Build Full Body Strength and Lean Muscle Mass with Just One or Two Dumbbells
With just one or two dumbbells you can build full body strength, muscle mass as well as lose fat. The goal of this article is to arm you (as in muscular arms) with some ideas for new movements you can use to build full body strength and muscle mass with dumbbells. The best way to reach any of these goals is to follow an expertly written plan, so we provide some ideas for that as well.
Dumbbells Really Work
Almost any gym in the world will have at least one pair of dumbbells, which means by mastering just a few basic movements, your workout is never that far away. Dumbbells are also fairly compact, so if you are traveling by car, you can take a pair with you to get your workouts in while you travel. The bottom line is dumbbells are one of the single best pieces of equipment to know how to use because of the variety of movements, wide availability and relative ease of transport.
Helpful Resources:
Free Daily workouts with dumbbells here
Fitness Equipment like dumbbells here
“Dumbbell exercises can be used to isolate specific muscle groups or target your entire body with one or two compound movements”, says Aaron Guyett, CSCS, Director of Education for Living.Fit. “I used to recommend that most of my clients own at least one pair of dumbbells because in the event they cannot make it to the gym, they can quickly follow a protocol I created for them at home”.
“Free weights like dumbbells and kettlebells also allow for a wide range of motion compared to working with machines or in some cases other free weights. The compact size and combination of weight allow for a deeper range of motion as opposed to being hindered by cables, machines or bars.”
Can I Build Muscle with Just Dumbbells?
Dumbbells should be a part of any well balanced exercise program. By following an expertly written plan you can build muscle with just dumbbells if you follow specific protocol for focusing on different parts of the body and follow scientific principles like progressive overload. You should couple this with a great nutrition plan as well for maximum results.
Dumbbell exercises are ideal for creating hypertrophy if you want to put on size. This is done by overloading muscles with rep ranges 8, 10 or 12. If you want to focus on just building muscle and strength, focus on 8-12 rep.
Can Dumbbells Burn Belly Fat?
Yes! To burn belly fat while using dumbbells you want to keep up the pace of your workout which gets your heart rate up throughout the entire dumbbell workout. If you focus on full body workouts with lower rest times and couple this with a good nutrition plan, you will burn belly fat. Below, we will get into some of the best full body dumbbell exercises to burn belly fat.
20 Best Dumbbell Exercises for Building Muscle
Aaron Guyett, CSCS, Director of Education for Living.Fit demonstrates 20 different dumbbell exercises to add to your workouts. Each workout contains audio about how to do the workout as well text to teach you which muscle groups these target. For those interested in more, Living.Fit has close to 50 different dumbbell movements, plus workouts and other equipment movements.
Helpful Resources:
Free Daily workouts with dumbbells here
Fitness Equipment like dumbbells here
Narrow Stance Dumbbell Squat
Muscles Worked: Legs, Core, Back. This will force you to work on the inside part of the front thigh.
How: Keep your feet hip width apart or all the way together. Go down into the squat position. Keep your core and back tight to control the weight of the dumbbells. Due to the position of your feet it is easier to lose your balance if you do not.
Bent Over Dumbbell Rows
Muscles Worked: Lats, Back, Core
How: Hinge at the hips, think driving your hips back, abs engaged, squeeze your scapulae together. Bring the dumbbells back towards your hips. This will incorporate the lats and back muscles
Backstep Dumbbell Lunge
Muscles Worked: Glutes, Core, Back, Hips, Hamstrings
How: Step back and drop the weight towards the heel of the forward foot. This will incorporate your hamstring and glutes. When you step back forward, drive up and forward like a traditional lunge
Dumbbell Alternating Single Clean and Jerk
Muscles Worked: Glutes, Hamstrings, Hips, Core, Shoulders
How: Use your hip hinge and upward movement in your squat to drive the dumbbell up. Then you are going to drop your hips down as you roll your arm and hand under the dumbbell to ‘catch’ the dumbbell in the rack position as you lower yourself under it.
