How Heavy Are the Dumbbells You Lift? Reading Order

How Heavy Are the Dumbbells You Lift? — Complete Manga Reading Order

Here’s the short version: read Volumes 1 through 20 in the order they were released. That’s it. That’s the reading order.

How Heavy Are the Dumbbells You Lift? (ダンベル何キロ持てる?) is written by Sandrovich Yabako (サンドロビッチ・ヤバ子) with art by MAAM. New chapters are published on an ongoing basis — first appearing in Manga One and Ura Sunday (two Japanese digital manga magazines where individual chapters are released before being collected into book form), then gathered into volumes (the bound paperback books you buy at a bookstore). In Japan, the volumes are published by Shogakukan (a major Japanese publisher). In English, they’re released by Seven Seas Entertainment, one of the most active English-language manga publishers. The series is ongoing — 20 volumes are out in both Japanese and English as of now.

Here’s a broad overview of how the volumes break down:

Phase	Volumes	What to Expect
Getting Started	1–6	Hibiki joins Silverman Gym, meets the core cast, learns basic exercises like squats and bench press
Expanding the World	7–13	New characters, fitness competitions, more advanced training topics — the series hits its stride and the quality stays high
Current Storylines	14–20	Deeper character development, continued fitness education, ongoing stories that reward long-time readers

A few important notes:

• There are no alternate editions or reboots of this manga.
• There are no mandatory prequels or side stories you need to read.
• The volumes are numbered sequentially and each picks up right where the last one left off.
• More volumes will follow since the series is still ongoing.
• Each volume is a standard manga paperback — most readers finish one in about 30 to 45 minutes.

If you want to start reading right now, Volume 1 is all you need to grab.

What Each Volume Covers and Why the Order Matters

At first glance, this might seem like a pure comedy series where reading order wouldn’t matter much. Each chapter does function as a self-contained unit with its own featured exercise. But there’s a clear progression happening on two levels — the story and the fitness curriculum — and both build on what came before.

Phase 1: Joining the Gym (Volumes 1–6)

The series opens with Sakura Hibiki, a high school girl who loves eating and realizes she’s been putting on weight. Her solution: join a gym. She ends up at Silverman Gym, which turns out to be an intense facility focused on bodybuilding — a style of training built around sculpting and growing muscle through targeted weight exercises — rather than the casual fitness center she expected.

These early volumes introduce the core cast — Hibiki, her classmate Akemi (who’s secretly obsessed with muscles), their intimidating trainer Machio, and a growing circle of gym-going friends. Each chapter pairs character comedy with a detailed, genuinely educational breakdown of a specific exercise. You’ll learn proper squat form, bench press technique, and nutrition basics alongside the jokes.

The exercise instruction starts with fundamentals here. Later volumes assume you’ve absorbed these basics, building toward more complex movements and training philosophies. Skip these volumes and the fitness thread loses its foundation.

Phase 2: Competitions and New Faces (Volumes 7–13)

The middle stretch of the series expands in every direction. New characters join the gym, including international students and rival fitness enthusiasts. The series starts incorporating fitness competitions — arm wrestling tournaments, bodybuilding contests, and athletic challenges that raise the dramatic tension and give characters something meaningful to fight for.

The training content gets more specialized too. Where early volumes covered basics like push-ups and deadlifts, this phase moves into topics like planning your training in structured cycles for better results, exercises that target individual muscles rather than large groups, and conditioning tailored to specific sports. The manga never stops being funny, but it’s quietly building a surprisingly comprehensive fitness education.

Character relationships deepen during this stretch. Running jokes and rivalries established early start paying off. If you jumped in here, you’d still laugh, but you’d miss the context that makes many of the gags land. The series keeps its quality high through this middle section — readers who enjoyed the early volumes will find the formula getting sharper, not staler.

Phase 3: Current Storylines (Volumes 14–20)

The most recent volumes continue the pattern — new exercises, new characters, escalating competitions — while giving longer-running storylines more room to breathe. Character development that started as background threads in earlier volumes gets real focus. The fitness content by this point has covered an impressive range of topics, from martial arts conditioning to flexibility training to how the body recovers and repairs after exercise.

Because the series is ongoing, these later volumes don’t feel like a rush toward a conclusion. Each one still works as a satisfying read on its own while moving the bigger picture forward.

Why Skipping Hurts More Than You’d Think

Most reading-order guides exist because a series is complicated. This one exists because people underestimate how connected the chapters are. The fitness education builds sequentially — a nutrition concept introduced in an early volume gets referenced and expanded several volumes later when the series tackles diet planning in more depth. Character dynamics evolve gradually, and many of the best jokes reference earlier moments in ways that only land if you’ve read what came before. You can pick up a random volume and enjoy it, but you’ll get noticeably more out of the experience reading in order.

The Kengan Ashura Connection — Do You Need to Read It First?

This is the most common question people have about reading order, and it deserves a clear answer: no, you do not need to read Kengan Ashura first.

Both series are written by Sandrovich Yabako and exist in the same fictional universe. Characters from Kengan Ashura — a fighting manga about underground corporate gladiator battles — occasionally make brief appearances in How Heavy Are the Dumbbells You Lift? Some locations and background details are shared between the two series.

But these crossovers are bonus nods to fans, not plot points. They’re fun moments of recognition for readers who know both series, but they don’t affect the Dumbbells storyline at all. You won’t be confused, you won’t miss critical information, and you won’t feel like you’re reading an incomplete story. If you don’t recognize a crossover character, the scene still works perfectly on its own — you simply won’t know there’s a connection.

