Dumbbells are one of the easiest ways to complicate your usual exercises and advance your workouts one level higher. When dealing with shells, you will primarily contribute to the development of the shoulder girdle and arm muscles. In addition, your body will thank you with increased strength and endurance. We will tell you what exercises with dumbbells at home can be for both women and men.
Getting started with dumbbell
When to start training with dumbbells? If you feel that your strength indicators are not progressing, and the increase in repetitions does not lead to the desired result - this means that it is time to try weight training. Dumbbells will be preferable to a bar in the following cases:
- you need a more mobile shell than a bar - dumbbells are much more convenient to store and transport;
- you need a shell with a wide range of movements - the trajectory of lifting the bar is pretty monotonous;
- it is necessary to eliminate muscle asymmetry - dumbbells allow you to use different weights for the hands, but the bar can increase the imbalance;
- you need a safer shell - the risk of injury with a barbell is higher than with dumbbells.
In addition to all of the above, dumbbells also allow you to improve coordination and a sense of balance, since in fact you have to synchronize your hands. At the same time, the bar can give much faster muscle growth, and exercises with it are technically easier because of the limited range. In any case, it is best to use both shells from time to time for a more harmonious development.
How to choose a weight
If you are going, for example, to perform exercises with dumbbells on your shoulders at home, then first go to the gym to understand what kind of weight you need. After all, if it is too easy, then the progress in training will be minimal. If it is too heavy, it will affect the technique of the exercise, which can lead to injuries. Ideally, when you can perform the same number of repetitions as without dumbbells, you feel that you are doing the last 1-2 repetitions at the end of your strength, experiencing a state of muscle failure.
Another thing is that you will gradually have to increase weights, and with modern dumbbells it is not so simple. They are usually made monolithic, and “building up” additional pancakes on them, like on the old Soviet ones, will not work. You will have to either buy new ones or modify the old ones in any way. They recommend increasing weight gradually - ideally by 5-10%. If funds allow, it is best to have a set of several dumbbells and use them to pump different muscles. Also, when choosing shells, pay attention to the fact that it was convenient for you to hold them in your hands. If they slip out, you will not be able to concentrate on doing the exercises.
Do not forget to do warm-ups before classes, and perhaps perform several exercises without them. In any case, first master the correct technique without dumbbells, and when you feel that you can easily perform the movement according to all the rules, add weights.
Hand Dumbbell Exercises
Naturally, the most logical way to begin to learn exercises with dumbbells at home for women with exercises for the hands. In almost every type of training with shells, limbs will be involved anyway, but sometimes it’s useful to work on biceps in isolation.
Starting position: legs wider than shoulders, arms extended along the body, in the hands of a dumbbell. As you exhale, slowly raise the shells to your shoulders, while breathing in, also slowly lower them. You can change the starting position: turn your palms towards the body. This grip is called a “hammer." Lift the dumbbells a few times to your shoulders - it turns out that the palms will look at each other.
Also, in a standing position, you can perform mixing-breeding hands. The starting position is the same - hands are lowered along the body. You slowly raise them to shoulder level and then lower them back.
Then you need to master raising your hands up. At the same time, make sure that your shoulders and shoulder blades do not begin to rise behind your hands - pull them down.
If you are afraid that such exercises will make your figure very masculine, then you have nothing to fear. Exercise with dumbbells at home for women will not bring so global changes. In order for female biceps to grow so much that they can be compared with male biceps, a serious hormonal adjustment is necessary, which is possible only with medical intervention.
Dumbbell exercises on shoulders and back
Beginners can start with such an exercise as breeding dumbbells in a supine position, and for experienced athletes it will not be superfluous. Lie on a horizontal bench, bend your arms at your elbows and place dumbbells at your shoulders. On the exhale, lift the shells up, on the inhale - spread it apart, on the next exhale, bring it down again. You can perform several dilutions of the arms to the sides from a vertical position, or each time additionally lower them down, in which case more muscles will be involved.
Without getting up from the bench, do the following exercise - bench press. In the starting position, spread your elbows to the sides, holding the dumbbells at your shoulders. As you exhale, lift them up, while your hands may converge slightly. Repeat several times. This exercise can also be performed on a bench with an incline.
A good but technically difficult exercise for the back is to tilt the dumbbells. To do this, you need to take a position in which the knees are bent and the body is tilted down - as if you want to lean your hands on your knees. But you do not do this, but leave your upper limbs extended (in your hands you have dumbbells). Then you take your elbows back. You can perform this exercise on one arm, leaning the other on a bench.
Among the exercises with dumbbells on the shoulders and back for men, one of the most popular is dumbbell pull, similar to a barbell pull. It will seem to you much more convenient to carry out deadlift with shells than with a barbell, because you need to keep it in front of you, which upsets the sense of balance, and dumbbells can be pulled apart on the sides. If you work out with a heavy weight comparable to a barbell, it is recommended that you put weights on your hands with gymnastic straps. You start from a starting position sitting, dumbbells in front of you, the body in a slight slope. Turning on the arms and upper back (thus making a rigid frame), you go up. The press is turned on, the muscles of the hips and the press work in concert.
