Build Massive Muscles and Monstrous Strength with Heavy, Old-School Dumbbell Training I don’t know when it happened, or how it happened, but when it comes to strength and power training, we think of barbells and little else. I’m guilty of this myself. I’ve written before about using the “ two barbell workout .” It’s a sound theory, don’t get me wrong. Basically, if you start your workout session, any workout session, with 2 big, compound barbell lifts—say, front squats and power cleans—you can then do whatever else you want for the rest of the workout and you will get great results. Or, heck, you can just do 2 compound barbell lifts and nothing else at each workout. But there was a time not that long ago, when the largest, most massive, muscular, and strongest lifters on the planet—the so-called “Bronze era” of the late 19th century, early 20th century—when strongmen did most of their training with dumbbells and not b...
Essays on Old-School Strength Training, Classic Bodybuilding, Traditional Martial Arts, and Budo Philosophy