the other out in front, either straight or letting it hang a bit. These can be worked up to be pretty difficult. If you get strong enough, try them without support -- that makes it harder, because you need to use more stabilizing muscles. Also, you can hold a dumbbell out in front of you to increase the difficulty. You can even hop out of them, and then hop onto boxes. So there's good upside potential for these.

For shoulders and triceps: Handstand push-ups and what works up to them. Most people can't do these, but you can work your way up by getting in position to do them, but not throwing your legs up. You can throw one leg up, as you get stronger, or make your body more vertical, or both. Don't let not being able to do a handstand push-up deter you from working up to one. You can also work on holds and do partial reps and negatives. Holds and negatives around whatever your weak points are in the movement can help speed your progress along.

I agree with AZK on the biceps/triceps. Generally, they will wear out before, say, your back when doing pull-ups, or your chest when doing bench presses. So there's no need to do extra isolation exercises for them, and it may even be counterproductive. If you want better arms just do more pull-ups and bench presses/overhead presses!

Also agreed that turkish get-ups are really good exercises for your abs/core, and pretty good for shoulders too.

If I were to add one more body part to be worked, it might be forearms. They can take a lot of abuse and keep growing, and will probably not be stimulated enough by ordinary lifting routines. Do some wrist curls, or even better, some sledgehammer levering. An 8 pound sledgehammer is all you need for really big strength gains and some size gains too.
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