When learning new movements specifically for lifting, starting with a set of dumbbells can be very beneficial. A few points to consider:
Technique:
- You can use very little weight to get the technique right.
- When looking at olympic lifting using dumbbells will give you a better idea of what each arm is doing during the lift especially during the shrug (second pull) of the clean and snatch. you can focus on one arm at a time until you get it right then move on to two arms
Stability:
- Using any form of unilateral exercise will help with shoulder stability and dumbbells are perfect for this use. We focus on exercises like one arm dumbbell overhead walking and lunges and single arm overhead dumbbell press as our main shoulder stability exercises. It is important to take care of the shoulders because of all the work they do every week.
Scaling option:
- For new members using dumbbells instead of a barbell during wods will be a great substitute. It can be safer as the new members are still getting used to a lot of new technical aspects of using a barbell. We will get new members to use the barbell for the strength/technique part of the session and then get them to use dumbbells for the wod until they and capable and confident in using barbells.
- If you have an injury to one arm but are still capable of doing some exercise with the rest of your body using a dumbbell will still keep you exercising even if it is at a lower intensity.
Dumbbells have many beneficial uses and it is an important part of our training program. Both from a technical point of view but also from a practical point of view.
Christian
Tuesday 8/11/16
Strength:
4 x 10 Front Rack Lunges (AHAP)
8 Strict TTB between sets
WOD: Mary
20 min AMRAP
5 HSPU
10 Alt Pistols
15 Pull ups
