How to Adjust EVERY Program to a Dumbbell Only Program

All the cheat sheets you will EVER need to adJust ANY program for at home workouts

It’s 2020 and I am living on a computer writing workouts to try to keep my career alive.

(A takeaway - There is A LOT of growth in pressure…)

I am writing INDIVIDUAL programs for between 80-90 people every week + doing weekly consultations with every one that will make time for me (which was ALOT more people than I had planned).

My brain was working on 2000% because all of the sudden I had to figure out how to master moving “in gym” workouts to getting someone crazy fit with only 2 dumbbells…

And it was SO hard!

But a year of 85+ hour work weeks later and I had a skill that I would never have gained outside of that (horrible) year.

And now I am going to teach you EXACTLY how to do it yourself so you can skip all the boring parts.

This article will be a super simple breakdown of exactly how to move an exercise that you’d do in a “normal” gym to an at home dumbbell only option.

Let’s learn!

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Step 1 - Patterns, patterns, patterns

Training is just a series of simple patterns and once you see them you can’t unsee them.

There are 7 main “patterns” in every training program:

1. Squat

2. Bend

3. Push

4. Pull

5. Single Leg

6. Core

7. Arms

When you are looking at any program you currently just see exercises (ex. Back Squat) but if you pull it apart you realize you are just looking at a pattern (ex. Squat Pattern) and all you need from there is to have a list of exercises that fall under that pattern.

Seriously, this is SO easy if you have a good cheat sheet.

And guess what?

I built you cheat sheets that will completely change your life and I am going to put them all in this article!

Ok so let’s do a breakdown here.

1. Lets look at what exercises (in gym) fall into each pattern so you know what you are looking at

2. Let’s do a practice exercise to see if we can figure out our patterns in a real program

Pattern Cheat Sheet 1 (In Gym Exercises)

Below I attached an entire cheat sheet of exercises that you would see in a full gym program. Don’t overthink these just yet. We will use this in a minute.

Note - I tried to copy all of this into an image so you could just save it on your phone. Fingers crossed I am tech savvy enough to have made that happen 🤞

Finding The Patterns In a Program

I am going to put a day of training below and then we will break it down to the patterns after.

Learning this will make you able to see how to make adjustments in ANY program you ever see.

Training Day Example

A. Back Squat / 3 sets x 6-8 Reps

B. Hip Thrust / 3 sets x 8-10 Reps

C. DB Bench / 3 sets x 8-10 Reps

D. Single Arm Row/ 3 sets x 10-12 Reps/Side

E. Kneeling Cable Crunch / 3 sets x 10-12 Reps

Now let’s take this exact day of training and break it down into patterns (using out cheat sheet from above) so we can switch the exercises on our own in the next section.

Training Day Example Broken Down Into Patterns

A. Squat Pattern / 3 sets x 6-8 Reps

B. Bend Pattern / 3 sets x 8-10 Reps

C. Push Pattern / 3 sets x 8-10 Reps

D. Pull Pattern / 3 sets x 10-12 Reps/Side

E. Core Pattern / 3 sets x 10-12 Reps

OHMYGODWEDIDIT!!!!

See? EASY!

If you know what to look for breaking a program into a set of patterns opens the entire thing up to you.

Now all we need to do is switch the exercises for exercises that will work if you only have dumbbells.

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Step 2 - Swap the exercises

Ok! So if we take our pattern template we just made in section 1 all we need to know is what options do I have for dumbbell only workouts?

I am going to give you EVERY exercise you could use per pattern below and then we will do a practice day to see how easy it is to switch exercises once you have a cheat sheet.

Pattern Cheat Sheet 2 (Dumbbell Only Exercises)

Switching The Exercises Based On Patterns

So lets start by looking at your template from earlier.

Training Day Example Broken Into Patterns

A. Squat Pattern / 3 sets x 6-8 Reps

B. Bend Pattern / 3 sets x 8-10 Reps

C. Push Pattern / 3 sets x 8-10 Reps

D. Pull Pattern / 3 sets x 10-12 Reps/Side

E. Core Pattern / 3 sets x 10-12 Reps

Now lets take our cheat sheet from above and see what it looks like if we plug and play.

Training Day Example Adjusted for Dumbbell Only

A. Dumbbell Goblet Squat / 3 sets x 6-8 Reps

B. Dumbbell RDLs / 3 sets x 8-10 Reps

C. Dumbbell Floor Press / 3 sets x 8-10 Reps

D. Dumbbell Single Arm Row w Hand Support / 3 sets x 10-12 Reps/Side

E. Dumbbell Deadbugs / 3 sets x 10-12 Reps/Side

OMFGWEDIDITAGAIN!

That was sooooo easy!!!

All you ever need to do is pull out your handy dandy cheat sheets and then plug and play exercises you LOVE and have access to!

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Bonus - Ways to Make Things Harder

Let’s say you are someone who only has dumbbells that go up to 25 lbs and in week 3 you are already at the top weights.

What do we do?

Here are my 3 favorite options:

Add a Tempo

All this means is that you slow the rep down on the part where you are lowering the weight.

Let’s say you are doing a goblet squat.

You would lower to the bottom for 2-5 seconds (depending on how hard you want it to be) and then explode up.

Rules:

1. 2 seconds is the minimum

2. 5 seconds is really the biggest number you’ll ever need

3. Try to focus on being really “tight” the entire time

Add Reps

I know this one is super obvious but knowing how many reps to add is definitely not obvious so I am going to try to give you some good guidelines.

1. Start by adding 2-4 reps

   1. This should be almost all you ever need. If not make sure you are adding tempo to every rep before moving to the next option

2. Add 5-8 reps

   1. This really is the ceiling for most things because this would probably put you between 10-20 reps

3. Use AMRAP(-1) sets

   1. This is a GREAT solution. AMRAP(-1) stands for As Many Reps As Possible Minus 1. An easy translation for this is you are going till you think you can only do one more rep before being cooked. If you are doing squats and will fail at 17 reps then you would do a set of 16.

   2. The bonus here is that the reps will most likely decrease as you go so your body will almost “automate” your reps. Ex. set 1 = 16 reps, set 2 = 14 reps (because you are getting tired), and set 3 = 9 reps because now you are cooked.

4. Use Time Instead of Reps

   1. This would look like doing goblet squats for a set amount of time and then having a set amount of rest. Ex. :20s of Squats/:40s of rest x 6 rounds.

   2. This also “automates” your reps alot like the AMRAP (-1) sets because as you get tired you will probably do a few reps in your final sets and thats absolutely ok.

Facebook Marketplace

I am only kind of joking here.

I’ve recently had a few clients purchase weights off of marketplace for next to nothing and it has really allowed us to expand their private programs as they were super capped out on the weights they had.

The reality is that if you are on a good program you should be budgeting ahead of time to buy new weights every 2-3 months because you are PLANNING ON MAKING PROGRESS.

If you aren’t planning on progress I would absolutely question my program.

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Ok it’s dinner time for me!

Hopefully this made your life so so simple and shows you how simple it is to adjust a training plan to fit a dumbbell only option.

Until next time 🫶