Novice–intermediate trainees who only have dumbbells or need a reliable home/hotel gym routine.
Written by Josh England for Muscle & Strength and hosted on Boostcamp, the plan fills the gap for trainees who lack barbell access but still want structured hypertrophy work. It adapts traditional bodybuilding splits to a five-day dumbbell format so users can train chest, back, legs and complete upper body across the week while keeping sessions time-efficient. The program is positioned to be sustainable up to 12 weeks before progressing intensity or equipment.
The plan runs five workouts per week across ~12 weeks with ~45-minute sessions. Typical split: Day 1 (chest/shoulders/triceps), Day 2 (legs/core), Day 3 (back/biceps), Day 4 (legs/core), Day 5 (complete upper body). Exercises are dumbbell variants (flat/incline presses, floor press, DB rows, split squats, RDLs, shoulder presses, lateral raises, curls, triceps work). Sets and rep ranges target hypertrophy (commonly 3–5 sets of ~8–12 reps) and short rest (~45 seconds) for time-efficient metabolic stress. The program emphasizes progressive overload by increasing dumbbell load, reps, or session density and suggests reassessing after 12 weeks.
Prioritise full range and tension on dumbbell movements; control eccentric phases and avoid momentum. Warm up joints and perform lighter technical sets before working sets. Progress by adding reps, slower tempo, or moving to heavier dumbbells when possible. Keep rest ~45s as suggested for conditioning, but extend rest when lifting near failure to preserve technique. Track weights and reps weekly to ensure progressive overload. If hypertrophy is the goal, pair the plan with adequate calories and protein and plan deloads or a program change after ~12 weeks.

조쉬 잉글랜드는 NASM 공인 퍼스널 트레이너이자 Muscle & Strength의 대표적인 프로그램 저자로, 장비가 제한된 환경에서도 추측이 아닌 구조화된 진행과 점진적 과부하를 구현할 수 있는 덤벨 중심 실전 프로그램을 꾸준히 제작해 온 인물이다.
• IFBB / NPC 2개 단체 피지크 프로카드 보유 • 보디빌딩 & 파워리프팅 다수 대회 우승 및 입상 • 유튜브 구독자 50만명 ㅁㅁㅁ 채널 운영 • PT 전문 센터 ㅇㅇㅇ 운영 중