The 12 Best Dumbbell Arm Exercises to Construct Muscle

It’s hard to beat the looks of bulging biceps, horseshoe-shaped triceps, and massively rounded shoulders. And fortunately, there are countless arm exercises that you would select from to coach all your arm muscle groups, using every thing from barbells to body weight to machines.

In this text, we will go over one other group that may enable you obtain the arms of your dreams: dumbbell arm exercises. We’ll lay out the 12 best dumbbell arm exercises that may create massive guns, together with an important sample workout and a few awesome programming suggestions.

Table of Contents:

• Major Upper Arm Muscle Groups
• 12 Best Dumbbell Arm Exercises For Mass & Strength
• How Heavy Should The Weight Be For Dumbbell Arm Exercises?
• Advantages Of Using Dumbbell Exercises To Train Your Arms
• Programming Suggestions For Arm Workouts With Dumbbells
• Sample Arm Workout With Dumbbells

The Major Muscle Groups Of The Upper Arms

Technically, the arms confer with the whole appendage that hangs off the shoulder joint. This implies it includes the forearms in addition to the upper arms. That said, when individuals are on the lookout for arm exercises, they’re generally only referring to the upper arms, which include the biceps and triceps in addition to the deltoids (depending on who you ask).

Biceps Brachii, Brachialis, and Brachioradialis:

First, let us take a look at the muscles answerable for helping you perform bicep curls (and lots of other movements!). 

• Biceps: The biceps is a two-headed muscle group that sits on the front of your upper arm. The 2 heads consist of separate muscle bellies that originate from different locations, come together as they travel down the arm, after which merge into the identical tendon which is inserted across the elbow joint. Each heads are worked at different angles, meaning it is important to incorporate long head bicep exercises and short head bicep exercises in your routine.
• Brachialis: It sits on the upper arms under the biceps and is the first arm flexor. In case you are on the lookout for strong, developed biceps, you could train them. Brachialis exercises are crucial for greater, stronger arms.
• Brachioradialis: It sits across the elbow, and while it’s more of a forearm muscle than a part of the upper arm, if you happen to want a completely defined arm, strength training them is crucial.

Triceps:

The triceps is a three-headed muscle group that sits on the back side of the arm. The three muscle heads include the long head, medial head, and lateral head. Just like the biceps, which means that the three muscles all originate from different locations and merge as they travel down the arm. The common tendon then crosses the elbow joint to permit extension of the arm which is the first function of the triceps.

The triceps are a significant a part of the upper arm because it accounts for about 60% of the whole mass. Being so, having small triceps will make it virtually unattainable to have a set of arms of any significance. It’s essential to train the triceps!

It is vital to incorporate long head triceps exercises, medial head exercises, and lateral head triceps exercises in your routine for fully developed, well-defined upper arms.

Deltoids:

The deltoids are a set of three muscles that make up your “shoulder” muscles. These three muscles sit around your shoulder joint and permit it to control the arm in virtually any direction. Since the shoulder joint is a ball-in-socket joint, it requires these different muscle heads to be situated in several areas to have the opportunity to push, pull, lift, and perform some other arm movement.

And while some people may not consider them an upper arm muscle, they definitely hold a number of aesthetic value in making a set of massive arms. In case you want that capped look with shoulder muscles that stick out to make a valley along with your biceps, deltoid training is crucial.

As mentioned above, there are three heads to the shoulder muscles:

• Anterior Deltoid: The anterior deltoid is primarily answerable for shoulder flexion or bringing your arms up out in front of you
• Posterior Deltoid: The posterior deltoid is primarily answerable for shoulder extension or bringing your arms back behind your body.
• Lateral Deltoid: The lateral deltoid is primarily answerable for shoulder abduction or lifting your arms out to the side

Off all these three deltoid muscles, the lateral deltoid is a very powerful to present special attention to as it is the muscle that sits off the side of the upper arm. Make an lively effort to work lateral deltoid exercises into your routine. Further, the anterior deltoid gets a ton of activation during pushing movements while the posterior deltoid gets hit on every pulling exercise.

