Anybody Use Dumbbells Anymore?

Since discovering this site about a year ago, I have changed the way I train - focusing mostly on the big 4 lifts, and following a couple of CT’s layer programs and benefitting from it alot. I had built a good inventory of dumbbells through the years and don’t use them much, if ever, anymore and frankly kind of miss them - especially heavy DB bench and shoulder work, and would like to know how / if you guys use them within a strength based program and how & where to program them. If they need to stay in the corner I’m good with that - but just thought i’d get some opinions if anyone has had success incorporating them. Thanks.

I do 5/3/1 and use DB’s for accessory work. DB rows, Kroc rows, curls, extra overhead presses, RDL’s, Farmer’s walks. Do your big 4 lift and then switch to the DB’s to finish and you won’t have to let dust settle on them.

There is no reason after several months of bar work that you can’t switch to D.Bells and follow the same protocol; lifters have been doing it for many decades.

[quote]ThePitbull86 wrote:
I do 5/3/1 and use DB’s for accessory work. DB rows, Kroc rows, curls, extra overhead presses, RDL’s, Farmer’s walks. Do your big 4 lift and then switch to the DB’s to finish and you won’t have to let dust settle on them.[/quote]

Same here, I use the for accessory work on bench and press day.

Why don’t you just do the dumbbell stuff after the bar stuff?

[quote]csulli wrote:
Why don’t you just do the dumbbell stuff after the bar stuff?[/quote]

I can’t personally think of more than a couple programs that the authors on here developed that don’t have room in them somewhere for quality dumbbell work.

If you don’t enjoy a couple sets of Db curls supersetted with overhead extensions…YOU are what’s wrong with the world

[quote]csulli wrote:
Why don’t you just do the dumbbell stuff after the bar stuff?[/quote]

Mainly because I am spent after the barbell stuff. Some of the layer programs have you doing 30+ reps at 80%-90%+ and it wears me out - worry about recovery. I’m 45yo and don’t recover like I used to at 25. I do accessory rows, but I guess my real question is does anyone get a strength building element out of dumbbells enough to replace a main lift? Versus light accessory work. Thanks for the replies everyone.

[quote]chobbs wrote:
If you don’t enjoy a couple sets of Db curls supersetted with overhead extensions…YOU are what’s wrong with the world[/quote]

Yeah used to love that combo - now I get more out of chins & dips.
But I do add weight on these with a dumbbell so I guess there’s that…

[quote]Grove wrote:

[quote]csulli wrote:
Why don’t you just do the dumbbell stuff after the bar stuff?[/quote]

Mainly because I am spent after the barbell stuff. Some of the layer programs have you doing 30+ reps at 80%-90%+ and it wears me out - worry about recovery. I’m 45yo and don’t recover like I used to at 25. I do accessory rows, but I guess my real question is does anyone get a strength building element out of dumbbells enough to replace a main lift? Versus light accessory work. Thanks for the replies everyone.[/quote]
Well I am literally 25 lol, so you can take my advice with multiple grains of salt. But what I’d do is simply do it anyway, adding it in slowly to give your body time to adapt its work capacity and recovery. Once your body is in an even more trained state than it already is the extra work and recovering from it shouldn’t be any trouble at all.

[quote]csulli wrote:

[quote]Grove wrote:

[quote]csulli wrote:
Why don’t you just do the dumbbell stuff after the bar stuff?[/quote]

Mainly because I am spent after the barbell stuff. Some of the layer programs have you doing 30+ reps at 80%-90%+ and it wears me out - worry about recovery. I’m 45yo and don’t recover like I used to at 25. I do accessory rows, but I guess my real question is does anyone get a strength building element out of dumbbells enough to replace a main lift? Versus light accessory work. Thanks for the replies everyone.[/quote]
Well I am literally 25 lol, so you can take my advice with multiple grains of salt. But what I’d do is simply do it anyway, adding it in slowly to give your body time to adapt its work capacity and recovery. Once your body is in an even more trained state than it already is the extra work and recovering from it shouldn’t be any trouble at all.[/quote]

Appreciate your thoughts csulli. Another question is would it really add a benefit to expanding the work capacity in that manner? Or would it be because I just like doing some extra DB work? I used to add a few sets of heavy db bench presses after an old program I ran (only 8-12 BB reps at the 88% range) I think with good results, but now the CT layer has you doing so much more BB volume (clusters, density, ramps, etc…). Sorry if I am beating a dead horse here. I get a lot of info from reading you guys’ comments on here. Thanks.

