Building Strength With Dumbbell Power-Lifting
There are many effective ways to build strength.
Some methods of building strength are much more effective than others.
In this article we will be discussing the superiority of the dumbbell power-lifting over other methods of strength building.
Dumbbells offer many more benefits than barbells, body-weight exercises, and weight-lifting machines.
There is less risk of injury with dumbbells than there is with barbells, because if you drop dumbbells on a bench press, there is a good chance that they will fall to the sides of your body, as opposed to a bar which would land on your neck.
Dumbbells require less reps and sets than body-weight exercises, thereby allowing you to be more efficient with your workout time.
And finally, dumbbells are superior to weight-lifting machines because dumbbells require the use of, and thus train, many stabilizer muscles, whereas machines tend to isolate individual muscles and avoid secondary and stabilizer muscles.
The power-lifting method of increasing strength with dumbbells is as follows: Find the greatest amount weight that you are comfortable doing 4 sets of 4 reps.
Only do 4 sets on any particular station.
If you find that you can do more reps or more sets, then you need to increase the weight that you are lifting.
Say that you are comfortable doing 4 sets of 4 reps with 60 lbs weights on a bench press.
When you feel that you are ready to increase the weight, increase the weight of your 2nd set by 5 lbs.
On your next weight increase, increase the weight of the 3rd set by 5 lbs.
On your next weight increase, increase the 1st set by 5lbs.
And lastly, increase the 4th set by 5 lbs.
Workout 1: 60, 60, 60, 60 Workout 2: 60, 65, 60, 60 [increase 2nd set] Workout 3: 60, 65, 65, 60 [increase 3rd set] Workout 4: 65, 65, 65, 60 [increase 1st set] Workout 4: 65, 65, 65, 65 [increase 4th set] The idea behind this strategy is for the 1st set to remain at your comfortable weight, as a stretching set, until your body has adjusted to the increased load.
The 1st set is increased before the 4th set, because when increasing weight, your muscles will tire more quickly, and in order to be able to perform 3 good sets with the increased weight, it would take much longer to build the endurance to still have enough strength to do the 4th set with increased weight.
For this reason, the 1st set is increased before the 4th, and at this point the 4th set serves as a burnout set to finish off the workout station.
The 4th set is increased last, and may require a few workouts in order to complete a good, comfortable 4th set with the increased weight.
When you have increased all 4 sets by 5 lbs, then repeat the process until you have reached your goal.
I alternate between pushups and the dumbbell bench press every few months.
On my most recent cycle, I used this method to build from 4 sets with 60 lbs dumbbells to 4 sets with 100 lbs dumbbells in just a few months.
The keys to achieving great results with this method are: to make sure that you use enough weight, to avoid over-training, and to make sure you use proper form when lifting.
Some methods of building strength are much more effective than others.
In this article we will be discussing the superiority of the dumbbell power-lifting over other methods of strength building.
Dumbbells offer many more benefits than barbells, body-weight exercises, and weight-lifting machines.
There is less risk of injury with dumbbells than there is with barbells, because if you drop dumbbells on a bench press, there is a good chance that they will fall to the sides of your body, as opposed to a bar which would land on your neck.
Dumbbells require less reps and sets than body-weight exercises, thereby allowing you to be more efficient with your workout time.
And finally, dumbbells are superior to weight-lifting machines because dumbbells require the use of, and thus train, many stabilizer muscles, whereas machines tend to isolate individual muscles and avoid secondary and stabilizer muscles.
The power-lifting method of increasing strength with dumbbells is as follows: Find the greatest amount weight that you are comfortable doing 4 sets of 4 reps.
Only do 4 sets on any particular station.
If you find that you can do more reps or more sets, then you need to increase the weight that you are lifting.
Say that you are comfortable doing 4 sets of 4 reps with 60 lbs weights on a bench press.
When you feel that you are ready to increase the weight, increase the weight of your 2nd set by 5 lbs.
On your next weight increase, increase the weight of the 3rd set by 5 lbs.
On your next weight increase, increase the 1st set by 5lbs.
And lastly, increase the 4th set by 5 lbs.
Workout 1: 60, 60, 60, 60 Workout 2: 60, 65, 60, 60 [increase 2nd set] Workout 3: 60, 65, 65, 60 [increase 3rd set] Workout 4: 65, 65, 65, 60 [increase 1st set] Workout 4: 65, 65, 65, 65 [increase 4th set] The idea behind this strategy is for the 1st set to remain at your comfortable weight, as a stretching set, until your body has adjusted to the increased load.
The 1st set is increased before the 4th set, because when increasing weight, your muscles will tire more quickly, and in order to be able to perform 3 good sets with the increased weight, it would take much longer to build the endurance to still have enough strength to do the 4th set with increased weight.
For this reason, the 1st set is increased before the 4th, and at this point the 4th set serves as a burnout set to finish off the workout station.
The 4th set is increased last, and may require a few workouts in order to complete a good, comfortable 4th set with the increased weight.
When you have increased all 4 sets by 5 lbs, then repeat the process until you have reached your goal.
I alternate between pushups and the dumbbell bench press every few months.
On my most recent cycle, I used this method to build from 4 sets with 60 lbs dumbbells to 4 sets with 100 lbs dumbbells in just a few months.
The keys to achieving great results with this method are: to make sure that you use enough weight, to avoid over-training, and to make sure you use proper form when lifting.
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