Beginner Dumbbell Workout Plan: Your Guide To Getting Began

Walking out onto the gym floor for the primary time is usually a scary experience. You are surrounded by purposeful individuals with buff bodies who know exactly what they’re doing. And yet, you have absolutely no idea. You stare in any respect of those gleaming chrome contraptions and all of those muscle-bound bodies and may’t help feeling just a little intimidated. 

If only you had a plan!

Great news – you have just stumbled across that plan. In this text, I’m about to put out a whole eight-week absolute beginner dumbbell workout plan to guide you thru your first two months of getting a gym membership. I’ll show you what moves you might want to be performing, what number of sets and reps are perfect for you, and even how long to rest between each set. Armed with this information, you will give you the chance to walk into the gym with the boldness you might want to own your month’s workouts.

The Dumbbell Workout

This eight-exercise full-body dumbbell strength training workout needs to be done twice weekly for eight weeks. To supply your muscles with full recovery, you need to allow at the very least a 72-hour gap between workouts. For instance, you could possibly do your workouts on Monday and Thursday or Tuesday and Friday.

You may be doing three sets of every exercise on this workout for beginners. On the first set, you will do 15 repetitions with a weight that permits you to give attention to your form. You’ll then increase the load barely on set two and do 12 reps. The last two or three reps needs to be difficult. Don’t use a weight that is simply too heavy, or you will not give you the chance to make use of proper form.

In your third set, you will increase the load again and do ten reps. It is best to rest for 30-45 seconds between each set. Move directly from one exercise to the following with none rest. So your workout will appear like this:

While many of the exercises to follow feature dumbbells, a few them use just your body weight.

The Exercises

1. Incline Dumbbell Row

This version of a chest supported row will hit your back, biceps, and forearms.

Step-by-Step Guide:

1. Place a pair of dumbbells under the top end of a 45-degree bench.
2. Lie face down on the bench together with your arms hanging down toward the dumbbells and your feet firmly planted on the ground.
3. Extend your arms right down to grab the dumbbells and switch them so your palms are facing one another (neutral grip).
4. Pull back your shoulder blades, arch your lower back, and interact your latissimus dorsi (lat muscles).
5. Row the dumbbells as much as your ribcage, keeping your elbows near your sides.
6. Hold the highest contracted position as you squeeze your back muscles.
7. Slowly lower under control.

Training Tip:

2. Dumbbell Squats

As you could have guessed, these will hit your quads, but in addition will get your hamstrings and glutes firing.

Step-by-Step Guide:

1. Stand upright, keeping your feet shoulder-width apart, and your toes identified barely. Hold a pair of dumbbells at your sides.
2. Now, drop the hips down and back to descend right into a squat position together with your thighs barely below parallel. In the underside position, the weights needs to be nearly touching the ground.
3. Looking up, drive through your heels to return to the beginning position.

Training Tip:

• Within the starting position, your back needs to be naturally arched, and your shoulders pulled back. Maintain this position throughout the exercise.
• You might find it easier to take care of an upright position by standing on a slant board or placing a pair of 5-lb weight plates under your heels.

3. Wall Sit

One other quad-centric exercise. Your legs will probably be burning after these!

Step-by-Step Guide:

1. Stand together with your back against a wall, your arms at your sides, and your palms against the wall. Have your feet hip distance apart. Or, as pictured, grab a pair of dumbbells and hold them at your sides.
2. Lower to a parallel squat position as in case you were sitting in a chair.
3. Keeping your shoulder blades against the wall, hold this position for 30 seconds.
4. Rest for 30 seconds, then do two more 30-second hold sets.

Training Tip:

4. Dumbbell Bench Press

Considered one of my favorite dumbbell chest exercises to placed on some serious mass. This exercise will even hit your front delts and triceps.

Step-by-Step Guide:

1. Grasp a pair of dumbbells and lie face down on a flat bench.
2. Press the dumbbells above your chest to full arm’s length. Your palms should face away from you, and the dumbbells should touch. Your feet needs to be firmly planted on the ground.
3. Lower the load to bring the dumbbells right down to your mid-chest. In the underside position, your elbows needs to be at a right angle, and your upper arms needs to be parallel to the ground.
4. Press up and in to bring the dumbbells together above your chest.

Training Tip:

• In the underside position, your forearms should form a right angle together with your upper arms. In case your forearms are leaning in toward your body, you’ll take the emphasis off the chest and onto the biceps.

5. Push-ups

This classic exercise and its many variations, hits your shoulders, triceps, chest,  core.

Step-by-Step Guide:

1. Get down on the ground in the highest push-up position. Your hands needs to be directly under your shoulders, and your feet together. Keep a straight line out of your head to your heels.
2. Bend on the elbows to lower your chest to the ground. Don’t stop until you make contact.
3. Push through the chest and triceps to blow up back to the beginning position.

Training Tip:

6. Arnold Press

Named for a certain famous bodybuilder/movie star/former governor, this shoulder exercise hits the front and side delts, in addition to your triceps.

Step-by-Step Guide:

1. Grab a pair of dumbbells and sit on a back-supported bench.
2. Bring the dumbbells up in order that your arms are at right angles at shoulder levels, palms facing your body.
3. Drive the weights up. As you do it, supinate your hands in order that, in the highest position, they’re facing outward.
4. Lower back to the starting position, returning to the palms-facing hand position.

Training Tip:

7. Standing Alternate Dumbbell Curl

The king of dumbbell biceps exercises, these .

