Dumbbell Only Workouts

[Rothwell18]

First post here, hi! :)

I'm finally getting back into weight training from roughly a year long absence (came off my scooter and lost the motivation to keep going sadly)

Finally forced myself back to the gym and the one local to my new home has a less than pleasing range of weights and equipment (its council run so have to settle for it really)

There are no bar bells/smith machines and only 2/3 cables so I'm having to rework my workouts. I'm a novice really, had an amazing personal trainer for about a year then had to stop due to costs, so I'm used to having amazing equipment to work on and I now have a limited number of dumbbells and machines to use.

Can anyone help when it comes to good exercises/programs to use to help get back into lifting?

I have the obvious chest, tri, shoulder etc movements, the one's I'm really struggling are compound moves, how can I replace things like my beloved squats/deadlifts etc :(

If anyone can suggest any good lifts/programs etc I would be very greatful, really dont wanna see my legs get smaller than my arms!

Thanks
Rothwell

[Jungledoc]

Rocks. I need to start a thread about stone training. Not stoned training, I think there are others here better qualified on that. Stones. You can squat them, press them, bench them (or floor press), clean them, snatch them, press them, throw them, carry them. They come in a variety of sizes and shapes, and are not expensive.

[robertscott]

you can hammer your legs with lunges, dumbell bulgarian split squats and step ups

[Dub]

you can hammer your legs with lunges, dumbell bulgarian split squats and step ups

Plus some posterior chain with Single-leg Romanian deadlift or just single leg deadlift (and squat as well) and glute bridges for example. If you have DB's or KB's, you can train pretty much everything.

[Oscar_Actuary]

vertical pulling is the only movement for which you need to find "special apparatus"
Like a towel and tree limg, or some monkey bars or a high door frame

otherwise it comes down to convenience and incrementability (rocks not so good for the latter)

[Jungledoc]

Rocks come in a wide variety of sizes and weights. Don't go gettin down on rocks.

[robertscott]

vertical pulling is the only movement for which you need to find "special apparatus"
Like a towel and tree limg, or some monkey bars or a high door frame

otherwise it comes down to convenience and incrementability (rocks not so good for the latter)

he could probably use the cables the gym has for pulldowns, having said that a lot of cable stations weight stacks don't go that high so maybe not.

It's not usually that hard to find something you can grab onto for pullups anyway.