This does not imply ignoring the opposite two deltoids. You’ll be able to definitely still elevate your arm workouts by including anterior deltoid exercises and rear deltoid exercises as well. Just make certain you give the lateral deltoids some extra love.

12 Best Dumbbell Arm Exercises For A Sleeve-Splitting Arm Pump

Here we go! These dumbbell arm exercises are one of the best within the business for constructing every muscle of the upper arm. We’ll lay out what dumbbell exercises you have to be using if you happen to want some impressive arms. We have also grouped each exercise by the arm muscle group it targets so you have got a transparent idea of what moves are answerable for growing each muscle.

Proper form is crucial for optimal growth so listen to how these are performed.

4 Best Dumbbell Exercises For Biceps

Prepare to feel the bicep burn with these first 4 dumbbell arm exercises. Along with the biceps, these moves also hit your forearm flexors, the brachialis and brachioradialis, ensuring evenly defined and muscular arms. You are guaranteed to search out these exercises in an ultimate biceps-building workout.

1. Standing Dumbbell Drag Curl:

Drag curls are basic dumbbell curls with somewhat variation. As a substitute of performing the curl with the elbows right down to the side, you’re going to pull your elbows back as you perform the curl.

This stretches the long head because it crosses over the shoulder joint. Doing so will create an intense burn that we promise you may learn to like.

The right way to do the Standing Dumbbell Drag Curl:

• Keeping your knees soft and core braced, stand along with your feet shoulder-width apart. Hold two dumbbells, letting them hang down by your sides. Your palms will face upward.
• As you start the exercise, draw your elbows back while curling the dumbbells straight up your body. Work to maintain the burden near your body, while slowly curling the dumbbells.
• At the highest, squeeze your biceps before lowering the dumbbells in a controlled motion.

2. Dumbbell Hammer Curl:

While they share some similarities, there are differences between the hammer vs. biceps curls. For instance, as a substitute of using a supinated grip (palms facing up), you’ll use a neutral grip. By internally rotating your arm, you’ll shift the main target from the biceps brachii and place more stress on the brachialis and brachioradialis.

As mentioned above, these two muscles are sometimes ignored by many latest lifters meaning these guys are severely limiting the dimensions of their arms. Do not be that guy. Do your dumbbell hammer curls.

The right way to do the Dumbbell Hammer Curl:

• Starting in a standing position, feet shoulder-width apart, holding two dumbbells with a neutral grip (palms facing inward).
• Keep your elbows and upper arms stationary.
• Flex your elbow by pulling the dumbbells upward, continuing to bring the dumbbells up until they touch your upper arm. Keep your elbows near your sides.
• Lower the dumbbells slowly back to the starting position.

3. Dumbbell Spider Curl:

A spider curl is a bicep curl that is completed while lying face down on a bench along with your arms straight down. You’ll then pick up a pair of dumbbells and perform an arm curl on this position, and since your arms hang freely below your body, you might be unable to cheat your bicep curls.

Searching for more information on this bicep-burning move? You will need to read our article on the spider curl exercise, which incorporates some great variations to try.

The right way to do the Dumbbell Spider Curl:

• Place an inclined bench to a 45-degree angle, and lay face down on the bench holding two dumbbells along with your palms facing forward.
• Curl the dumbbells up by bending your elbows. At the highest of the position, contract your biceps for a further 1-2 seconds.
• Lower the dumbbells slowly right down to the starting position.
• Keep your arm and elbows stationary all through the move.

4. Incline Dumbbell Curl:

After you finish your spider curls, flip over on the bench and perform some incline dumbbell curls. These are almost a mixture of drag curls and spider curls as your arms hang straight down. This position limits your ability to cheat the dumbbell while also adding an intensive stretch to the biceps muscle fibers.