If you’re curious about Kengan Ashura, it’s a great series in its own right. It’s a much darker, more action-driven manga about hand-to-hand combat tournaments. Reading it alongside or after Dumbbells can be a fun way to spot the connections. But it’s entirely optional, and the two series have very different tones. Dumbbells is lighthearted fitness comedy; Kengan Ashura is intense martial arts drama. Enjoy them on their own terms.

Where to Buy the English Volumes

The English edition of How Heavy Are the Dumbbells You Lift? is published by Seven Seas Entertainment. All 20 volumes are currently available, with more expected as the series continues. Each volume is priced at standard manga retail — comparable to most other manga paperbacks on the shelf.

You have several options for buying:

• Print volumes are available through major bookstores and online retailers like Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Books-A-Million. Seven Seas titles are widely stocked, so you shouldn’t have trouble finding them.
• Digital editions are available on platforms like Kindle, BookWalker, and Kobo, which is a great option if you want to start reading immediately or prefer not to store physical books. If you read digitally, a tablet-sized screen is ideal for seeing the exercise form details clearly.

For a series this long, some readers like to pick up a few volumes at a time rather than buying all 20 at once. That’s a perfectly fine approach — the story is paced so that every few volumes feels like a natural stopping point.

Since the series is ongoing, it’s also worth following Seven Seas Entertainment’s release schedule to stay current with new English volumes as they come out.

If you’re ready to start from the beginning, grabbing Volume 1 is the way to go. The card below shows Vol. 20, the newest English release — its product page links back to Volume 1 and every volume in between:

Common Mistakes New Readers Make

Starting After the Anime and Skipping Early Volumes

The anime adaptation of How Heavy Are the Dumbbells You Lift? is a lot of fun, but it covers only a portion of the manga’s content. The manga goes well beyond where the anime ends, and it includes far more exercises, characters, and storylines than the anime had time for.

If you watched the anime and want to continue in manga form, resist the urge to skip ahead to “where the anime left off.” The manga includes material, character details, and fitness instruction that the anime condensed or cut. Starting from Volume 1 is worth your time even if some early scenes feel familiar — the manga version adds enough that it won’t feel like pure repetition.

Treating It as Pure Comedy

The comedy in this series is genuinely funny. The character reactions are over-the-top, the muscle gags are ridiculous, and the tone is consistently lighthearted. But underneath all of that, the fitness instruction is real. The exercise breakdowns in each chapter are detailed, accurate, and presented with proper form illustrations.

Some readers blow past the exercise panels thinking they’re just part of the joke. They’re not — or at least, not only part of the joke. If you’re even slightly interested in fitness, pay attention to these sections. The manga is sneakily one of the most thorough beginner fitness resources you’ll find in any format.

Thinking You Need Kengan Ashura First

Covered this above, but it’s worth repeating here since it’s such a common stumbling block. The shared universe is a bonus, not a requirement. Start with Dumbbells. If you love it and want more from the same creator’s world, Kengan Ashura will be there waiting.

Waiting for the Series to Finish

Some readers prefer to wait until a manga is complete before starting. That’s a valid preference in general, but it’s worth reconsidering for this series. Because each volume wraps up its individual exercise tutorials and comedic scenarios within the volume itself, you get a satisfying reading experience each time — even though the larger story and character relationships continue developing across volumes (which is why reading in order still matters). You don’t need to know the ending to enjoy the journey.

The ongoing status also means the series is still receiving new content, and there’s an active community of readers discussing each new volume. Jumping in now means you get to be part of that conversation.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the manga finished?

No. How Heavy Are the Dumbbells You Lift? is an ongoing series. New chapters continue to appear in Manga One and Ura Sunday in Japan, and those chapters are then collected into volumes for both Japanese and English release.

How many volumes are out?

As of now, there are 20 volumes published in both Japanese (by Shogakukan) and English (by Seven Seas Entertainment). More volumes are expected as the series continues.

Is the fitness information in the manga actually accurate?

Yes. Every chapter features a detailed exercise breakdown with proper form illustrations, and the instructions are genuinely sound. The manga covers real training principles — correct posture, breathing cues, muscle groups targeted, and common mistakes to avoid. While the comedic framing is over-the-top, the exercise content itself is well-researched and practical enough that readers have used it as a real workout reference.

Do I need to watch the anime before reading?

Not at all. The manga came first and covers significantly more content than the anime adaptation. In manga and anime, the original version of a story (usually the manga) is the most complete telling. You can absolutely enjoy the anime first or alongside the manga, but the manga stands completely on its own and is the fuller experience.

Who created this series?

The story is by Sandrovich Yabako (サンドロビッチ・ヤバ子), who also created Kengan Ashura. The art is by MAAM. The series has been running since December 2016, when the first Japanese volume was published.

What’s the best format — print or digital?

Both work well. The exercise instruction panels benefit from being large enough to see the form details clearly, so if you’re reading digitally, a tablet-sized screen is ideal. Print volumes obviously don’t have that issue. It comes down to personal preference — the content is identical either way.

Can I read random volumes out of order?

You technically can, since each chapter has a standalone exercise tutorial and comedic scenario. But you’ll miss character development, running jokes, and the progressive fitness curriculum that builds across volumes. Reading in order from Volume 1 is the recommended approach for the best experience.