Can I Do BFL With Just Dumbbells?

[lovlilynne]

I don't currently have access to a weight bench or even a bar bell. I only have dumbells. I did ok with the upper body exercises, but I was trying to plan my lower body tonight, and I got stumped with the quadriceps. I can only do the squats, not extension or presses.

Also, I am confused about what you actually do. The directions say to choose 2 exercises, then do the reps for one, and switch to the other for the last 12. Is that it? Or are you supposed to start over with the 2nd exercise and switch again? I didn't think so, so I only did the 1 exercise with the upper body (I figured it is only one because the training sheets only give space for recording the weight for 1 of the exercises - if you had to do two, there would be 2 columns, right?)

Again, I only have 2 to choose from right now because all I have is the dumbbells. I'd also run out of time - I know it was supposed to only take about 50 minutes, but the 1 exercise for each muscle group took almost an hour for me, and that was without a full minutes rest (I didn't rest very long between 3lbs and 5lbs - 3lbs wasn't anything, but my weights only go up to 15lbs, so just to increase the weight sufficiently, I had to start with 3lb.)

Any advice would be appreciated.

Lynne

[KingV]

At the very least, you're going to have to get more dumbells, but probably a better option is to join a gym. You'll quickly outgrow your 15 lb dumbbells and it's quite likely that they don't do much for some of your stronger muscle groups already (bench press, squats). But to work out properly you're going to have to have the right equipment. So a bench and some heavier dumbbells are pretty much mandatory, at the minimum. Honestly, at the cost you'd pay for that stuff you'd be better off just joining a gym.

You might be able to get everything done with something akin to a bowflex, as well, but for me, personally, I'd rather just trot myself off to the gym. There should be some other people who work out at home though, and they might have a good idea of what sorts of things they need "at a minimum".

[statona]

and as far as the workouts go - you will complete a total of 6 sets for each body part... the first 5 will be completed using one type of exercise (flat bench for example) and the sixth set something else (dumbell flys). Hope this helps.

[yakubu]

Originally Posted by lovlilynne

I don't currently have access to a weight bench or even a bar bell. I only have dumbells. I did ok with the upper body exercises, but I was trying to plan my lower body tonight, and I got stumped with the quadriceps. I can only do the squats, not extension or presses.

Also, I am confused about what you actually do. The directions say to choose 2 exercises, then do the reps for one, and switch to the other for the last 12. Is that it? Or are you supposed to start over with the 2nd exercise and switch again? I didn't think so, so I only did the 1 exercise with the upper body (I figured it is only one because the training sheets only give space for recording the weight for 1 of the exercises - if you had to do two, there would be 2 columns, right?)

Again, I only have 2 to choose from right now because all I have is the dumbbells. I'd also run out of time - I know it was supposed to only take about 50 minutes, but the 1 exercise for each muscle group took almost an hour for me, and that was without a full minutes rest (I didn't rest very long between 3lbs and 5lbs - 3lbs wasn't anything, but my weights only go up to 15lbs, so just to increase the weight sufficiently, I had to start with 3lb.)

Any advice would be appreciated.

Lynne

im a fan of working out with dumbells at home instead of the gym however you are gonna need a bit more equipment than just the dumbells. e.g you can do all of the your chest exercises by just using dumbells only but are you going to lie on the floor whilst you do them ? no you need a bench.

also you need 2 exercises for quads but you can only do one with dumbells (squats). the answer is to buy a bench that has a leg extension on the end. these are very cheap, id say about £50 or $75.

you'll also need to make sure than you have lots of adjustable dumbells becasue the weight changes with each set plus you have to increase the weight every week.

make sure you change your exercises around every 4 weeks. for the fist 8 weeks i do all of my workouts at home with a bench, adjustable dumbells and a barbell. then the last month i do all of my upper body at home but i have to go to the gym to use the leg press machine as i dont have one of those.

you are getting confused with the workouts. pick 2 chest exercises - flys and bench press and do 5 sets of flys and then 1 set of bench press and thats it for the chest , you are done. that should take 11 mins. after that move onto shoulders which takes 11 mins - 5 sets of seated press and 1 set of lateral raises and then you are done, thats it , no more no less. it takes 11 mins.

once youve done all the muscle groups the workout is finished in under one hour.

i think the mistake youve made is youve doen 5 sets of flys or wot ever and then 1 set of bench press or wotever then uve had a rest and done exactly the same 5 times in total . i think youve done the chest 5 times.
when bills says '' repeat this 5 times for upper body and 4 times for lower'' he means 5 times for upper cos there are 5 muscle groups. you do each muscle group once so thats a total of 5 times. you dont do each muscle group 5 times

[lovlilynne]

Thanks for all the advice and info, it really helps.