Dumbbell Shrugs
Muscles Worked: Shoulders, biceps, core
How: Hang the dumbbells at your sides and shrug your shoulders upward. Make sure not to protract or retract your shoulders. Keep your shoulders lateral next to your body the entire time.
Dumbbell SeeSaw Floor Press
Muscles Worked: Core, pecs, lats
How: Lying on your back, with your knees bent and feet flat on the floor, hold a dumbbell in each hand. Press the dumbbells upward in a seesaw fashion. This means you are pressing one arm up while the other is coming down. Push the dumbbells up with your lats and pecs. This is a good way to notice any potential asymmetries on either side if you notice weakness on either side.
Helpful Resources:
Free Daily workouts with dumbbells here
Fitness Equipment like dumbbells here
Dumbbell Plank Rows
Muscles Worked: Core, Back, Lats
How: Assume the plank position, row the dumbbell up towards your hips. Think as if you are bringing your hands into your hip pockets. Keep your elbows tight to your side to keep lat and upper back engagement. You can widen your feet for more stability.
Dumbbell Lying Tricep Extension
Muscles Worked: Triceps, Core, Back
How To: Lying on your back, press the dumbbells up over your chest, bend at the elbow to drop the dumbbells behind your head in a controlled manner. Keep your core tight with your back and glutes on the floor the entire time.
Dumbbell Seated Calf Raises
Muscles Worked: Calves
How To: In a seated position, place the head of the dumbbells on your knees or quads. Press your legs upward with the balls of your feet using your calf muscles. To make this more challenging you can place the balls of your feet on an object which forces you to go below parallel when you lower your legs.
Dumbbell Deadlift
Muscles: Hips, Hamstrings, Core, Glutes
How to: Start with the dumbbells right in front of your toes or just outside of your feet. You can incorporate just a bit of knee bend, but this should be primarily driven by engaging your hamstrings and glutes. As you drive your body upward with your hips and glutes, the dumbbells should simply follow by being held in each hand. Keep your abs engaged and your chest proud. Lower your body back down by driving your hips back. The dumbbells do not need to touch the ground at the bottom.
Dumbbell Bent Over Reverse Flys
Muscles Worked: Back, core
How To: Start in a hinged position. Keep your abs and upper back engaged to protect your lower back. With your elbows slightly bent, bring the dumbbells from the hanging position outward and up to engage all of your upper back muscles
Dumbbell Alternating Forward Lunge
Muscles Worked: Quads, Glutes, Core, Back
How To: Stand with a dumbbell in each hand. You could put them in a rack position. Step forward with one leg while keeping your abs engaged with your chest proud and back. At the bottom of the lunge, drive back up through your heel. Load 80% of the load into our stepping foot with most in the heel. Do not lunge so far forward you cannot come back up out of the lunge.
Dumbbell Front Squat
Muscles Worked: Quads, Glutes, Core
How To: Load the dumbbells up by your shoulders in front of your chest. You can have them touching or separate. You can grip the dumbbells in multiple ways. Drop into a squat position. As your glutes become parallel to your knees start to drive yourself back upwards
Dumbbell Turkish Get Up
Muscles Worked: Shoulders, Core, Quads, Glutes
How To: Lying on your back, start with your right knee and right arm up holding the dumbbell. Press, rotate, prop up onto the elbow. Go from elbow to hand, then lift up your hips, swing that leg underneath your hips and drive up from the lunge position. Look at the dumbbell the entire time to maintain balance. To get down, repeat this sequence in reverse.
Dumbbell Floor Pec Flys
Muscles Worked: Core, Pecs
How To: Lying on your back on the floor or a bench, you will lower the dumbbells away from your body horizontally. Do not touch your elbows to the ground. Use your pecs to pull the weight back towards you to align the dumbbell over your chest before lowering again. Keep a slight bend in your elbows as you lower them. You should be controlling the dumbbells the entire time with your pecs on the way down and pull them back up with your pecs.
