Building muscle with just dumbbells?

[mikek1357]

Is it possible to build muscle with just dumbbells? I know opinions vary, but I'm curious to peoples experiences.

[PurmaBulker1984]

Yes. There are db only programs out there.

[Legumer]

Of course you can, barbells are just typically more convenient for bench/squat/press because of the set up and ability to add smaller increments of weight.

[Garage Rat]

Depends what exercises you do and how heavy you can make your dumbbells.
If you have dumbbells that either you can adjust to 100 pounds or have a set that go to 100 pounds in five pound increments you would have all you need dumbbell wise for building some muscle.
Of course a novice lifter can make great gains with light to moderate weight for awhile.

[n64bomb]

A barbell is more efficient long term. Eventually, you will outgrow dumbbells or need lots of them; dumbbells work well for a beginner. Eventually, you will want a barbell and weight set to go with it once you get strong enough.

[supramax]

Is it possible to build muscle with just dumbbells? I know opinions vary, but I'm curious to peoples experiences.

No problem at all building a beast body with dumbbells. The heavier, the better, of course, but there is such a thing as fixed weight progressive overload that can turn anyones' 12 reps to failure into 4 reps to failure.

[tonyarmstrong]

You can build muscle with progressive body weight movements. For example... assisted pull ups, to regular pulls ups, to increase the negative, multiple grip options... once those get easy... tons of variations... L-sit pull ups, weighted pull ups, muscle ups...

Using dumbbells adds external weight... if money is tight... a nice pair of spin lock adjustable dumbbells that go up to like 55lbs each. If money isn't tight, grab a handful of rubber head dumbbells, 10lb, 20lb, 30lb, 40lb, 60, 80... etc. Stick to all the major exercises: Deadlifts, squats, presses, lunges, and all the variations of these... then add in extra work like curls, tricep extensions, forearm curls, calf raises. Focus on form!

You 100% can build tons of muscle by eating well, resting, training hard, and using dumbbells.

[rawcuz]

absolutely you can but I prefer a variation of equipment in all my programs I do. Having said that all my programs utilise dumbbells in them.