Wondering what’s the best way to count sets and reps? Why shouldn’t you skip leg days? This is #Gains, Explained, a space for all manner of fitness questions. Our Men’s Health team (and other professionals) are here for you.
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I work out at home with adjustable dumbbells. I’m nearing my limit with many lifts. Once this happens, what can you do to keep making progress?
– Am I a dumbbell?
as much as possible I love working out at home. We know that training in your backyard misses out on some of the benefits that only commercial fitness spaces can offer. Barbells and plates, adjustable benches, heavy-duty squat racks, and many other strength-training essentials abound, but there’s one glaring problem. Adjustable dumbbells.
Don’t get me wrong, I (mostly) love dumbbells. Ready to do just about any type of isolation exercise like bicep curls, ranging from 5 to 80 pounds, and you can switch between pounds with a simple turn of the handle. As incredible as possible weights can be to save space and money in your home gym, most have relatively low ceilings. It costs more to upgrade to a unit. Once you get to the point of training multi-joint exercises like the bench press, deadlift, rowing, and even farmer’s carry, those 50-60, sometimes 80-90 pounds are added during a long career of training, every workout. If you’re using 3 sets of standard splits of 8-10 reps on a regular basis, it’s not much of a challenge.
Thankfully, without breaking the bank for heavier weights or giving up a home workout session for a spot in the gym that might be destined to wait for the biggest man in the place that ends with jumbo dumbbells, I We have a solution to our shared problem.Before we level up. It all hinges on the principle of progressive overload, which is the foundation of any effective strength training program. Muscles respond to stimulation, and over time, that stimulation must be increased gradually to continue to provoke a response. I had already used this technique when I was training with weights before. Because each exercise in my training plan was working on heavier and heavier loads. Now I have to switch approaches.
“Progressive overloading is basically having to find new ways to ‘overload’ the muscles, allowing them to adapt (and grow) as they face new challenges,” he says. increase. men’s health fitness director Ebenezer Samuel, CSCS Basically, reaching for a heavier set of weights isn’t an option, so you need to think beyond that.
Thankfully, there are some proven methods for introducing that overload that even the strongest man can use to maximize the effectiveness of his workouts when he’s lacking weight. Very convenient. Whether you don’t have access to your regular gym or want to try a new routine to shake things up, you never know when you’ll be traveling.
First, you can add volumes. This requires either more reps per set or more sets per workout. Instead of doing 3 sets of 8-10 reps, do 3-5 more sets of 12-15 reps.
Here’s a question. Are you tracking your rest time between sets? If not, start now. Samuel also suggests reducing rest time between sets.
You can also increase the amount of time you are in a tense state. In other words, the amount of time the muscle is being used for each rep. This can be achieved by slowing down the eccentric part of the exercise, pausing at various points in the movement, and adding half reps to the scheme.
It can also change your mental approach to working out in your head. “A great way to get the most out of the many adjustable dumbbell movements is to rethink and redefine what the effort is all about. Juan Guadarrama, CSCSstrength coach and member men’s health Strengths of diversity initiatives. “Traditionally, you may lean to the side of the maximum weight for sets of 20, 10, 5, 3 and 1. [reps]However, this only induces a very specific stress (muscle endurance or strength). You may see progress for a while, but as your body adapts it will start to plateau. “
How can we overcome plateaus and rethink our efforts, as Guadarrama suggests? Consider pushing your limits.
“To extend and use different muscle fibers, you can choose a moderate weight and move it quickly (force equals mass and acceleration),” he says. “It’s commonly used by Olympic weightlifters, conjugate powerlifters and athletes where the goal is to generate as much force as possible.” Add this focus by performing explosive concentric movements like
Guadarrama’s suggestions for improving work capacity—that is, how much physical effort can be devoted to recovery and adaptation—are an enhanced version of the advice to reduce rest time. He states that bouts of “high-intensity and moderate-intensity intervals of working external resistance for a set time or number of times” can be used to achieve this goal. Example approach: 20-second dumbbells Tabata workout with 8 rounds of thrusters followed by a 10 second rest.
For more specific guidance on how to level up your training without using heavier weights, check out these three methods.
Three techniques for maximizing constrained weights
superset/triset
A superset or triset involves performing two or three exercises in a row without rest. “Doing two moves in a row has so many benefits in the strength vs. force curve that it keeps the workout active and you reach a level of system fatigue by the time you get to the second/third of the setup. ,” says Samuel. He recommends starting with the most difficult movements and finishing with the easiest. For a solid example, check out this triple he supersets his workout.
pre-fatigue set
This is another chance to add volume, but this method is a bit more sophisticated than stacking repetitions of one move. “Start with accessory/isolation moves like skull crushers and chest flies, then move on to multi-joint moves,” says Samuel. increase. Rock uses the concept of pre-fatigue (aka pre-exhaust) in his training. If it’s good enough for him, it’s good enough.
whole body split
This is a means of adding incremental challenges throughout the program’s construction. “Full-body splits aim to hit the gym every day and train all the major muscle groups in the upper and lower body, typically involving movements that involve multiple muscle groups,” says Samuel. It’s also more cost-effective to move to workouts that use multiple muscle groups instead of splitting based on one body part each day. “By doing this, you train everything more often,” says Samuel.
Brett Williams, fitness editor at Men’s Health, is a NASM-CPT certified trainer, former professional football player, and technical reporter. I divide my workout time into strength and conditioning training, martial arts, and running. His work can be found at Mashable, Thrillist and other outlets.
