Doing the Bill Starr 5X5 with dumbells

[Swole_2112]

I'm considering hitting the Bill Starr 5X5 again, but I might have to make one minor modification: I might have to bench with dumbells. My shoulder trouble has progressed to the point that when using a straight bar, I'm pretty much limited to decline bench. I'll do what I have to, but has anybody here every done this routine using dumbells as opposed to straight bar? Any thoughts?

[rmexico]

I'm sure it would be fine. The only reasons why it wouldn't work is if you don't have heavy enough dumbbells or you want to increase the weight by less than 10 lbs per week.

[Zoofus]

You can check out Platemates or another magnetic solution that will allow you to make jumps in smaller increments. I'm sure you can find something at Home Depot or a hardware store too.

[silver_shadow]

if you have a good hold on programming you can modify the program (sets & reps) to suit the fact that weight jumps will be different from what the BASE TEMPLATE specifies - after all the program isn't set in stone. the idea is just that if it's untouched by noobs, then it is idiot proof... the key word being noobs.

[Zoofus]

The point of the magnets was more the ability to make smaller incremental jumps than following one of the templates to the letter. 5lbs bumps in dumbells can be a lot at times so this would give you the option of not doing that. If you think about it, take someone pressing 50s and jumping to 55s. That's a 10% jump, I think the template on the linear program is something like 2.5% a week so that's 4x. Even if the guy is pressing 100s, it's still a 5% jump. This is worse for overhead exercises than a flat dumbell press.

One could also play with the reps a bit as an in between increment, example of doing a top set of 5 one week and then the same weight for a top set of 7 the next week. That adds some complication and trades specificity hence the idea to use magnets to get a smaller increment. That's the only real issue with dumbells along with lower overall load levels vs a comparable barbell lift.

[Zoofus]

The point of the magnets was more the ability to make smaller incremental jumps than following one of the templates to the letter. 5lbs bumps in dumbells can be a lot at times so this would give you the option of not doing that. If you think about it, take someone pressing 50s and jumping to 55s. That's a 10% jump, I think the template on the linear program is something like 2.5% a week so that's 4x. Even if the guy is pressing 100s, it's still a 5% jump. This is worse for overhead exercises than a flat dumbell press.

One could also play with the reps a bit as an in between increment, example of doing a top set of 5 one week and then the same weight for a top set of 7 the next week. That adds some complication and trades specificity hence the idea to use magnets to get a smaller increment. That's the only real issue with dumbells along with lower overall load levels vs a comparable barbell lift.