The right way to do the Incline Dumbbell Curl:

• Keep the bench on the 45-degree angle used for the spider curls.
• Lay in your back, face-up, holding two dumbbells with palms facing forward.
• Slowly bend your elbows to slowly curl the dumbbell up in a slow and controlled motion.
• Keep your arm and elbows stationary. At the highest of the movement, slowly lower back down.

4 Best Dumbbell Exercises For Triceps

Once you have trained your biceps, you are going to concentrate on your arm’s backside and train the triceps. In comparison with the biceps, it’s possible you’ll find you should utilize significantly more weight when training the triceps.

And since the triceps have three heads, it’s that way more essential to make use of exercises that concentrate on different angles. This includes having at the very least one overhead extension to hit the long head. Do not forget to chill off after going heavy in your muscles. These best triceps stretches will prevent your arms from being overtight and overworked.

5. Neutral Grip Dumbbell Bench Press:

Considered one of the most important misconceptions in regards to the bench press is that it’s an awesome exercise for the chest muscles. While it does train the chest (and well!), you’ll notice that the majority guys with a robust bench even have huge triceps.

A bench press will train the whole upper body but you’ll notice the quantity of flexion and extension that happens on the elbow joint. Further, after the arms break parallel with the chest, the first movement is elbow extension. This is the reason one of the best bench pressers have a ton of triceps-specific training.

You’re going to hold dumbbells using a neutral grip when performing this press. It will allow a good greater amount of flexion and extension in addition to relieve stress on the elbow and shoulder joints. You should utilize a rather heavier weight with this exercise.

The right way to do the Neutral Grip Dumbbell Bench Press:

• Lying down on a bench, hold two dumbbells with a neutral grip shoulder-width apart.
• Slowly extend the dumbbells up overhead by straightening the elbows. That is your starting position.
• When the arms are fully straightened, slowly begin lowering the dumbbells by bending your elbows. Keep your elbows tucked near the body.
• Allow the dumbbells to return as little as possible to your chest. Together with your arms bent, begin to drive the dumbbells up, concentrating on triceps activation and straightening the arms.

6. Dumbbell Skull Crushers:

With a reputation like skull crushers, you understand it is a killer exercise. While often performed with a barbell of some sort, you’ll be able to do them with dumbbells. Plus, this also allows you to play with different hand grips to get that variety.

The right way to do the Dumbbell Skull Crushers:

• Laying down on a bench, face-up, take a dumbbell in each hand and extend your arms out straight above your body over your chest.
• These are traditionally done with a neutral grip but you too can use a pronated grip (palms facing forward).
• Allow your lower arms to return straight by bending your elbows and keeping them pointed upward. Move the dumbbells directly overhead by bending your elbows. They’ll come right down to your brow or barely past your head.
• Keeping your elbows stationary, drive the dumbbells back to the starting position by extending your arms.

7. Dumbbell Overhead Extension:

That is an awesome dumbbell exercise to make sure you hit the whole triceps. Whilst you traditionally perform this exercise standing, some clients may find that kneeling provides more stability for an even bigger lift.

Pro tip: We discover that using just one dumbbell at a time is more efficient for nearly all of lifters performing the dumbbell triceps extensions.

The right way to do the Dumbbell Overhead Extension:

• You’ll be able to sit down or stand with feet hip width apart, keeping your core tight. Grasping the within the dumbbell with each hands, start along with your arms straight, holding the burden directly overhead.
• Allow the dumbbell to return back behind your body by bending your elbows while keeping them stationary. Lower the burden so far as you’ll be able to behind your head, keeping your elbows declaring barely.
• Attempt to get a deep stretch after which with elbows bent, slowly straighten your elbows to return the burden overhead.

8. Tate Press:

Powerlifters have the most important triceps you will find. This includes the legendary Dave Tate., founding father of EliteFTS With personal bests that include a 930-pound back squat, a 610-pound bench press, and a 740-pound deadlift. Tate is the true deal. And he also coined this dumbbell arm exercise for the triceps.

