What are my at-home strength training options?
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Anonymous
I use three sets of dumbbells: 10 pounds, 20 pounds, and 30 pounds (each, i.e., two 10 pound dbs, etc.) No, it's not the same as barbells, especially for things like deadlifts and squats. It's still a great workout - I really appreciate the variety. |
Anonymous
| If you really like OT and want to row as well you might consider Hydrow. They already have a bunch of bodyweight exercise classes on the app but I think they are coming out with their answer to OT circuit training in December. |
Anonymous
NP here. Sorry if dumb question but are there certain muscle groups you can’t access with just dumbbells? What are advantages of getting barbells too? Thanks! |
Anonymous
DP. You need to lift lot more weight to get the benefit! You could in theory do two 30-lb kettlebells to do deadlifts and squats but a bar works better. And yes a deadlift works your entire body. If you’re serious about lifting go to a gym and get a few sessions with a trainer. |
Anonymous
Agree. I’d say squats and deadlifts definitely. |
Anonymous
| get a Tonal |
Anonymous
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I honestly do not get the love for the Peleton app. It's really not that great (speaking for the non-bike stuff). So much great stuff that's free on youtube. Try that first.
Caroline Girvan's workouts are great. I also love FitnessKayKay, Growingananas, Heather Robertson, and Tiff X Dan for weight routines. |
Anonymous
Also - to do these workouts, I use a mix of 3-15 pound weights. |
Anonymous
I'm guessing because it's an MLM? But we've been loyal Beachbody peeps since P90X. I go back in waves, but find that I really like a lot of the content. I also like Lift 4, and 6 weeks of the work. Both great for strength training. You might even find you don't need to do orangetheory; between all the youtube and Beachbody offerings, there's a lot of good stuff out there. |
Anonymous
It’s worth noting that when people talk about “strength training” with 3 pound weights, they are talking about something completely different than what most research considers “strength training.” Compound resistance exercises with a barbell (squats, deadlifts, bench press, overhead press) provide a whole body workout that strengthens your core, improves bone density, and adds muscle mass as you reduce fat. They also work large muscle groups in a way that micro-weights simply can’t. Lots of publications aimed at women completely misrepresent research about resistance training with high versus low loads (e.g. https://tracyanderson.com/blog/wellness/light-weights-benefits/). That article cites this meta analysis https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28834797/ as a justification for using 3-5 pound hand weights. In fact, the studies analyzed typically compare using slightly below 60% of one rep max for sets of 12-20 with using over 60% for sets of 5-10. For an untrained woman, that might be 25 pounds vs 35 pounds day one on overhead press, for example, but it would go up steadily from there. For lower body exercises (squat/deadlift) those numbers would pretty quickly be very much higher even at low loads. 3-5 pound weights are not discussed anywhere in any research I’ve seen, and for good reason - they don’t provide any of the bone density, core strength, posture, and large muscle group targeting benefits of whole body, compound barbell lifts. |
Anonymous
Agree, and adding that using a barbell, because it is automatically inducing a degree of coordination between the weights on the two end of the bar, it reduces the demand on lots of proprioceptive and stabilization aspects of any given lift, enabling you to add more weight. You can get dumbbells that go up to 130 lbs themselves; it’s not that they are inherently light. It’s that women in particular are likely to have our upper body strength cap out in a way that prevents lifting dumbbells heavy enough to make further progress in lower body & spinal muscle strength (including the anti-osteoporotic effects of progressively heavier weightlifting). |
Anonymous
I’m the PP of whom the barbell question was originally asked (10:33) - there are absolutely benefits to using a barbell, as someone who has done barbell lifting for a long time. But the notion that you “need” to lift heavy or use barbells to derive any benefit is false. There are different styles of lifting, different goals for strength training, different logistical demands, etc. It’s not all or nothing. |
Anonymous
OP asked for in-home strength training. |
Anonymous
| I like the Les Mills program and various strength training videos to follow in the app |
Anonymous
Barbells make it possible to lift weights that are much heavier than you could do with dumbbells. I can squat 180 lbs, and I need a barbell to do that--two 90 lb dumbbells are way to heavy to hoist onto my shoulders/back. Similarly I deadlift 225 lbs, and those heavy weights are much easier to access with a barbell. I didn't have access to barbells during 2020 when I was avoiding the gym for COVID, and then I did what I could with 30 lb dumbbells at home (and more reps than I would do with heavier weights). It was better than nothing but not the same as using the heavier weights, and I had to build myself back up again over months when I finally went back to the gym. Weights aren't going to be as heavy for upper body, and my upper/lower body strength disparity is probably greater than average, and so for me I didn't lose as much upper body strength when I only had dumbbells to use. I do use barbells at the gym for bench press and overhead press, but I am only benching ~90 lbs and pressing ~70 lbs. It wouldn't be the end of the world for me if I had to rely on dumbbells permently for upper body. |