Step-by-Step Guide:

1. Stand with dumbbells in your hands at your sides, palms facing your thighs. Place your feet hip-width apart.
2. Starting together with your right arm, supinate your hand to face to the front after which curl as much as a completely contracted bicep position. You should definitely keep your elbows at your side. Squeeze your bicep tightly in the highest contracted position.
3. Reverse the method to complete together with your palm facing your thighs again.
4. Repeat on the left side.

Training Tip:

8. Lying Overhead Tricep Extension

These are also referred to as Skull Crushers, they work the triceps.

Step-by-Step Guide:

1. Grab a pair of dumbbells and lie on a flat bench.
2. Hold the dumbbells at arm’s length above your chest. Your palms needs to be facing one another.
3. Keeping your elbows in, lower your upper arms to bring the dumbbells right down to your brow. Allow them to simply touch your hairline.
4. Push through your triceps to return to the beginning position.

Training Tip:

The Advantages of Dumbbell Exercises vs Barbells

Relating to comparing dumbbell exercises to barbell exercises, there are two key advantages:

1. Range of Motion
2. Safety

1. Range of Motion

Dumbbell exercises allow for a greater range of motion than you’ll be able to achieve with barbells. That is best illustrated with the dumbbell bench press exercise. Whenever you perform the bench press with a barbell, you’ll be able to only bring the bar down until the purpose where it touches your chest. Nevertheless, to completely extend the pectoral muscles, you might want to come down at the very least an inch or two lower than that time. Getting a full extension and contraction on the bench is vital for full muscle development. 

Whenever you perform the bench press with dumbbells, you would not have the restriction of a bar going across your chest. That permits you to get that extra couple of inches of extension in the underside position of the movement.

Using dumbbells on the bench press also permits you to move the weights laterally and vertically. For instance, you’ll be able to do a version of the press where you press the dumbbells into one another as you come up and down. This permits you to magnify the training effect, especially regarding the inner pecs.

This ability to maneuver the dumbbells laterally advantages you on many other exercises. We will consider the dumbbell curl, where you’ll be able to supinate your wrist, and the Arnold Press version of the shoulder press, where you furthermore mght supinate your wrists. These abilities make shoulder workouts with dumbbells especially effective.

2. Safety

Using dumbbells is so much safer on your body. There are two facets to this. Firstly, using dumbbells for an exercise like squats places an entire lot less pressure in your spine than doing the barbell version. To do the dumbbell version of the squat, you just hold dumbbells in your hands as you perform the exercise. The quads and glutes get the identical load as in case you were using a bar, however the load in your erector spinae muscle and your spine is removed. 

One other major good thing about using dumbbell exercises over barbells is that they’re so much safer whenever you cannot complete a rep. Let’s return to the bench press. If you happen to fail on a rep, you will be stuck with an unmanageable amount of weight in your chest. Unless you’ve a spotter handy, you’re more likely to suffer from a major injury.

Whenever you’re using dumbbells, nevertheless, all you’ve gotten to do whenever you get stuck is drop the weights. It’s the identical thing with dumbbell squats. That could be a major profit, especially if you end up going heavy within the six rep or lower range.

What’s Next?

This eight-week dumbbell beginner entire-body workout will take you thru your first two months of understanding. After that, I like to recommend moving to a split routine program, where you divide your body in half and do a distinct workout for every part.

Split your body into the upper and lower body (with shoulders). Here’s what the split should appear like:

Upper Body:

• Chest
• Back
• Biceps
• Triceps
• Core

Lower Body:

• Quadriceps
• Glutes
• Hamstrings
• Calves
• Shoulders

Perform two exercises for every body part for a complete of six sets per muscle group. Use a rep range between six and twelve. Throw in a few exercises using just your body weight and use them as ending movements.

Do each workout twice per week, with 72 hours before working the identical muscle again. So, you could possibly work your upper body on Monday and Thursday and your lower body on Tuesday and Friday.

Dumbbell Training FAQ

How heavy should my dumbbells be?

You wish the dumbbells to be heavy enough to emphasize your muscles beyond what they’re used to without being so heavy that you simply lose form. On a beginner dumbbell workout program, you would like the last two reps to be challenged on every set. 

Are dumbbell exercises effective?

Yes, they’re. In truth, dumbbell exercises are generally simpler than barbell moves because you’ll be able to get a fuller range of motion and you’re in a position to supinate your wrists. Dumbbells also allow for unilateral training, so you’ll be able to work all sides of your body individually.

What’s one of the best tricep dumbbell workout?

Here’s a really effective two-exercise dumbbell tricep workout that I exploit with lots of my personal training clients:

These exercises needs to be super-setted so that you simply move directly from one to the opposite with no rest. Do three sets of 15 /10/8 reps to maximally work your triceps.

Is it OK to do dumbbell exercises every single day?

Yes, it’s alright to do dumbbell exercises every single day. Nevertheless, you need to split your body in half so that you simply are usually not working the identical body part every single day. Your muscles need 48-72 hours to recuperate before being worked again.

Wrap-Up

This beginner dumbbell workout will ease your muscles into regular resistance training. Over the course of your first eight weeks of understanding, you’ll experience dramatic increases in your strength level.

As you get stronger, be certain that you increase the load you’re using in order that the last couple of reps on every set are difficult. This can proceed placing stress in your muscles, forcing them to reply by getting greater and stronger. After eight weeks on this beginner full-body routine, switch to a split routine, working half your body someday and the opposite half the following. Take a day without work after which repeat that process for 4 workouts per week.

If you ought to construct muscle, mix our beginner dumbbell workout with smart, clean nutrition and many rest and recovery, and you may be well in your option to achieving your fitness goals.