Dumbbells are an ideal piece of equipment for exercising at home. They can be easily stored under a bed or out of the way and you can use them for an overall body workout. You will find hundreds of workouts to choose from so for the top 5 dumbbell exercises keep reading.
The first thing people think of when talking about dumbbells is the bicep curl. This is one of the easiest to do. To start stand with your feet shoulder width apart. Hold the weights with your palms facing in towards your legs. Bend the arm at the elbow in a slow and controlled motion and turn the wrist so the palm is facing up as you lift. Lower slowly and repeat with the other arm. This is known as an isolation exercise as it targets the bicep and to a lesser extent the shoulder.
If you want to target the shoulder muscles you should perform the overhead press. Begin holding two dumbbells at shoulder height with your thumbs pointing at your shoulders. Push both weights up at the same time in a controlled movement. Doing this in a fast jerky movement will damage the elbow joints. Lower your arms and repeat. You can do this sitting or standing. This targets every shoulder muscle and also the back of the arms.
To really work the triceps do the triceps extension. While sitting take one dumbbell and hold it above your head with both hands. Drop the weight slowly behind your head as far as your elbows will go. With your elbows still pointing up raise the weight up to the roof. This is the hardest exercise for the back of the arms as no other muscles are used.
The dumbbell front raise targets the chest area. Perform this standing. Hold two weights and start with them resting on your thighs with palms facing in. Keep your arms almost straight and lift until they are parallel with the ground. Lower back to the start and repeat this movement. This works right across the shoulders and upper chest muscles.
To strengthen your legs you need to do squats. Take a dumbbell in both hands and hold them at shoulder height. With a straight back crouch down until your thighs are level with the ground. Push up back to a standing position and repeat. This exercise works the entire lower body from the lower back right through the legs.
If you are new to weight lifting start with low weights to prevent an injury. You can then increase the weight to whatever feels comfortable. In general you should be able to do at least 8 repetitions of each exercise. Once you can do more than 10 you should raise the weight.
Want to find out more about Dumbbell Weights, then visit Darryl Jones’s site for the Top 5 Dumbbell Workouts for your weight lifting needs.