Dumbbell Domination is a flexible program for beginners, intermediates, advanced, work-at-home mamas, and business people alike. This program was designed by top fitness coach Jen Comas precisely to overcome the main obstacles she found to be in the way of people trying to stick to a workout schedule.
Committing to a training regimen can be daunting, especially considering the hectic pace of the modern lifestyle, with so many jobs and family commitments and deadlines to face up to, which severely impact our desire to work out and take care of our health.
What Jen Comas found in her life experience as a head coach @ Strongest You Coaching program to be the main culprits to committing yourself to work out were time constraints, the ability or desire to join a gym, and the yearning for independence.
The result is a simple, effective program doable at home or anywhere with equipment as basic as a pair of dumbbells or two at most (to use different resistance levels).
The workouts are short and can easily be added to any busy lifestyle and squeezed into your commitments. Below a review of this program with an analysis of the workouts and their benefits, pros, and cons.
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Who Was Dumbbell Domination Designed For?
This program was designed by a fitness professional woman mainly for women, particularly busy women like moms at home or ladies working long hours with no much time to dedicate to themselves, but who still want to workout.
It is also suitable for professional people on the go all the time, traveling and sleeping at different hotels as part of their hectic job requirements.
The rationale being that most hotels offer an in-house gym facility with at least some basic gear such as dumbbells, the tool of choice for this program.
While these are the main categories of people this program is aimed at, it is also just as suitable for anyone attracted to an effective but time-efficient workout schedule that requires just basic equipment easy to get hold of.
That means men are welcome too, busy guys, and travelers in general.
What Is The Workout Schedule Like?
The whole Dumbbell Domination program is centered around total flexibility, giving you the choice to do as many workouts per week as you like, even though there are basic working guidelines.
This program is as much about learning to listen to your body as it is about working out.
The author stresses out the importance of listening to your body signals on any given day in order to employ the appropriate workout intensity and/or volume.
This is quite a novelty and a positive point in the scenario of workout programs. Usually, workouts plans give you a strict workout schedule to adhere to through the weeks, neglecting the fact that most people have busy lives and are not sponsored athletes whose life revolves around training.
Regular people must be able to adjust their fitness commitments around their energy levels for any given day, as these can be severely impacted by external factors such as unexpected occurrences, a long and stressful day at work, a visit, a flu bout, or whatever.
Real life does not care about strict schedules. The way around problems or low energy levels that you face from week to week is to be completely flexible by learning to listen to your body and adjust your workouts according to your temporary levels of energy.
In fact, it is only when you are well-rested and ready to go that you can reap the benefits of a productive workout.
Flexibility Of Dumbbell Domination
The Dumbbell Domination philosophy is to do what feels best for your body on any particular day.
That does not mean an invitation to slacking off or being lazy, quite the opposite, just backing off when your body tells you so, but going full steam if you feel like a million dollars.
Having said this, there are also basic guidelines in the program to refer to, a backbone of workouts and training structure you should play around with according to your mood, energy levels, and time available.
For example, each workout comes with 3 different levels of intensity for each movement, which you can choose depending on how you feel that particular day.
There are 18 workouts to choose from, ideally performed three times per week, 25 minutes or less, and a range of rounds to choose from.
Three times a week is an average frequency proven effective for most people. However, this is not set in stone, but just a starting point from where to develop your own schedule depending on your body response and commitments.
Dumbbell Domination is structured on a 6-week time frame, but it can be carried over thereafter and used standalone or in addition to any existing routine of yours, providing that you can handle it and listen to your body response, making adjustments as required.
The dumbbell workouts can be used by the more experienced trainees as workout finishers at the end of a strength training session, or by anyone else as a solo blueprint or in conjunction with other training programs.
The movements and routines are designed not just for moderate strength gains and muscle tone, but also for metabolic conditioning, making cardio redundant.
The workouts are short and fun, and exercise modifications are possible to accommodate your preferences or any particular limitation.