[quote]csulli wrote:

[quote]Grove wrote:

[quote]csulli wrote:
Why don’t you just do the dumbbell stuff after the bar stuff?[/quote]

Mainly because I am spent after the barbell stuff. Some of the layer programs have you doing 30+ reps at 80%-90%+ and it wears me out - worry about recovery. I’m 45yo and don’t recover like I used to at 25. I do accessory rows, but I guess my real question is does anyone get a strength building element out of dumbbells enough to replace a main lift? Versus light accessory work. Thanks for the replies everyone.[/quote]
Well I am literally 25 lol, so you can take my advice with multiple grains of salt. But what I’d do is simply do it anyway, adding it in slowly to give your body time to adapt its work capacity and recovery. Once your body is in an even more trained state than it already is the extra work and recovering from it shouldn’t be any trouble at all.[/quote]

If anything you’ll get strength from the dumbbell work in that it can shore up any imbalances you may have as well as add a different training stimulus. As long as you progressively do more weight, then you’re adding strength whether you’re using barbells, dumbbells, kettlebells, or jinglebells. You may even gain faster with less volume on the big lifts if you recover better. I think that’s Wendler’s main premise behind 5/3/1 with 90% training maxes. It allows you to progress over time but not exceed your ability to recover.

[quote]ThePitbull86 wrote:

[quote]csulli wrote:

[quote]Grove wrote:

[quote]csulli wrote:
Why don’t you just do the dumbbell stuff after the bar stuff?[/quote]

Mainly because I am spent after the barbell stuff. Some of the layer programs have you doing 30+ reps at 80%-90%+ and it wears me out - worry about recovery. I’m 45yo and don’t recover like I used to at 25. I do accessory rows, but I guess my real question is does anyone get a strength building element out of dumbbells enough to replace a main lift? Versus light accessory work. Thanks for the replies everyone.[/quote]
Well I am literally 25 lol, so you can take my advice with multiple grains of salt. But what I’d do is simply do it anyway, adding it in slowly to give your body time to adapt its work capacity and recovery. Once your body is in an even more trained state than it already is the extra work and recovering from it shouldn’t be any trouble at all.[/quote]

If anything you’ll get strength from the dumbbell work in that it can shore up any imbalances you may have as well as add a different training stimulus. As long as you progressively do more weight, then you’re adding strength whether you’re using barbells, dumbbells, kettlebells, or jinglebells. You may even gain faster with less volume on the big lifts if you recover better. I think that’s Wendler’s main premise behind 5/3/1 with 90% training maxes. It allows you to progress over time but not exceed your ability to recover.
[/quote]

That’s a good point pitbull. I’m pretty stubborn in the weightroom and when I find a program that I like (not necessarily the best for me) I tend to run it into the ground. Which usually runs me into the ground. I never used to think about recovery until a few ill timed injuries made me now over-think it. Maybe backing off the bb volume a bit and adding back my db work would keep me fresher.

[quote]Grove wrote:
Appreciate your thoughts csulli. Another question is would it really add a benefit to expanding the work capacity in that manner? Or would it be because I just like doing some extra DB work? I used to add a few sets of heavy db bench presses after an old program I ran (only 8-12 BB reps at the 88% range) I think with good results, but now the CT layer has you doing so much more BB volume (clusters, density, ramps, etc…). Sorry if I am beating a dead horse here. I get a lot of info from reading you guys’ comments on here. Thanks.[/quote]
Now that is a good question. I always err on the side of too much, but then again I’m a 25 year old bachelor with shit else to do lol.

