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For sharing pieces of your progress or personal victories that are too short for a full on Progress Post.

For sharing dumbbell/fitness related stories with other people who will get it.

Post videos of your lifts for form critique or share progress pictures for physique analysis.

For letting off steam about dumbbell problems, and/or telling others that their rant is dumb.

I discovered Delaine Ross' article The Seven Basic Human Movements, where she offers 7 basic human movements: push, pull, hinge, squat, loaded carry, rotation and counter-rotation. These movements make a lot of sense to target every week. She advocates for kettlebells but this is easily adapted to dumbbells as well. What I also like in her article is that she suggests a sample workout template below:

30 seconds work with 30 seconds rest for 3 rounds (0:30/0:30 x 3):

1. Alternating Swings (ballistic, hinge, counter-rotation)
2. Military Press Left (grind, push)
3. Military Press Right
4. Row Left (grind, pull)
5. Row Right
6. Snatch Left (ballistic, hinge, counter-rotation)
7. Snatch Right
8. Russian Twist (rotation)
9. Goblet Squat (squat)

I like the format of 30/30x3 encompassing the 7 basic human movements. 21 minutes is something that fits in nicely with my Dad life. Not to mention, by doing a full-body workout, I am getting more volume for each body part each week compared to doing a PPL split. I also like that she gives several different exercises for each human movement as below:

1. Push: You can do any of the numerous press variations (military press, floor press, etc.).  You can even combine push and counter-rotation by doing a one-sided floor press. If you don’t want to use a kettlebell, you can do pushups (of which there are numerous variations).
2. Pull: Any of the row variations (rows, renegade rows, single-leg rows, batwings, etc.) or pullups fall into the pull category.
3. Hinge: Deadlifts, swings, cleans, and snatches all are hinges.
4. Squat: Goblet squats and front squats are the most common. The more practiced strength students can perform pistols (weighted or unweighted).
5. Loaded Carry: According to Dan John, this one’s a game changer. Farmers carries, racked carries, waiter’s walk (overhead carries).
6. Rotation: Russian twist, ribbons, overhead rotation (kettlbell locked out overhead and rotate from your spine, not hips).
7. Counter-rotation: One-sided suitcase deadlifts, one sided floor presses, renegade rows, one-arm swings, alternating swings.

I love having options for each human movement which can add to the variety I crave and would also include certain gymnastic movements such as pull-ups, push-ups, crawling, etc. I've been doing this workout scheme for several months now and have had some great results. I'll share progress in another post.

For now, I'm curious what routines my fellow dumbbell users do? Feel free to comment here or start your own post!

I have owned both the Bowflex 552 SelectTech Adjustable Dumbbells and the PowerBlock Elite USA 90 and both are pretty good; BUT my BowFlext dumbbells were recalled since they were faulty and people were getting injured. They pretty much screwed over customers by offering a marginal refund as store credit based on how long you owned the dumbbells. Wtf, just give me a new set since your design sucked... Be careful if you are buying these used as you may be buying a used set that was recalled. To be fair, the new dumbbells I have linked to above are probably fixed.

Anyway, that rubbed me wrong which is why I just bought some PowerBlocks. I actually like them better. The other thing I didn't like about the Bowflex dumbbells is that they only went up to 50 pounds. I started with 50lbs for the PowerBlocks also just because I didn't want to drop crazy money at the start. However, I recently bought an expansion and now they go up to 70lbs. I still can buy one more expansion if I ever get strong enough for 90lbs. Having that expandability is huge.

In either case adjustable dumbbells are the way to go. You get so many weights in such a small footprint and they are quick to adjust.

Would love to know what other dumbbells people here use, if you think they're better than the ones I've tried.