I should have mentioned that I don't have room for a bench and the weights necessary for it. I've been looking at used Soloflex because it takes up less space, but I'm not sure if I can even fit that in the space I have at home.

Also, I have to work out at 5 AM (I work full time and mother of 3, so no other time in my day), which makes going to a gym very challenging. I have to be home no later that 6:30 when my DH has to leave for work (sometimes earlier - or sometimes he is not even home because he goes fishing). I did do a gym at one time, but I wasted 20-30 minutes commuting, and commuting gets hairy in the winter with snow.

As you all know, the easier you can make this on yourselves, the more likely you are going to stick with it. Getting up at 5 AM is a real challenge for me - I am not a morning person. But, it's the only way I can be consistent. We have a gym at work, but I am often working through lunch, or I have to run errands, or leave early/come late due to family commitments. Those have to come first before working out.

I will definitely get a set of 20lb dumbbells. I don't have a bench, but I used my coffee table the other day to do "fly" moves. I am also interested in ways in which to use weights with the abdominal moves - most of what is in the list seems machine based.

Oh, and I was only doing one set for one exercise, with 12 reps of another exercise in the end (IOW - bicep curls 12/3lb, 10/5lb, 8/10lb, 6/15lb, 12/10lb, and 12 hammer curls at 10lb.) Thanks for confirming that is the correct amount.

[yakubu]

Originally Posted by lovlilynne

Thanks for all the advice and info, it really helps.

I should have mentioned that I don't have room for a bench and the weights necessary for it. I've been looking at used Soloflex because it takes up less space, but I'm not sure if I can even fit that in the space I have at home.

Also, I have to work out at 5 AM (I work full time and mother of 3, so no other time in my day), which makes going to a gym very challenging. I have to be home no later that 6:30 when my DH has to leave for work (sometimes earlier - or sometimes he is not even home because he goes fishing). I did do a gym at one time, but I wasted 20-30 minutes commuting, and commuting gets hairy in the winter with snow.

As you all know, the easier you can make this on yourselves, the more likely you are going to stick with it. Getting up at 5 AM is a real challenge for me - I am not a morning person. But, it's the only way I can be consistent. We have a gym at work, but I am often working through lunch, or I have to run errands, or leave early/come late due to family commitments. Those have to come first before working out.

I will definitely get a set of 20lb dumbbells. I don't have a bench, but I used my coffee table the other day to do "fly" moves. I am also interested in ways in which to use weights with the abdominal moves - most of what is in the list seems machine based.

Oh, and I was only doing one set for one exercise, with 12 reps of another exercise in the end (IOW - bicep curls 12/3lb, 10/5lb, 8/10lb, 6/15lb, 12/10lb, and 12 hammer curls at 10lb.) Thanks for confirming that is the correct amount.

u can get benches that fold up after uve used them so that u can store them without taking up any room. if that isnt an optiion couldnt you get to work ealry and then u'd have more time to use the gym there in your dinner hour ?

abdominals:

*for crunches just hold a plate to your chest as you do the crunches
*for leg raises get a plate and a rope. put the rope throught he hole in the middle of the plate, hold the plate between your feet and then tie the rope around your ankles to make sure the plate stays in place

[lovlilynne]

Originally Posted by yakubu

u can get benches that fold up after uve used them so that u can store them without taking up any room. if that isnt an optiion couldnt you get to work ealry and then u'd have more time to use the gym there in your dinner hour ?

abdominals:

*for crunches just hold a plate to your chest as you do the crunches
*for leg raises get a plate and a rope. put the rope throught he hole in the middle of the plate, hold the plate between your feet and then tie the rope around your ankles to make sure the plate stays in place

It's not so much that I have to put in so many hours as much as people schedule meetings before, sometimes during, or after my lunch hour. Since I need over an hour to 1) get to gym and undressed and dressed in gym clothes, 2) work out, 3) get undressed, shower, and dressed again, 4) eat something - that means anytime I have an 11-12 meeting or a meeting at 1, I cannot get to the gym. Since lunch time would be my last opportunity, if I miss the gym, I would miss my workout for the day. Not good fot BFL.