I honestly don’t know how much would really be beneficial. Typically I will do 25-30 reps on barbell bench followed sometimes by 25-30 reps of barbell press and then do 3 or 4 sets of 10-15 on dumbbell incline. Sometimes I will substitute the barbell press for DB press and do DB flat bench afterwards though. Then I’ll move on to other isolation stuff and triceps.

But like I said, not everyone has time to fool around in the gym for ever, and I honestly do not know if it’s even beneficial; I just do it.

[quote]BlueCollarTr8n wrote:
There is no reason after several months of bar work that you can’t switch to D.Bells and follow the same protocol; lifters have been doing it for many decades. [/quote]

I agree with this guy.

[quote]BlueCollarTr8n wrote:

[quote]BlueCollarTr8n wrote:
There is no reason after several months of bar work that you can’t switch to D.Bells and follow the same protocol; lifters have been doing it for many decades. [/quote]

I agree with this guy. [/quote]

Lol - got it! I’m a home-gymer and that could get kind of expensive replacing the BB lifts with DB’s. I’ve only got up to a pair of 100’s. But I get your point, thanks. I know I over-analyze this stuff…just how i’m wired. And appreciate all the feedback.

[quote]csulli wrote:

[quote]Grove wrote:
Appreciate your thoughts csulli. Another question is would it really add a benefit to expanding the work capacity in that manner? Or would it be because I just like doing some extra DB work? I used to add a few sets of heavy db bench presses after an old program I ran (only 8-12 BB reps at the 88% range) I think with good results, but now the CT layer has you doing so much more BB volume (clusters, density, ramps, etc…). Sorry if I am beating a dead horse here. I get a lot of info from reading you guys’ comments on here. Thanks.[/quote]
Now that is a good question. I always err on the side of too much, but then again I’m a 25 year old bachelor with shit else to do lol.

I honestly don’t know how much would really be beneficial. Typically I will do 25-30 reps on barbell bench followed sometimes by 25-30 reps of barbell press and then do 3 or 4 sets of 10-15 on dumbbell incline. Sometimes I will substitute the barbell press for DB press and do DB flat bench afterwards though. Then I’ll move on to other isolation stuff and triceps.

But like I said, not everyone has time to fool around in the gym for ever, and I honestly do not know if it’s even beneficial; I just do it.[/quote]
I seriously need to up my volume. My arms would fall of at the shoulder doing that much in a week, much less in a day.

For bodybuilding purposes you can use db instead of benching, pressing etc… plus you need them to do curls, side laterals and things like that. If you’re doing CT’s system and it’s working I’d just keep doing that and not mess with it if it’s giving me results. If, however, you feel like you want to move on then you can use dumbbells pretty much whenever you want.

[quote]ThePitbull86 wrote:
whether you’re using barbells, dumbbells, kettlebells, or jinglebells.
[/quote]

Jinglebells for isolating the bis… Nothing better.

[quote]Grove wrote:

[quote]BlueCollarTr8n wrote:

[quote]BlueCollarTr8n wrote:
There is no reason after several months of bar work that you can’t switch to D.Bells and follow the same protocol; lifters have been doing it for many decades. [/quote]

I agree with this guy. [/quote]

Lol - got it! I’m a home-gymer and that could get kind of expensive replacing the BB lifts with DB’s. I’ve only got up to a pair of 100’s. But I get your point, thanks. I know I over-analyze this stuff…just how i’m wired. And appreciate all the feedback.[/quote]

every three to four weeks i switch heavy low reps for lighter high reps and switch over to do more db work then.

i have db’s at work, in living room, bed room, every place but bathroom. i have odd hours and nothing like doing presses or rows or curls whenever.

you would be surprised how much weight you can do with bent over db rows. buy just one big db even if it’s only for rows.