Health & Strength: Light vs. Heavy Dumbbells

When you read about the incredible feats of many old-time strongmen—and then study their books—you’ll undoubtedly notice that many of them recommend high-rep exercises with very light weights, and only occasionally mention lifting heavy weights, usually near the end.

Did Sandow really achieve his incredible feats of strength by lifting light dumbbells? How about his mentor, Prof. Attila? In 1913, Richard K. Fox published a book called Prof. Attila’s Five-Pound Dumbbell Exercises. Attila’s scrapbook, however, shows many women practicing with big globe dumbbells—certainly far heavier than five pounds—and doing altogether different exercises than alternating curls: get-ups and one-arm presses…

Henry Higgins says clearly in his excellent Strength and Muscle Course (c. 1915; modern reprint available at Bill Hinbern’s website superstrengthtrainig.com):

Often you will hear people say that it is possible to become very strong and to get good development by practicing light exercises… I never knew a man who built himself up except by very heavy work. Light dumbbell drills never made anyone strong or muscular.

Venables (1942) agrees:

The very light dumbbells found in many gymnasiums have little value as strength and muscle builders. Any exercise is better than no exercise, but we obtain from exercise what we put into it, and with very light dumbbells only slight gains are made. The old timers did not have the adjustable dumbbells we have at present, so graded progress was more difficult. Most gymnasiums would have a pair of 50’s, perhaps a pair of 75’s, 100’s and a single dumbbell weighing 150-200 lbs. or more. While a pair of 50’s are very easy in most exercises for men who train at the York Bar Bell gym, for instance, or any other advanced weight men, they are very heavy for others. There is such a variation in the strength of the various muscles of the body that only a full range of weights will accommodate complete training.

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So why did many of the famous names advocate light dumbbell training? Bill Hinbern explains:

Most correspondence courses put out commercially by the muscle barons of the early 20th century promoted high repetition exercises using light weight dumbbells or apparatus if they included equipment at all. Anyone with an ounce of common sense can understand that the awesome strength demonstrated by the performers of that era was not a product of light weight, high repetition exercise.

The reason that such methods were promoted by the muscle merchants of the day was very simple. Marketing. That is, it was by far easier to convince you, the potential customer, to use “quick, easy, inexpensive” methods than to sell you on the idea that building great strength took time, effort and expensive heavy equipment.

Listen to the wise words of Arthur Saxon (Saxon, 1906):

… use heavy ones with fewer repetitions rather than light bells with numerous repetitions.

So, Are Light Dumbbells Totally Useless?

With all of the above being said, Higgins starts his own course with 5 lb. dumbbells and high reps—10, 20, and eventually 40 reps! Why? Let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater.

Higgins, a big proponent of progressive heavy lifting, makes sure to note that light weight/high reps are recommended for out-of-shape beginners. Higgins says:

I taught drills of this sort to people who wanted to get the ordinary hygienic benefit from exercise, and I knew that my pupils did derive that benefit. But they never got strength or development from the light drills, and I never promised them that they would. On the other hand all my pupils who went in for strength and development were successful when I put them at heavy training.

Any man who says that he can build a person up and make him very strong by the use of light exercise is deceiving himself. He can certainly improve the health of the pupil by giving him exercise of this character. But that is the extent of the usefulness of this sort of exercise.

Sandow recommended the same thing in his earlier works:

“It is recommended that the pupil, before proceeding to the heavy weights, should spend at least three moths in performing the preliminary light-weight exercises.”

(Mercer, 1894).

As for exercise selection, Higgins prescribes curls (only in the first weeks, though—sorry), presses, cleans, clean & presses, squats, and swings—all with two light dumbbells. After six weeks, Higgins progresses right away to 25 lb dumbbells, and every subsequent six weeks to progressively heavier weights—and in quite big jumps: 50, 75, 100, 125, all the way to 140 lb and beyond.

For already active individuals, Higgins recommends skipping the 5 and 25 lb dumbbells and starting right with 50 lb dumbbells. He then proceeds to lower reps and puts emphasis on lifts like the clean, press, and clean & press (with one or two dumbbells), as well as the jerk and bent press.

Use light dumbbells for the following purposes:

As weighted mobility drills, similar to light Indian club training. Attila’s, Sandow’s, or Hackenschmidt’s books contain various sets of exercises that we have distilled in our “Dumbbell Super-Joints” move-prep/warmup.
As an intro program when starting dumbbell training, or when learning new lifts. High reps—sets of 5–10 (as recommended by Hackenschmidt), or “ladders”—from (2, 3, 5) to (3, 5, 7) to (5, 7, 8) to (5, 7, 8, 10), as recommended by the original StrongFirst Kettlebell Course plan—will ingrain correct technique and prepare the joints and connective tissue for subsequent true (heavy) lifting.
After your main training to strengthen the connective tissue – Pavel Tsatsouline writes in Beyond Bodybuilding: “Full amplitude high rep work is recommended by Eastern European specialists to stimulate tendon and ligament development… Full stops at the top and the bottom of each rep are a good idea as they shift the load from the muscles to the connective tissues. Clarification: we are not talking about blood and guts high rep sets here; slowly build up your reps until you can handle the required volume with ease.” He wrote me when we were discussing Enter the Dumbbell! program: “Such training conditions the connective tissues; it is useful.”

As for strength and power, Higgins (et al.) is absolutely clear: “”