The right way to do the Tate Press:

• Lay down on a bench, face-up, along with your dumbbells. You need to have the opportunity to go heavier for this move.
• The starting position could have you holding your dumbbells overhead, much like the highest of a dumbbell chest press.
• Slowly lower the dumbbells right down to the center of your chest along with your elbows declaring. Your elbows stay relatively in the identical spot.
• Let the dumbbells come all the way in which down but don’t allow them to rest in your chest. Keep the strain.
• Extend your elbows, returning to the unique position.

4 Best Dumbbell Exercises For Shoulders

As mentioned, the shoulders are a little bit of a loner, as we’re including them with the arm, but they are not really the arm. We still train them on arm day, though, since they’re so incremental to most upper body movements and are crucial for all upper body workouts. And while we’re including them in arm exercises, we will probably be treating them much like the biceps and triceps, meaning we’re specializing in accessory and hypertrophy movements.

9. Arnold Press:

The Arnold press is one among our favourite dumbbell arm exercises for the shoulders and is one among the few compound lifts on this list. Considered one of the explanations it’s so effective is it trains the front, lateral, and rear deltoids through an enormous range of motion that gives some major time under tension.

While these are overhead presses, they’re generally performed with smaller weights with a concentrate on hypertrophy.

The right way to do the Arnold Press:

• Sitting on a bench with a dumbbell in each hand, bring them as much as your shoulders. Start along with your palms facing outward.
• Begin the exercise by performing an overhead press. You’ll want to keep your elbows pointing forward as you straighten your elbows to lift your dumbbells.
• As you come down, you’ll externally rotate your arms while bringing your elbows in front of you
• At the underside of the move, your arms must be in front of you with palms facing forward, much like a boxer protecting his face.
• Thrust back, reversing this motion to repeat again.

10. Lateral Raises:

Easy, basic, and effective, the lateral raise is one of the popular arm exercises there’s. It is also one among the few moves that the majority people sort of know how you can do. And by sort of, we mean they still mess it up pretty bad, which is why you must take the time to read our how-to.

That said, above we spoke in regards to the importance of coaching your lateral deltoid and the lateral raise is your golden ticket. Get some!

The right way to do Lateral Raises:

• Stand along with your knees barely bent and feet flat and feet hip width apart. Keep your core engaged so your trunk stays upright. Hold dumbbells in each hand along with your arms right down to your side. You should utilize an overhand grip or neutral grip.
• Pull your arms up keeping your elbows barely bent, and slowly raise the dumbbells out to either side.
• Your arms will remain in the identical position for the whole movement. Focus on bringing your elbows up slightly than the dumbbells.
• Bring up until your elbows reach shoulder height, and slowly lower right down to the starting position.

11. Dumbbell IYT Raise:

The dumbbell IYT raise is a superb exercise because it includes 3 movements in a single exercise. The front raise forms your I, the 45-degree raise is your Y, and the lateral raise creates a T shape.

Combined, these three movements train the front and lateral delts at every angle, promising some awesome muscle development. You’ll be able to perform this exercise standing or sitting, and we would advise using lighter weights.

The right way to do the Dumbbell IYT Raise:

• You’ll be able to either sit or stand, holding your dumbbells in each hand. In case you’re standing, have your knees bent barely so they are not locked. Starting along with your palms face down and your dumbbells in front of your thighs, raise your left arm and right arm concurrently straight in front of you, stopping at shoulder height to form an I.
• Slowly lower your arms down after which perform the identical movement at a 45-degree angle, so your arms and body make a Y. Again, slowly lower your arms back down.
• For the T portion of the move, perform a lateral raise. You’ll only pull the dumbbell to shoulder level. Slowly lower right down to the starting position, and prepare to start out at the start of the move, forming an I.

