Old-School Lifting for Modern Strength
Heavy dumbbells. A few carefully selected lifts with the biggest bang for your buck. The greats—Saxon, Sandow, Cyr, Hackenschmidt, Inch, Klein, Grimek—didn’t “exercise” with dumbbells; they lifted them from the floor to overhead. This course revives the all-around dumbbell lifting tradition and channels it through StrongFirst principles and strength skills.
Since Pavel Tsatsouline's reintroduction of classic kettlebell lifts to the West, we've refined them to the nth degree. Pavel Macek's Enter the Dumbbel!l distills that know-how into an inch-wide, mile-deep dumbbell lifting curriculum: the fewest moves that deliver the most strength—explosive and grinding—organized for real-world progress. Expect principle-driven instruction, purposeful variety, and field-tested plans you can run for months.
What You'll Learn
- Kettlebells vs. dumbbells vs. barbells—tools, similarities, differences, principles, and when to choose which
- Light dumbbell mobility sequence for health and bulletproof joints
- Heavy dumbbell lifting fundamentals: setup, setdown, tension, alignment, breathing, "strength skills."
- Dumbbell clean—muscle, power, and split
- Dumbbell press—strict strength, old-school style
- Dumbbell overhead swing—ballistic power the Hard Style way
- Program 1: Dumbbell Chain and its variations
- Program 2: Duplex—Dumbbell + Kettlebell Chain (same-but-different synergy)
- Program 3: Triplex—Dumbbells, Kettlebells, Barbells (the all-rounder)
- Program 4: Linking the Chain—ETD's "Rite of Passage"
- Dumbbell Challenge: Iron & Steel Chain—lift, test, and level up
Who It's for
- StrongFirst fans eager to add dumbbells—the old-school way
- Frequent travelers training in gyms without quality or heavy kettlebells
- Coaches who want plug-and-play programs for their students or group training
- Lifters at a plateau who need purposeful variety without fluff
- All-around strength training and Iron Game enthusiasts!
What You Need
- A light pair for mobility, plus heavier fixed or loadable dumbbells for the main lifts.
- Clear space to lift and park safely.
- The willingness to ditch dumbbell flyes and triceps kickbacks, and start lifting Hard Style.
One mind, any weapon. Learn the principles, lift the bells, and get stronger—period.