Q&A #7

"Is it possible to get in good shape with only dumbbells?"

Yes, although it depends on what you're defining as 'good shape', and it depends on what selection of dumbbells weights you have.

A wide range of dumbbell weights will allow you to train all the major muscle groups and most likely get all of the possible health benefits from resistance training.

However if you wish to get stronger on exercises like squats and deadlifts, dumbbells by themselves can begin to become too heavy, unstable and cumbersome to lift into position for training these movements efficiently.

"I can currently do 2-3 pull-ups. How long would it take to reach 15 pull-ups if I am only able to train twice per week?"

I'm not a fortune teller, and training is not a simple system of inputs and outputs. The only way to find the answer to this is to actually train and see how much progress you can make. In my experience, most healthy lean males can get to at least 5-10 pull-ups with twice per week.

"For full body work-outs, should I take sets to failure? Or should I save energy for other exercises? I do 3x12 on my exercises?"

The current research indicates that training to failure is not necessary to maximise hypertrophy, and may be counterproductive for strength.

That said, there's also quite a bit of research that shows hypertrophy between training to failure and leaving reps in the tank is actually pretty similar.

Personally my philosophy is to (on average and depending on the phase of the training) leave 1-3 reps in the tank on heavy multijoint exercises, and 0-1 in the tank for lighter accessory work or single joint stuff.