I know my situation is rare, but I have, in the past, simply asked the owner to buy bigger dumbbells.
You could use chains, but I doubt you have access to them if your gym only has 100# dbs.
[quote]KBCThird wrote:
gi2eg wrote:
single arm barbell rows.
yes it will be hard to keep the bar level at first but i bet it will make you strong as hell if you get good at them (muscular control is doing the balancing anyway)
load up some 25s on an olympic bar, set it longways next to your bench and Voila.
I will admit I’ve never tried this, but I am really REALLY skeptical. I’m guessing you’ve done this so let me just be upfront and ask: did these contribute to anything - your physique, your back strength, etc - other than your forearm muscles?[/quote]
I have done them yes, but I’d only do them regularly if i didn’t have heavy DBs.
Nothin’ wrong with strong forearms. Worth a shot IMO.
[quote]gi2eg wrote:
KBCThird wrote:
gi2eg wrote:
single arm barbell rows.
yes it will be hard to keep the bar level at first but i bet it will make you strong as hell if you get good at them (muscular control is doing the balancing anyway)
load up some 25s on an olympic bar, set it longways next to your bench and Voila.
I will admit I’ve never tried this, but I am really REALLY skeptical. I’m guessing you’ve done this so let me just be upfront and ask: did these contribute to anything - your physique, your back strength, etc - other than your forearm muscles?
I have done them yes, but I’d only do them regularly if i didn’t have heavy DBs.
Nothin’ wrong with strong forearms. Worth a shot IMO.[/quote]
Why not just load up one end of the barbell, and plant the other end against the wall or under a heavy DB, and row that. It wouldn’t be the exact same thing, but a nice alternative to a DB Row. It would take balancing the Oly bar out of the equation and allow you to use more weight.
Pre-exhaust on BB row then finish off with DBs for reps.
Changing your technique to more a difficult leverage such as elbows out, or a face pull type movement, is one idea.
Also try shifting your focus to weighted pullups and rear delt raises for a while-you’re probably not that far off from a one arm pullup.
Once you do 25 or 30 strapless reps with the biggest dumbbell in your gym, it’s usually time to buy an Olympic Sized Dumbbell that you can put Olympic Plates onto. It’s like any normal Olympic Sized Bar but it’s tiny.
In the mean time, you can also push up your weights on Weighted Chins, Barbell Rows, T-Bar Rows, Deadlifts, Rack Pulls, Hammer Strength Machines, Cable Rows, and even Lat Pulldowns.
By the time you get to maxing out all the weights on all the machines in your gym, you’ll probably be doing barbell rows with quite a bit of weight. So much weight, in fact, that it might overtrain your lower back and interfere with Deads, Squats, and other important lfits.
At this point I think it’s a pretty good idea to get your own Dumbbell Handle since Dumbbell Rows don’t stress your entire body the same way Barbell Rows do while Barbell Rows can rank right up there with Deadlifts and Heavy Cleans for lifts that are hard on the body and take a while to recover from. I know if I’m going to do T-Bar Rows or Barbell Rows, I need to plan my week around what else I’ll be able to do.
[quote]Cprimero wrote:
you’re probably not that far off from a one arm pullup.
[/quote]
HA! Thanks for the confidence. I’m nowhere near a one arm pull up though.
Went with the BO BB Row/DB Row (hi rep) superset. I kept the BB weight where it was, but had to drop the DB weight significantly to approach 20 reps. My forearms were screaming as well!
Thanks for the suggestions!
Ask your gym to acquire heavier DB’s