Dumbbell Exercise and Workout Guide
Table of Contents
Why Dumbbell Exercises
There are many reasons why you should include dumbbell exercises in your exercise routine! The most important reason is that dumbbells (also known as free weights) allow the body to go through a more natural range of motion than a barbell would allow. This means that the body will use more stabilizing muscles when performing a dumbbell exercise than compared to a barbell exercise. It can be more difficult to keep each dumbbell stable throughout a movement, which is why more stabilizing muscles are recruited when using a dumbbell.
Additionally, the use of dumbbells eliminates muscular imbalances in the body. A muscular imbalance can be created through the use of a barbell, where the weight is evenly distributed on both sides of the body, and one side of the body may overcompensate for the weaker side in order to complete the exercise. Since dumbbells are not fixed together, they eliminate the potential for muscular imbalances and can help to fix a muscular imbalance by performing a unilateral exercise.
Additional reasons for including dumbbell exercises in your exercise routine is that dumbbells are relatively inexpensive, they take up less space than a barbell and depending on the weight of the dumbbell, they can be easy to transport.
Dumbbell Exercises
There are plenty of dumbbell exercises that you can perform that will target each area of the body. From the chest, back, shoulders, legs and core, there are dumbbell exercises that you can perform. Here is a list of dumbbell exercises that we recommend. Click on each one to see a full step-by-step tutorial on how to perform the movement.
Additional Dumbbell Exercises that you can perform include the Biceps Curl and Triceps Extension.
How to Use Dumbbells
It is very easy to use dumbbells. Simple grab onto the shaft of each dumbbell with your hand. In general, most people will have their thumbs on top of their fingers when holding the dumbbell. Depending on the dumbbell exercise that you are performing, you may be holding the dumbbell with your palms facing towards you, and sometimes you may be holding the dumbbell with your palms facing away from you.
If you are unsure about how to hold the dumbbell during a specific exercise, try doing a quick search on the internet to see how people usually hold the dumbbell during that movement.
Dumbbell Workouts
You can use any combination of the dumbbell exercises that we’ve listed above to create an amazing dumbbell workout! Most people like to group similar exercises together and perform them in one day to target one section of the body.
For instance, you could group all of the dumbbell exercises that target the shoulder and great a dumbbell shoulder workout for that day. Another option is to create a full body dumbbell workout. This could be done in a High Intensity Style workout, or completed as normal strength training. An example of a full body dumbbell HITT workout could be:
Sumo Squat, Biceps Curl, Stationary Lunge, Shoulder Press, Renegade Row.
For a beginner, perform each exercise for 30 seconds, and then rest for 30 seconds. Complete 4-5 rounds of the circuit. Aim for the tempo to be at one rep for 1-2 seconds to keep the intensity up
Free Weight Exercises
As we previously mentioned, free weight exercises are important because they will challenge the smaller stabilizing muscles in the body. It is important to keep these stabilizing muscles strong as they often keep joints together and healthy. Free weight exercises are also beneficial because they allow for the gradual addition of a load.
For those who are injured, going through rehabilitation or are simply just beginning to exercise, you can start at 1 lb, and increase by 1 lb to 10 lbs. From there, you can increase by 2-2.5 lbs up to 20 lbs. Once you reach 20 lbs, the free weights will increase in load in 5 lbs increments.
Free Weight Exercises for Men
There are no specific free weight exercises for men. All free weight exercises can be performed by men and women. An alternative question could be, what are the best free weight exercises for building strength. This answer includes the Dumbbell Bench Press, Hammer Curl, Dumbbell Step Up, Dumbbell Lunge, Bent Over Row, Goblet Squat and Dumbbell Clean.
However, in reality, each dumbbell exercise that we have listed in this article is great for building strength, especially when programmed into your exercise routine correctly and performed consistently.
Dumbbells for Weight Loss
When performed correctly, any combination of dumbbell exercises will be effective for weight loss. With this being said, if you are not choosing to support your exercise with the proper nutrition and lifestyle choices, you might not lose any weight! If you are only exercising once per week, you most likely will not see any weight loss. The key to weight loss is consistency, so be sure to complete your entire dumbbell workout at least 3-4 times per week.
Performing a dumbbell workout 4 times per week is a great way to break down your dumbbell workout into sections of the body. For example, you can do a dumbbell shoulder workout one day, then a dumbbell back, chest and leg workout in the following days. With so many variations of each dumbbell exercise, you will be able to keep your workouts challenging and fun! This is just another reason why dumbbell exercises are beneficial!
