The Beginner Dumbbell Workout PDF Plan

Keep the weight light, focus on form, and watch the results come quick.

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Everyone has to start somewhere and when it comes to lifting weights, dumbbells are the perfect starting point.

But caution is advised because our instinct is to often find the heaviest weights we can handle and start ripping them without much consideration for two of the most important factors in growing muscle: mind-muscle connection and time under tension.

Here’s what Dumbbell Monster focuses on instead:

• Introducing metabolic stress by maintaining constant tension on your muscles with partial ranges of motion and isolating muscle groups one at a time.

• Damaging muscles by using a higher-than-normal set and rep volume. Prepare to be sore.

• Removing your focus on lifting the heaviest weight you can. Your new focus will be on experiencing a better connection between your mind and your muscles. You will FEEL the muscle you’re targeting doing the bulk of the work.

• Stimulating your muscles and priming them for growth by introducing a training style that you probably haven’t experienced before.

If you think you’re ready, let’s go.

Photo by Ryan Humiston.

Training with Only Dumbbells

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 wasn’t an absolute truth.

I had worked up to a 300-pound bench press, 300-pound back squat, and a 400-pound deadlift, and I didn’t look that much different than when I first started.

Sure, lifting the heaviest weights will make you stronger but it’s not the best way to build muscle.

One guy I used to train with never touched a weight heavier than a fifty-pound dumbbell. And he had more muscle on him than the rest of our group combined.

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.

And he was right. Progressive overload is not always the best way to grow muscle.

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.

I wrote down everything I did and put the workouts into a 6-week program.

This is what I did to grow muscle with only dumbbells:

• Isolated the muscle group I was targeting by making it nearly impossible for other muscle groups to assist the movement.

• Increased the volume by adding more reps and sets in each workout.

• Maintained constant tension on the working muscle by doing partial reps.

• Focused on feeling the muscle I was targeting doing the work (mind-muscle connection).

After six weeks of training this way, I found that connecting with the muscle you’re targeting is far more important than just lifting heavier and heavier.

Dumbbell Monster: 6-Week Training Program

Let me clear up a few things first. If you think you’re going to be a “monster” after only six weeks, I hate to break it you, but it’s not going to happen. Results like that don’t come that quick from any program.

But I guarantee you’ll be blown away by how you look and feel after finishing this program. And you’ll have a foundation as you build your way to becoming a monster.

This program was not written by someone who’s a beginner at the moment but, like you, I was once a newbie to weight training.

After over a decade of training in various methodologies, grabbing a pair of light dumbbells and focusing on slower tempos, higher volume, mind-muscle connection, and mechanical disadvantages is my favorite way to torture myself in the gym.

And it’s unlocked some of the most muscle growth I’ve ever experienced.

The goal of this program is to achieve one result: building a better body by adding muscle.

Check out Tyler’s results after completing Dumbbell Monster below.

Here’s some advice to beginners: check your ego. Forget lifting as heavy as you can and train with the things that really matter in mind. Then watch the real results come.

Here’s what this program features:

• Six weeks of dumbbell-only workouts.

• Five training days per week, split by muscle group, with a sixth optional day for conditioning/cardio/stamina.

• Exercises that target specific muscle groups one at a time.

• Variations of exercises using slow tempo, high rep ranges, mechanical disadvantages, and more time under tension to expedite muscle growth.

This is the route you should be taking to get the muscle growth you want. Once you start this program, you’re set in it.

Complete all six weeks of workouts and reassess where you’re at. The results will speak for themselves.

The body you want is not as far away as it may seem. The path starts here.

Cover photo by Ryan Humiston.