BY EBENEZER SAMUEL, C.S.C.S.
You can do every major exercise. But how many of these moves can you . . . dominate?
If you’re truly chasing strength and muscle gains, this is a question worth asking. Because everything they’ve told you about building muscle using just a single pair of light dumbbells? It’s just not true. To truly make gains, you need to eventually push your limits. And that means training heavy.
Not all exercises are meant to be trained heavy (spoiler alert: no matter how hard you try, don’t expect to get gains from insanely heavy 3-rep sets of triceps kickbacks or concentration curls). But learning to go heavy on these three multi-joint moves can layer critical muscle onto your arms, back, and legs – while also setting the foundation for total-body strength gains. No, you may not be super-strong on them yet.
But over the course of this year (and beyond), you’ll thank yourself for pushing your limits on them. Long-term, you should be able to set your SMRTFT dumbbells to 80 pounds and crush each of these moves.
DUMBBELL ROMANIAN DEADLIFT
The classic RDL should eventually be the strongest move you do in the gym, in part because it’s training two of our largest muscle groups, hamstrings and glutes. It’ll also bulletproof your lower back and quietly muscle up your forearms and midback. Start with 3 sets of 6 to 8 reps and focus on lowering slowly! When you can lower for at least 3 seconds for every rep with any given weight, you’ll know you can go heavier. Work up to 3 sets of 6 to 8 maxing out your SMRTFT bells.
SINGLE-ARM ROW
You can never have enough back muscle and strength; building your lats and rhomboids (the muscles between your shoulder blades) will help protect you from shoulder injuries. There’s also underrated biceps pump here, and you’ll blast your abs more than you may think. Start light on these, mastering 3 sets of 8 to 10 reps and focusing on pulling the weight back to the bottom of your ribcage and pausing at the top of each rep. Push for 3 sets of 4-6 reps of rows maxing out your SMRTFT bells.
PAUSED GOBLET SQUAT
A strong goblet squat blasts every lower-body muscle you have (hamstrings, glutes, and quads), but it does more than that, too. Done with a heavy load, a paused goblet squat forces your abs, obliques, and lower back muscles to work together to keep your spine upright. Long-term, aim to work to 3 sets of 15 reps. Yes, really. It’s a nasty leg pump – and the best ab workout you can do, too.
