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idea #1: asymmetric dumbells for extra squeeze
(inspired by hannibal/spaats wrist hammer device)
Normally dumbells have equal amounts of weight at both ends of the bar , for good reasons, but if you have a pair of adjustable dumbells, you might seek some extra supination by having the thumbside more weight than the pinkyside or vice versa.
For illustration purposes, lets picture a dumbell with 30 lbs on one side (lets call this primary mover) and 20 lbs (secondary mover) on the other side . Also grab the dumbell not in the center but more towards the secondary mover to create additional torque resitance from the primary mover
Now we can do a few exercises that benefit from our bodies need to ajust the balance/torqueforces between the primary and the secondary mover.
BICEPS
Benefit nicely from consistant wrist supination, try alternate dumbell curl, primary mover on pinky side. It will take some extra force to supinate your wrist, hence a harder peak contraction.
CHEST
flat dumbell flyes wits primary mover on pinky side
dumbell presses with primary mover on pinky side, no supination action here, rather your wrist will need to force the weight to the thumb side, which will indirectly recruit more of the chestfibers and the coracobrachialis to maintain overall balance
TRICEPS
dumbell kickback with primary mover on thumb side, also apply a little wrist pronating at the peakposition of the curl.
BACK
dumbell row with primary mover on the thumbside will make it easier to make a mind muscle connection with the lats and take the long head of the triceps more out of the motion, no wrist rotation required, just bend your wrist like you do in a hammer curl, thumb toward the elbow in neutral grip.
Be creative, i am sure you can find ways to enhance the neurologic connection for many exercises!
idea #2 : The homemade dumbell tricepsbar/hammercurl bar / dumbell-extender
It's amazingly simple! Need:
- 2 adjustable dumbells with locks
- 2 rectangular pieces of wood of equal size,
twice the length of the largest plate you can fit on the dumbell
+ some extra margin of 20 mm
(or 2 strips of metal if you have the tools to make holes in it)
For illustration purposes, we assume standard adjustable dumbells with 30 mm bar thickness and plates with a diameter of 150 mm
The piece of wood we need in this case would need a length of (150mm * 2) = 300 mm + margin = 320 mm
Now drill two holes of slightly wider than 30 mm in the wood, one hole 75 mm from the left side and the other hole 75 mm from the right side. You might wanna adjust this if you have smaller plates, wich allows for a closer grip etc)
Repeat for the other piece of wood...
Finished!
You can sandwich two dumbells between the wood and use the dumbell locks to piece it all together. You effectively now have a tricepsbar/hammercurl bar, or you could use it to create as dumbell extension to create one superheavy dumbell from two dumbells that would normally hold up to 130 lbs each, now you can do dumbell shrugs / farmerwalks with 260 lbs (!) on each side (assumeing u got 2 pairs of extended dumbells, need 4 dumbell bars for that)
There is not much strain on the wood, as the weight are directly connected to the metal dumbell bar and you hold the bar, not the wood, however, metal strips is better than wood, because you can use thinner sheets, which leaves more room for plates on the dumbell...
(inspired by hannibal/spaats wrist hammer device)
Normally dumbells have equal amounts of weight at both ends of the bar , for good reasons, but if you have a pair of adjustable dumbells, you might seek some extra supination by having the thumbside more weight than the pinkyside or vice versa.
For illustration purposes, lets picture a dumbell with 30 lbs on one side (lets call this primary mover) and 20 lbs (secondary mover) on the other side . Also grab the dumbell not in the center but more towards the secondary mover to create additional torque resitance from the primary mover
Now we can do a few exercises that benefit from our bodies need to ajust the balance/torqueforces between the primary and the secondary mover.
BICEPS
Benefit nicely from consistant wrist supination, try alternate dumbell curl, primary mover on pinky side. It will take some extra force to supinate your wrist, hence a harder peak contraction.
CHEST
flat dumbell flyes wits primary mover on pinky side
dumbell presses with primary mover on pinky side, no supination action here, rather your wrist will need to force the weight to the thumb side, which will indirectly recruit more of the chestfibers and the coracobrachialis to maintain overall balance
TRICEPS
dumbell kickback with primary mover on thumb side, also apply a little wrist pronating at the peakposition of the curl.
BACK
dumbell row with primary mover on the thumbside will make it easier to make a mind muscle connection with the lats and take the long head of the triceps more out of the motion, no wrist rotation required, just bend your wrist like you do in a hammer curl, thumb toward the elbow in neutral grip.
Be creative, i am sure you can find ways to enhance the neurologic connection for many exercises!
idea #2 : The homemade dumbell tricepsbar/hammercurl bar / dumbell-extender
It's amazingly simple! Need:
- 2 adjustable dumbells with locks
- 2 rectangular pieces of wood of equal size,
twice the length of the largest plate you can fit on the dumbell
+ some extra margin of 20 mm
(or 2 strips of metal if you have the tools to make holes in it)
For illustration purposes, we assume standard adjustable dumbells with 30 mm bar thickness and plates with a diameter of 150 mm
The piece of wood we need in this case would need a length of (150mm * 2) = 300 mm + margin = 320 mm
Now drill two holes of slightly wider than 30 mm in the wood, one hole 75 mm from the left side and the other hole 75 mm from the right side. You might wanna adjust this if you have smaller plates, wich allows for a closer grip etc)
Repeat for the other piece of wood...
Finished!
You can sandwich two dumbells between the wood and use the dumbell locks to piece it all together. You effectively now have a tricepsbar/hammercurl bar, or you could use it to create as dumbell extension to create one superheavy dumbell from two dumbells that would normally hold up to 130 lbs each, now you can do dumbell shrugs / farmerwalks with 260 lbs (!) on each side (assumeing u got 2 pairs of extended dumbells, need 4 dumbell bars for that)
There is not much strain on the wood, as the weight are directly connected to the metal dumbell bar and you hold the bar, not the wood, however, metal strips is better than wood, because you can use thinner sheets, which leaves more room for plates on the dumbell...
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