Dumbbell Training with the Ironmaster Quick Lock Dumbbells

I just thought I would share with you my experience of some dumbbell training I did while I was away on holidays. It shows that you can have great workouts without needing a lot of gym equipment. When you are conditioned to training on gym equipment in a commercial gym you tend to lose your imagination and become reliant on machines for a lot of your training. However with a bit of imagination you can design a workout with a minimum of gym equipment that will have you feeling strong and healthy.

I had been training consistently since Christmas/New Year and did not want to go backwards with a couple of days away in Feb. In the past when I went away I would throw all my discipline with eating and training out the window and get stuck into the beers, pies, hamburgers and Jim Beam cans. Just over Christmas I had managed to wind back 8 weeks of solid progress in training in just a week with too much eating and drinking. So for the trip in February I was determined to enjoy myself without going over the top.

Originally I thought about having a couple of sessions at the local gym but didn’t know what they would be like so I decided just to throw in a pair of the Ironmaster Quick Lock Dumbbells. Before I had my workout I decided to come up with a plan – I often find that if I don’t have a program I end up losing interest half way through. I decided on a full body workout with high reps and short rests between sets. I really wanted to work up a sweat as I was not eating very strictly and having the odd beer too.

The workout I came up with was:

Push Ups with Dumbbell Handles 3 x 15 reps – this may not sound like much, but if you do your push ups nice and slow on the negative, hold at the bottom and push out hard it really does provide a good pump. Using the Ironmaster Quick Lock Dumbbell handles allowed me to do the movement much deeper than normal push ups.

Lunges 3 x 15 reps – I worked each leg individually and swapped with no rest between legs or sets. I didn’t use much weight and was really cracking a sweat at the end. It was’t until the next day that I really felt how much work I had done on this exercise. I used to think lunges was an exercise for girls but it hit areas that I hadn’t been using doing squats, leg extension and leg curls.

Bent Over Rows 3 x 15 reps – Once again you don’t need a lot of weight with this exercise. Using the dumbbells you really need to concentrate on the form. I finished off back with a superset of one arm dumbbell rows at the end for good measure.

Shoulder Press 3 x 15 reps – As I didn’t have a bench I did this exercise standing. To be honest even if I did have a bench I still would have done it standing. I read in an old Powerlifting book about doing the exercise with your heels together and your toes pointing out. You can’t use nearly as much weight plus you can really feel your core working.

Hammer Curls 2 x 10reps – I do this exercise nice and slow and concentrate on form rather than weight.

Overhead Extension 2 x 10reps – I did this with no rest between arms or sets.

This does not look like much work when compared to some programs, but whenever the chest, back, legs and shoulders in one routine you really have to work hard. Combined with the high reps and short rest it was a taxing workout that achieved the desired result.

It really demonstrates that you don’t need complicated gym equipment to keep yourself in shape. If you are looking at seriously getting into weight training you will need to have a decent home gym with plenty of variety to perform more advanced weight training programs. However if you are just after general health and fitness you can really achieve great results with minimal gym equipment.

With just the addition of the Ironmaster Super Bench I could have easily doubled the number of exercises I could have performed. Many weight trainers have not done such “basic” training as they have always trained in a gym full of the latest strength equipment. One day you should try a basic program like above and I think you will be surprised at what can be achieved with so little.