A very good point of this program is that, aside from the manual, it offers video tutorials to complement each workout so that you know exactly what to do and how.
What Kind Of Dumbbells Do You Need?
For the majority of the program, you just need is a pair of dumbbells, but for two workouts you may also need either a step or a bench, though this is not compulsory.
The author suggests cheap dumbbells will do the job, but she also recommends different poundage for different strength levels, about 10/15lb for beginners and 20/30lb for intermediate/advanced.
She says that just one pair or the other work just as well, depending on your strength levels, but ideally two pairs with two different poundage make a better choice so as to let you match an adequate resistance level to different exercises, as some movements need more load than others.
To sum up, this is not a gear free program like bodyweight routine plans, however, the equipment needed is really basic and affordable by most people, which gives you the opportunity to train at home without costly and bulky home gyms or while traveling, and without a gym membership.
Better still, for those who want to invest a little more, would be those adjustable dumbbells onto which you can upload or offload plates to make them heavier or lighter.
This saves you money and clutter at home, as you end up with just one pair of dumbbells instead of two or more, with just the right amount of plates to make them more or less challenging.
The most basic form of adjustable dumbbells is the cork and screw type, with the spin-locks at the end of the handles to remove and re-insert once loaded with the plates.
The more advanced variable-load dumbbells are the selectorized dumbbells like Bowflex SelectTech, which allow for very fast and easy plate change, but are significantly more expensive and not strictly necessary for this plan unless you want them.
Levels Of Fitness Required For Dumbbell Domination
This program is as flexible as it gets. Not only can you choose from 3 different levels of strength for each workout, but also the number of rounds and frequency, depending on your life commitments and body response.
The whole purpose of Dumbbells Demolition is to let you in control of the workout schedule so as to help you stay focused and optimistic, without losing interest over time due to unrealistic and robotic workout schedules that do not take into account your mood and energy levels.
This approach of listening to your body guarantees better long term results.
Once upon a time she was a cardio fanatic, she got certified to all cardio programs like Body Pump, Body Combat, Spin, and the likes, and was teaching classes left and right until she went into cardio overtraining with chronically elevated heart rate and an increase in body fat due to high cortisol levels by too much cardio activity.
Then, she switched over to weight training and has not looked back ever since, cardio being just a complementary, moderate routine to the main lifts.
According to her website, training intelligently four times a week made more difference to her body in six months than five hours of cardio, six days a week for three years.
Today she is one of the co-founders of Girls Gone Strong and a professional coach who has already helped a score of women succeed.
To conclude, Jen Comas is real and super qualified in the business of coaching people.
Dumbbell Domination Components – What’s In It?
Dumbbell Domination is a digital program. It is a PDF manual plan that you can download immediately on your phone or laptop: the manual contains a 6-week schedule which can be repeated as needed, with the 18 Workouts explained with links to video demonstrations.
Dumbbell Domination is a simple, but not easy, workout protocol focused on total flexibility for optimal results.
It allows you to increase or decrease training intensity and frequency based on real-life aspects of energy levels and personal commitments, though average, standard guidelines are present.
The idea of the plan is to develop a feel for your body so as to let you train it at the appropriate level or mood and adjust it accordingly.
The tool of choice for this plan is dumbbells because they are inexpensive and easy to store at home or easy to get hold of in even the most basic hotel gym if you travel regularly.
The great experience and knowledge of the author coupled with the flexibility and real-life approach of its training guidelines make the Dumbbells Domination program an ideal choice for busy women, mums at home, professionals on the go, or anyone who want a no-frills but effective workout system that allows for independence from strict routine schedules.
My name is Jay Fielding. I gained an interest in fitness since I was a child, and eventually developed my passion into a career path. I am now a Certified Personal Trainer with a natural ability to program customized body recomposition and motivate people in achieving their goals, be it gaining muscle or losing fat.
