Eugen Sandow's lightweight dumbbells system of exercises explained

Hello. Some people asked me to give a more detailed explanation of the system and how to do it.

This post is precisely about that.

I made a video where I give examples on how to do the exercises and I give my comments there about that. The video is enough to follow the system, but if you want to try out numbers of repetitions given by Sandow then you should have a look at the tables given in this post. They are taken directly from Sandow's book. You don't need to follow them but they can give you an approximate aim to hit when you are doing the exercises. You can as well read the original description of the exercises given by Sandow in his book which I placed here in this post. So if you feel that my examples and explanations are wrong you can follow the exercises using your own judgement.

Firstly there is a warm-up routine recommended by Sandow to prepare your body for the main work-out.

Next you may want to write down the table numbers for each exercise if you want to follow them and then make some sort or your own table which you can follow daily. Mine is given under Sandow's table for adults.

In my table I have 22 exercises because it was more convenient for me to write down some Sandow's exercises as separate ones and I have some of my own, not included in his system, thus 22. SO, numbers on top of my table represent exercises - 1-22 and numbers on the left represent days of training in a cycle - 1-15.

Here is a book from which I got the exercises: Sandow on physical training

Here is a video I made with some explanations and pieces of advice.

A "play list" for the video

The warm-up  - 00:02:06
Exercises
1 - 00:15:05
2 - 00:18:00
3 - 00:19:00
4 - 00:20:32
4 (variation) - 00:21:04
5 - 00:22:10
6 - 00:23:20
7 - 00:24:20
8 - 00:25:35
9 - 00:26:52
10 - 00:28:26
11 - 00:29:30
12 (the same as 11 only done to the other side) - 00:32:27
13 - 00:32:50
14 - 00:35:57
15a (added from Sandow's booklet) - 00:40:15
15 - 00:41:45
15b (added from Sandow's booklet) - 00:43:30
16 - 00:44:40
16 (variation) - 00:46:00
17 - 00:48:50

The same video, but in Russian language

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My female opponent didn't feel like following my plan and she did a reversal on me rendering the camel clutch to be a two-way challenge!

Sandow's system (slightly modified) - complete routine including warm up...

This is my complete routine of Sandow's system of physical training with dumbbells. During the course of training I added some exercises and in this video you can see all of them and how I do them all. It's the final version of it and I won't do any more modifications, I think.

I followed Sandow's principle of doing exercises until it aches or feels tiring and I tried to do at least the recommended number of repetitions. I did the recommended number of reps for bicep curls and the follow-up exercise for forearms and for the last body bends exercise - 75, 35 and 35 as those are day 6th recommended numbers of reps.

I had five 1 minute breaks between some exercises  - arms to the sides kept horizontally while wrists rotate dumbbells, push-ups, pull-ups/chin-ups, squats.

What I added to the system are: the exercises for neck (pulling up dumbbells, hand resistance against head turns), weighted pull-ups/chin-ups (odd days - pull-ups, even days - chin-ups). Everything else is from the original system by Eugen Sandow found in his book "Sandow on physical culture" and "Strength and how to obtain it".

The video shows a complete non-stop routine including a warm-up recommended by Sandow. Day 6 of training cycle using 6 kg dumbbells.

My weighted pull-ups with 10 kg - 11 times (half narrow grip 10 kg)

I reached 11 times on my weighted pull-ups, and I actually almost didn't train for it.

The last time I tried I could do only 9 times and that was the day before yesterday. Before that I didn't do anything for 10 days because I was ill. And before that I did pull-ups once a day, then I did chin-ups the next day and repeated it like that. I incorporated it into my Sandow's training program.

Next time I'll be adding weight since I did more than 10 pull-ups.

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A wrestling session for our viewers who asked us to do some techniques such as Master lock or Figure 4 leg lock. We fulfilled all requests in this video. Enjoy!

My progress in weighted chin-ups

Hello. My weighted chin-ups are better now and I can do them 10 times!

I began with 5 times and progressed through a couple of weeks or less up to 10 times.

I do them almost every day once a day 1 set of as many reps as I can.

When I reach (if I reach?) 11 times then I will add some more weight. I'll try to add the minimum possible weight from what I have. The current weight is 10 kilos.

I do these chin-ups after push-ups in Sandow's system, so it's like a part of the system now.

Valentine's day magic

Sandow's physical training system warm-up with dumbbells

Upon reading Eugen Sandow's books I found out that a trainee should do this warm-up before the main exercises of the system. I was unaware of this warm-up until I have almost finished the one before the last cycle with 8 kg dumbbells. So I rolled back to 4 kg dumbbells in order to get used to this important warm-up and go through cycles using these warming up exercises anew.

Pull-up as a predecessor of a muscle-up

Muscle-up is a cool move and besides that it is one of the basics of acrobatics or gymnastics. It can help you to do more advanced and hard tricks.

So, practice your pull-ups and when you can do at least 5 explosive ones you may attempt a muscle-up.

The way to the muscle-up:

1st step - 5 explosive pull-ups (better if you can touch the bar with your chest)

2nd step - try a muscle-up

This video also has my little progress in handstand push-up

Handstand push-up exercise

An exercise devised to build up strength for a handstand push-up - the negative wall-assisted handstand push-up.
Repeat it until you can't slide down in a controlled way, then stop, have a break.

Sandow's system of training with dumbbells (8kg) contemplations

Hello. Upon moving forward in the 8 kg cycle I stumble on some things such as the biceps curls and the spreading arms before chest exercise. The former I can't complete without having short breaks because my hands accumulate some kind of pain and I don't want to keep holding the dumbbells, and the latter becomes increasingly hard to complete, it's hard to keep arms in the horizontal position while connecting and spreading them. I am afraid I'll have to do a little break here as well.

Exercise 3 is hard too, I mentioned that before. Well, actually nothing is easy, except for the squats - that's the easiest exercise; and the shoulder raises - the second easiest one; and the overhead arms raises is the third on the scale of easiest exercises. All others are hard.

Interesting, how will I manage to go through the last cycle of 9 kg dumbbells?

Meimei's cooking - Asian apple pie!

Have you ever gone on a culinary adventure? We invite you to come with us to the kitchen of mystery and to discover new horizons of taste in this "HOW TO MAKE IT?".

For the journey (and the ASIAN APPLE PIE) you'll need:

4 egg whites

1 tablespoon of sugar

6~ tablespoons of milk

1? cup of flour

1 apple

1 multi-functional electric cooker