We rep it out until weвЂ™re fatigued and maybe grow slightly stronger but never yield the primary benefit from the time weвЂ™re putting in. Take an exercise like the dumbbell bench press for example.ДЄ natural instinct for most of us is to lift the heaviest weight we can for somewhere between five and ten repetitions.Д«ut we never really connect with the muscle thatвЂ™s targeted in this movement (the chest). Maintained constant tension on the working muscle by doing partial reps.ДЇocused on feeling the muscle I was targeting doing the work (mind-muscle connection).ДЄfter six weeks of training this way, I found that connecting with the muscle youвЂ™re targeting is far more important than just lifting heavier and heavier. Increased the volume by adding more reps and sets in each workout. Isolated the muscle group I was targeting by making it nearly impossible for other muscle groups to assist the movement. This is what I did to grow muscle with only dumbbells: I wrote down everything I did and put the workouts into a 6-week program. Looking back on the days I trained with this guy, I adapted his training style in my home gym during my quest to build muscle while the rest of the world got smaller or fatter. Progressive overload is not always the best way to grow muscle. He explained to me that using lighter dumbbells, with higher reps and a focus on maintaining tension on an isolated muscle was the way to experience growth on another level.ДЄnd he was right. And he had more muscle on him than the rest of our group combined. One guy I used to train with never touched a weight heavier than a fifty-pound dumbbell. Sure, lifting the heaviest weights will make you stronger but itвЂ™s not the best way to build muscle. I had worked up to a 300-pound bench press, 300-pound back squat, and a 400-pound deadlift, and I didnвЂ™t look that much different than when I first started. I came up in the gym learning that pushing heavy weight was the way to grow but I learned years into my training that it wasnвЂ™t an absolute truth. Instead of doing the same old exercises the same way, I made small changes to each exercise to make them harder and put more tension on my muscles. Then I focused on building muscle with only my dumbbells and the results blew my mind. I decided to try two things: spend a few weeks getting lean with strength/stamina workouts using my weighted vest and a kettlebell. It took me less than a minute because I only had a few dumbbells, a kettlebell, and a weighted vest. When my gym shut down due to Covid-19, I decided to do an inventory of my home gym equipment.

List of best dumbbell workouts