Heavy dumbbells. A few carefully selected lifts with the biggest bang for your buck. The all-time greats didn’t “exercise” with dumbbells; they lifted them overhead. This course revives the all-around dumbbell lifting tradition and channels it through StrongFirst principles and strength skills.

Since Pavel Tsatsouline’s reintroduction of classic kettlebell lifts to the West, we’ve refined them to the nth degree. StrongFirst Certified Master Instructor Pavel Macek’s Enter the Dumbbell! distills that know-how into an inch-wide, mile-deep dumbbell lifting curriculum: the fewest moves that deliver the most strength—explosive and grinding—organized for real-world progress. Expect principle-driven instruction, purposeful variety, and field-tested plans you can run for months. 

What you will learn:

• Kettlebells vs. dumbbells vs. barbells—similarities and differences, when to choose which

• Light dumbbell mobility sequence for healthy and resilient joints

• Heavy dumbbell lifting fundamentals: set-up, set-down, tension, alignment, breathing, strength skills

• Dumbbell clean—muscle, power, and split

• Dumbbell press—strict strength, old-school style

• Dumbbell overhead swing—ballistic power, the hard style way

• Program 1: Dumbbell Chain and its variations

• Program 2: Duplex—Dumbbell + Kettlebell Chain (same-but-different synergy)

• Program 3: Triplex—Dumbbells, Kettlebells, Barbells (the all-rounder)

• Program 4: Linking the Chain—ETD!’s “Rite of Passage”

• Dumbbell Challenge: Iron & Steel Chain—lift, test, and level up