I'm working with just dumbbells too. 15kg adjustable.

Im so bad with squat form. Also my lateral raise sucks. Like I have to decrease my normal weight drastically.

I've looked over a few programs, and can see how they target the muscle and arrange the workouts. You can see the similarities across the beginner programs.
I think you can do whatever you want, just pick the ones you prefer as long as they target those similar muscles.
I prefer to do more, finding some compound workout if possible.


You gonna workout at home for a long time? Im just getting myself ready for gym.
Since I bought the dumbbells for a long time already, gonna milk them out first before I move on and commit to gym.

Yes I am going to workout at home for as long as I can. Just dont have much time available to commute to gym, in addition to my current daily 3 hours of commuting to/back from work. I've been going to fitness concept outlets and saw they have dumbbells up to 40kg. So, I am pretty sure I can do a lot with just dumbbells, and it will definitely take years till I outgrow them.

ill probably get a lot of flak for this but what the hey, I'd suggest you check out Mike Chang's older Sixpackshortcuts vid on youtube. plenty of stuffs for home workout with light dumbbells.

I see. 3 hours commute is damn long tho.
But for dumbbells, I think it's better to pick the ones with smaller shape.
The Maxx dumbbells discs are huge diameter wise.
Not that suitable for some movements.

There are some callisthenics-only strength training. Dumbbells only training should be doable.

A lot can be done with dumbbells. you can do goblet or front squats (dumbbell placed on shoulders), romanian deadlift, bulgarian split squats, shrugs, rows, presses. for home workouts, buy a dip bar/station and you can progress by adding dumbbell for weighted dips. can do tricep overhead, kickback, curls etc. just buy a good stable bench.

Thank you for the comments! definitely gave me good motivation

Use MyFitnessPal to track your calories intake.

Good luck!

I found out after a while that some muscles are being worked too much, while others are lagging. So made few adjustments here and there. Updating just in case other newbies want to try out these kind of routines as well.



Pretty much still disciplined at the moment, and body weight down to 97 kg (lost 9+kg)

that wrist curl i like reverse wrist curl... if i wanna do wrist curl i will stand put barbell at back.. good luck

Side note, to counter high blood pressure. Careful with your diet especially salt, and caffeine does increase blood pressure so no, no pre-workout.

its been.. almost 3 years? . there have been up and downs in term of body weight, from 110 kg down to 93kg, gained back to 103kg and further reduced to 96kg (today) due to changes in life routine (change job, MCO etc). I also started to measure body fat 3 months back, and saw good progress from over 30% to 24.4% (today). Over the years, it is challenging to stay motivated and consistently deliver as life always give some slaps which I can easily turn into excuses for not working out .



just wanted to share my Home Workout journey to keep myself motivated, with updated routine as I encountered and learn what works and does not work with my workout.

Next Target
Body weight: 85 kg
Body fat: less than 18%

Routine Updated 2021


I have also removed some workout, as I found out most of the time I will ran out of energy to continue further, and sometimes it took too much time to complete the whole circuit. And I also learnt that the most important is the quality of each rep over the quantity every single time

I have been doing this set up routine for almost a year, and feeling good about it. If any sifu can advice if I am missing any muscle to add on, that will be appreciated.

Thank you

Well one thing’s for sure, you sure do have the discipline to keep on track to be doing this for 3 years straight.

Whatever works for u man, but i can tell you among my circle of friends who DO NOT live in a gym, but has massive chest, bicep, forearm, quads usually all keep their workout basic and simple, one week 3 times, 4 if too free, and each time 1hrs settle everything, basically 30mins~ of hard HARD work only, yet keep a healthy social life.

Just bench, squat, deadlift, row, ohp, and bicep/tricep for accessory work, because dont bs, all male wants bigger arm.

Really depends on your goal la, because the weight you’re using is too light eg: farmers 20kg @ your bodyweight? Dude.. at least, start with 40% of your bw.. means, at least 38.5kg farmers.

Take the below with a pinch of salt, and you can keep doing you, nothing wrong with it as long as you’re still lifting but these are the most basic cookie cutter, any educated PT will set as your STARTING point-

1. serious lifter will track their weight lifted, that is the most, MOST important thing, because you need to keep adding weight, if u no add weight, how can get progress? You’ll get more efficient, but not progress/muscle growth if thats your goal

most usually starts with these weight (6-8 rep x 5 set each):
Bench: 90-100% bodyweight
Squat: 100-120% bw
Dead: 140-150% bw
Row/ohp: 60-70% bw

thank you very much for this good advice. I do wish that I can carry more weight, but being a man who barely lifted anything in his life previously, my starting weight is extremely light. side note for farmers, 20k per DB, hence it is indeed 40kg in total at this moment. and definitely will keep increasing from time to time. Slow but surely.

those are great benchmark to be my next goal. thanks a lot.

Nice work staying committed. Was reading the earlier post & noticed the dates, thought who Necro thread

Rather than a body split routine, how about trying a full body routine instead?

Ie.

2-3x a week
3-5 sets of 8-12 reps
Pick 1 of each category

Hip dominant (deadlift, Romanian deadlift)
Knee dominant (any squat variation, Bulgarian split squat if limited weights)
Push (shoulder press, bench press)
Pull (pull ups, rows)
Core (deadbugs, Turkish get ups)


Tips: if your weights are limited & looking to make it more difficult.
Play with the tempos, especially the eccentric portion.

Using squat as an example, take 6s to go down (eccentric), pause for however much you want or don't (isometric), explode up (concentric)

Apply progressive overload, every workout should be tougher than the previous workout/week