12. Bent-Over Reverse Fly:

Though the rear delts get trained rather a lot with other pulling exercises, it doesn’t hurt so as to add one isolation move. And that isolation is the bent-over reverse fly, which is the dumbbell version of the reverse pec deck machine. Again, it is a quite simple yet effective dumbbell exercise to hit the rear delt in addition to the upper back musculature. Perform these with a lighter weight to present your back a number of volume.

The right way to do the Bent-Over Reverse Fly:

• Stand with a set of dumbbells, one in your left hand and the opposite in your right, after which bend forward allowing your torso to return down so you might be parallel with the ground.
• When you lean forward, your arms should hang straight down holding your dumbbells with a neutral grip and a slight bend in your elbows.
• Pull the dumbbells back and toward the ceiling while keeping your shoulder blades pulled back.
• Proceed until your arms reach the extent of your back after which slowly lower to the starting position.

How Heavy Should The Weight Be For Dumbbell Arm Exercises?

When using dumbbells to coach the arms, you’re going to wish to stick primarily to lighter weights of 80% 1RM or less. This loading scheme would put you within the 8 plus rep scheme.

The first reason for that is when training the arms, you should concentrate on muscle hypertrophy slightly than strength. This does not imply strength is not essential but slightly you have to be using big compound lifts to perform that.

Further, using heavier loads for dumbbell arm exercises could be a bit difficult in addition to dangerous. With the ability to just use one arm to stabilize the dumbbell, could cause a number of stress on the joints. When paired with the very fact you have to be using greater compound lifts for strength, there is not any reason to go heavy.

Advantages Of Using Dumbbells

A dumbbell workout is an awesome selection. They’re effective, easy to make use of, and are present in mainly each business gym. In addition they offer a ton of unique advantages. Listed below are a couple of of the explanations you should include dumbbells in your arm training.

1. More Muscle Activation:

While barbells are perfect for strength, using dumbbells requires more stabilization as a consequence of only using one arm. This causes a rise in activation which might translate to greater gains, which lets you construct more muscle.

2. Exercises are Easy To Vary:

As a dumbbell is a singular implement, you have got the liberty to make use of various grips and arm angles. For instance, dumbbells allow a neutral grip which is unattainable to perform with a barbell.

3. Easier On The Shoulders:

Because your arms have the liberty to maneuver, you’ll be able to position your arms in various positions to assist alleviate discomfort. Considered one of the primary pieces of recommendation for those with shoulder issues is to try using dumbbells. And for an excellent majority of them, it really works!

Suggestions For How To Train Your Arms

Do not forget that the arms are already trained with each upper-body compound movement. Because of this in point of fact, you do not even need to make use of arm-specific exercises to create massive, strong arms. However it also doesn’t hurt.

That said, we do not believe in the usage of an arm-specific day (other than a couple of isolated occasions). To coach the arms optimally, add 2 to 4 exercises for every arm muscle per week into your workout split. Take into accout that more advanced lifters will need more volume while beginner lifters could get away with less isolation work. Further, we prefer to rotate our arm exercises frequently.

While it’s imperative to trace the progress of your larger lifts, it is not as vital on your arm training. While you should see gradual progress, your primary goal along with your arm training is to bring each set to momentary failure.

Nearly all of your work must be within the 8 to 12 rep range but you’ll be able to go a bit heavier (especially with the triceps and shoulder) or lighter on occasion with some 20 plus reps.

Sample Dumbbell Arm Workout

Wondering how you’ll be able to put all of it together for one killer dumbbell arm workout? Here’s a routine for some inspiration!

Add Some Mass And Strength With Dumbbell Exercises For Arms

We just laid out the 12 best dumbbell arm exercises there are. Plus, we even gave you some tips about how you can alter a few of them to present you much more options. Just make certain you utilize light dumbbells when needed so that you do the exercises accurately. And if you happen to spend money on adjustable dumbbells or a dumbbell rack, you may have the opportunity to make use of these workout ideas from the convenience of your house.

In other words, you have no more excuses to be walking around with small arms 3 months after reading this sentence. The clock is ticking, so go start training!