Thanks for the tip on the folding bench - not that I really want to have to fold and unfold, and I still would need room to put weights somewhere, but it's worth checking out.

I don't have plates, so I held dumbbells with crunches, but I was looking for other ab exercises to do with dumbbells. Thanks.

[Rhone]

I do my weight workouts with Bowflex SelectTech dumbbells and the bench Bowflex makes for using with the dumbbells. Space is at a premium for me too (one-bedroom apartment), but I'm able to store those in the corner of a walk-in closet and make a little floor space to pull them out for my workouts. There are certainly smaller and cheaper bench options if you forgo incline and decline settings and just get a flat bench; the dumbbell benches aren't nearly as big as the barbell benches. There are also cheaper dumbbell options, but I found some others to be clumsy/difficult to adjust the weight with, and you also want to keep in mind that you will be getting stronger, so you want them to be heavy enough to keep you challenged for a while.

Admittedly, I did end up also getting a weighted vest to help out with leg exercises--I got to a point where my grip on the weights was giving out before my legs. When I start reaching limits again I will use more reps for a bit and then work on switching to things like squats and calf raises with one leg at a time instead of both.

Dumbbells are perfect for upper body workouts (outside of maybe pull-ups and dips, they can work your arms, chest, and upper back in just about every way imaginable, with both compound and isolation exercises). With legs you're more limited to compound exercises; isolation exercises for quads and hamstrings are a little more difficult to do without things like leg curl and leg extension machines. Fortunately, compound exercises are much better for overall fitness anyway.

My approach to this is to simply stick with the same exercise for set 6 but drop the weight a bit more (this is an effective technique called a "drop set", and IMO it sticks with the spirit of the BFL workout, which is fatiguing the muscle beyond where it would be just from doing set 5 to failure). So for example, for my quads, I do squats with increasing weight for sets 1-4, then set 5 I do my 12 reps with the same weight I used in set 3; then I immediately drop the weight down to the weight I used for set 2, and crank out another 12 reps of squats (or more if I can).

You don't have to do it that way, though; you could switch it a little bit, perhaps doing 5 sets of squats and then sumo squats for the 6th set. For hamstrings you've got straight-legged deadlifts and lunges, but you could do lunges with a shorter or longer stride which shifts the emphasis between glutes and quads, and you can do regular (bending at the knee) deadlifts in addition to straight-legged deadlifts. Hamstrings unfortunately can't be worked through their full range of motion with just dumbbells; I make up for this partially by sprinting for my cardio.

For abs, I hold dumbbells to my shoulders while doing crunches, and I adjust the dumbbell weight like I do for any other exercise. For abs you really don't need to get any fancier than weighted crunches. You could do leg lifts to focus more on the lower abs, but it's harder to add weight to those unless you can hold dumbbells with your feet.

Good luck, I hope you can sort out something that will work for you. I completely empathize with being able to stick to the program better when I can work out home; I'd have to get up way too early in the morning to give myself time to go to a gym. I love being able to roll out of bed, guzzle some water, then immediately do my workout and get on with the rest of my day.

[yakubu]

the problem u'll have is you need to change ur exercises round at least once during the 12 weeks. if you just do squats for the whole 12 weeks you wont get results

[Rhone]

Yakubu,

Yeah, that's another part of the reason I mentioned sumo squats, one-leg squats, etc. It's good to change things up every 4-6 weeks or so, I agree.

Also, it should be noted that changing set/rep patterns can get the same effect without necessarily having to change all the exercises, though I'd advise someone just starting BFL to stick with the BFL set/rep patterns for at least 12 weeks before they start playing around with that stuff.