Ways to Workout with Dumbbells

The simple dumbbell can give you a multitude of routines for a full body workout. With the availability of adjustable weight plates, they have become even simpler to use and ideal for a home gym setup. You can try a few of these dumbbell exercises for your chest, shoulders, arms, abdomen, back and legs.

• For the pectorals, shoulders and arms, do a few sets of bench presses. Vary the lifting positions to target specific muscle groups. Inclined positions will target your upper muscles while decline positions target the lower. Lying flat will target the inner muscles. Make sure you adjust the weight plates accordingly. Start from a low weight to a higher one for a more intense workout.
• Do rowing exercises for your shoulders. You do this by having a weight in each arm and raising them by pulling up. You can do deltoid raises in standing, sitting and lying down positions for variation.
• Do curls for your arms. Alternate curls target your biceps. You can do this standing or sitting down. Kickback lifts exercise your triceps. Leaning and kneeling on one side of your exercise bench with your body parallel to it, lift back your weights from the elbow. Do a few repetitions and then work the other arm.
• Crunches work great for working with your abdominal muscles. Doing them with additional weight plates with your arms placed across your chest adds some more heft to the exercise. Side bends with a dumbbell on hand works the side muscles.
• You can do dead lifts for working on your back muscles. Do this by lifting a pair of dumbbells from the floor. Do not forget to lift with your knees to prevent back injuries.

For your legs, A routine of squats and forward lunges are great. These exercises target the upper and lower thigh muscles. Do the squats while holding a dumbbell in front and in between your legs while doing the squat. Do not forget to do side lunges as well for your inner thighs. If you want to exercise your calf muscles, do toe raises. You do this with dumbbells in each side, and raising your body by tip toeing.

This article is written by Roland Steyn, the Director of MiFitness. MiFitness is one of South Africa's most trusted online suppliers of home-use and commercial gym equipment.