How to weight train with dumbbells programs

Use your legs! These aren't military presses. And definitely make sure to get a solid lockout at the top with your core tight. After the third press, bring the dumbbells down to a rack position with the dumbbells at your chest, either in a somewhat neutral grip or facing you, whichever is most comfortable.

Keep your core tight, and sit back to perform the front squats. For the first movement, lie on the floor and squeeze the dumbbells together as you press up, which will bring more chest into the otherwise triceps-heavy floor press. During the row, hold a safe spinal position, and really try to get a good squeeze at the top between your shoulder blades. Don't alternate your legs on the reverse lunge. Perform 10 lunges on one leg before you switch to the next to maximize the stimulus each one gets.

If your grip is feeling shot at this point, it's fine to hold the dumbbells in the rack position. The rack's going to give you a little more core work, but both exercises work the legs the same. You may not see anything in the exercises listed below that screams "core" like, say, the hollow-body rock from my " Quick Total-Body Workout ," but trust me, you'll feel these where you should.

To make this work as a complex, perform all of the exercises with your right arm, rest for 60 seconds, then go through the exercises with your left arm. Keep your core tight the whole time! During the snatch, keep your core tight and posture solid, even when you start breathing heavily. When performing the farmer's carry, your body will naturally want to lean away from the weight, but try to lean into the weight to keep your torso nice and straight. The get-up sit-up, or half get-up, is a great exercise for your core and far less complex than the full get-up.

Keep your eyes on the dumbbell and your shoulder locked into the socket. Push through your heel on the bent-leg side. When doing plank rows, I like to elevate my nonworking arm on a dumbbell so I get a full range of motion.

Widening your legs will help your hips square to the floor. The final complex in this workout will test your conditioning. It may not look like much, but if you spend a little time in a split stance, you'll see why I use this as a finisher.

When you're in a split stance, keep that back glute really tucked and tight and your torso vertical while you do the hammer curl. Switch legs before moving to the shoulder press. During the split switch, try to keep your hips as low as possible. You'll get off the ground a little bit, but you don't want to be jumping around a lot. The key is to move your feet quickly and keep your torso nice and vertical. Perform this workout twice per week for weeks, resting at least two days between the workouts.

If you like the results, keep going with it! Once the workouts start to feel static, add weight or reps, or decrease the reps. Do whatever you can to challenge yourself every time! You then alternate between them each training day so that you end up doing ABA one week, and then BAB the next, and so on. Also note that the exact days of the week you choose to train on is up to you and your own schedule. All that really matters is that you keep the same every-other-day format intact with 2 consecutive days off at the end as shown above.

Beyond the changes in exercise selection that were made to suit a home-friendly dumbbell workout, everything else about the original version of this routine the method of progression , the importance of focusing on proper form first , etc. And now for the dumbbell version of my intermediate muscle building routine.

If you have the available schedule and recovery capabilities to handle 4 weight training workouts per week in this format, this is the split you should use. Beyond the changes in exercise selection that were made to suit a home-friendly dumbbell workout, everything else about the original version of this routine the method of progression, etc.

Is it okay to do the same exercise twice? For example, what if we only have one type of row or one type of chest pressing exercise? Can we repeat it? Yes you can. So, for example, when I say to do a chest press in the A workout and some other chest press in the B workout, it would be great if you had two different chest pressing exercises to choose from to make this work.

Choose some other similar type of row. Same thing applies for every other type of exercise. What about your other workouts from Superior Muscle Growth? Can those be made into dumbbell-only versions as well? Virtually every workout in existence can be redesigned to suit different forms of equipment and exercise availability, because every exercise can be replaced with something that is at least kinda close to what was originally prescribed.

Is working out at home with dumbbells as effective as working out in a fully equipped gym when it comes to building muscle? All your muscles understand are tension, fatigue, and damage, and the frequency, intensity, and volume with which that stimuli is being generated. Now, sure, a gym is obviously a more ideal scenario, because your options for exercises and progression are virtually unlimited.

No barbell with hundreds of pounds of plates. No squat rack. No cables. Jump to the routine. Directions Frequency: Do this workout three times per week, in the following sequence, resting at least a day between each session.

Read article. Want a copy on the go? Exercise 1 of 8. Exercise 2 of 8. Exercise 3 of 8. Exercise 4 of 8. Exercise 5 of 8. Exercise 6 of 8.