Dumbbell Core Twists
Muscles Worked: Core
How To: With one or two dumbbells, start in a seated position with your heels slightly on the ground. Focus on leaning back which will engage your core even more. Rotate from the left to the right and back. Do not over rotate or with too much speed. Make sure to be in control of the weight the entire time.
Single Dumbbell Sit Up to Press
Muscles Worked: Core, Shoulders
How To: Using a single dumbbell in one hand, start lying on the floor. Crunch up and roll up into a sit up. At the top, press the dumbbell overhead. Then come back down into the floor press position. You can switch hands while at the top of the sit up position.
Dumbbell Curls
Muscles Worked: Biceps, Core.
How To: Stand with dumbbells at your side. Engage your biceps by pulling the dumbbells toward your shoulder. Keep your elbows tight to your side with your core tight. Lower the dumbbell in a controlled manner to engage the bicep. A 2 or 3 count on the way down is helpful for monitoring this.
Dumbbell Farmer Carry
Muscles Worked: Core, Biceps, Triceps, Back
How To: Stand with dumbbells at your side. This is a simple and effective way to work out your entire body. With dumbbells hanging at your side, engage your core and back, keep your chest proud and walk with dumbbells in hand. You can walk forward, backward or multiple directions.
Dumbbell Alternating Cleans
Muscles Worked: Quads, Glutes, Back, Core
How To: Stand with your feet wider than your shoulders. With a dumbbell in each hand you will use your lower body to generate the momentum which brings your dumbbell up to the rack position. Since this is an alternating movement, you will be lowering one dumbbell as the other is being raised. Think of your lower body as pumping the entire time to constantly generate the force to drive the dumbbells to the rack position.
Putting it All Together
The key to all of these movements is first to know them and do them correctly. Depending on your goals, you will do these with different variations of weights or repetitions. If your goal is to burn belly fat with dumbbells, you should follow a plan that has little rest times between movements and gets your heart rate up the entire workout. Keep your rest times in the 20-30 seconds range. If your goal is to build strength, you will need to follow a plan with wait times that are a bit longer. Something in the one minute rest range should suffice for that goal.
If you do not have a background in exercise science, the most proven way to reach your goals is to follow an expertly crafted workout plan.
Dumbbell Workout Plans
We recommend following an expertly created workout plan to meet a specific goal. If you do not have the prerequisite knowledge or experience you run the risk of overtraining, under training, not focusing enough on the desired muscle group or following the right rep ranges and protocols to meet a specific goal. For example, you might have the goal of losing fat, but based on your knowledge, perform these movements in such a way that you focus more on building strength with less emphasis on fat loss.
Under Training
You run the risk of actually not doing enough to reach your specific goal. You might not perform the correct repetition ranges or weights. You also run the risk of not focusing on a potential muscle group enough.
Over Training
You also run the risk of doing the opposite. Part of reaching your goals is leaving enough fuel in the tank for the next workout along with proper warm ups and cool downs so you come back ready and refreshed to the next workout. Without a thorough understanding of your body, you might unintentionally incorporate too much of a particular part of your body in a workout. This has the effect of leaving out other muscle groups but also making other workouts more challenging because of the muscle fatigue that sets in
The Best Dumbbell Workouts
Now that you have a base of knowledge, it is time to put it to work. If you do not have the experience to create and follow a plan, below are a few different dumbbell workout plans we recommend.
Dumbbell Gains
We built this program for someone that is just getting started with training, or someone that has a lot of experience training with dumbbells. These are fairly basic dumbbell movements and the goal is to build muscle, not necessarily leave you dripping from sweat after each workout. When you follow this program you will improve your strength, lose body fat, increase your metabolic rate through improvements in lean body mass. The focus of these exercises are on absolute strength, hypertrophic (muscle-building strength), and strength endurance, along with full body mobility warm-ups and cool downs before and after the workouts.
Helpful Resources:
Free Daily workouts with dumbbells here
Fitness Equipment like dumbbells here
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