Dumbbell home exercises for women for buttocks and hips
All these leg exercises can be performed without dumbbells, especially if you are just starting to practice and have not yet fully mastered the correct technique. Then, when the exercises begin to seem too light, add a little weight.
Since squats with a barbell can make female buttocks strong, squats with other types of weights will also not fail. They must be included in the exercise program with dumbbells at home for women to lose weight. Starting position: standing, arms along the body, shells in the arms. As you exhale, begin to fall down, hands with dumbbells at the same time go into a position parallel to the floor. Remember the safe squatting technique - feed your pelvis back slightly and don't go deeper than the level where your hips are parallel to the floor. On inspiration, come back, again lowering your hands along the body.
The buttocks and hips lunges are equally well used. Holding the dumbbells in your hands, take one step forward and lower the knee of your hind leg without touching them on the floor. Turn on the press and put yourself back. Then repeat the exercise on the other leg. Lunges can also be done sideways, while the body will lean slightly forward. Another variation of this type of training is to go a short distance with similar attacks, holding a dumbbell in both hands.
You can add another type of squats to the exercise program with dumbbells at home for women - wide or “sumo”. To do this, you will need to spread your legs as wide as possible so that the hips form a line parallel to the floor. The knees do not go beyond the line of socks. Take one dumbbell in your hands, while holding it only at one end, clasping it with both hands. When you crouch down, the projectile should be clearly lowered along the center line of your body.
Dumbbell barbell
The bar is already considered a complex exercise that involves all the muscles of the body, and when you perform lifting weights in it, it becomes just a real challenge for the body and a good exercise with dumbbells for the chest muscles at home. The starting position is as follows: you need to put the shells on the floor horizontally and, holding them with a usual grip, go to the bar. At the same time, the dumbbells should be stable enough and not slip out from under you. If it’s hard for you to stand, first master the static bar, and then proceed to its dynamic modification.
Well turn on the center of the body, transfer the weight to one hand, and the second lift the dumbbell, pulling the elbow back. Do not let the lower back sag. Put the shell back in place, rest in the bar (yes, now the bar on two arms seems light), and repeat on the other side. You can also do push-ups from this position, the load allows you to use other muscles than in the classical variation of the exercise.
Dumbbell Exercises
In the program of exercises with dumbbells at home for weight loss, women should also include training the press. It would seem how dumbbells can help? There are secrets here.
One of the basic exercises for the press - lifting the body with hands behind your head, can be complicated if you hold a dumbbell in your hands. How exactly you will keep it depends, of course, on the projectile itself. It is most convenient to perform this exercise with such a dumbbell, which will be convenient to hold by the edges, placing horizontally behind the neck. Recall also that the knees should be bent when lifting the body so that the lower back remains pressed to the floor. Focus on the abdominal muscles and do not switch the load on the lower back.
Complement the lifting of the body, of course, the lifting of the legs. You can also use a dumbbell when doing them, but first fasten it on your feet with straps - if you are distracted and drop the load, it is good if you are a girl and use a small weight. If the projectile is quite heavy, then this is even dangerous; you should not use it in this exercise without a belt.
Starting position for leg lifts: lying down, a dumbbell is fixed on the feet. Knees may be slightly bent. You can not lower your legs to the very end to prevent the muscles from relaxing.
Side exercise
Some girls are afraid to perform bends with dumbbells, as they think that this will affect the shape of the waist. In fact, women can perform exercises with dumbbells at home for weight loss without fear of an increase in size, since female shells have not so much weight, and the workouts themselves are quite dynamic and built on multiple repetitions for the sake of cardio effect, and not for the sake of working for strength.
Your task is to choose small dumbbells, get into the starting position: legs are slightly wider than shoulders, arms along the body. It is necessary to alternately make inclinations in one direction or the other, while stretching the dumbbell to the floor. You need to bend strictly along the waistline. Sometimes it is recommended to deal with only one shell to work out the muscles deeper.
Burpy with dumbbells
The worst thing for a beginner in sports can only be burpee - an exercise that combines the bar, and push-ups, and squats, and even jumping. Burpies are often included in a set of exercises for women at home, and dumbbells make it even more sophisticated.
Starting position: standing, arms along the body. Quickly sit down, put your hands with dumbbells on the floor and jump to the bar. Here, do push-ups from dumbbells, jump back with your legs and jump up sharply, throwing your arms with dumbbells over your head. From the jump, immediately go back down, gathered and again lowering your hands with dumbbells to the floor. Repeat this jump-squat-push-squat-jump jump sequence as many times as possible. Ideally, it is better to do burpy initially without dumbbells, and only then complicate it with weights.
Dumbbell Running
If it seems to you that doing exercises for women with dumbbells at home is not enough, then add jogging to your exercises, of course, also with dumbbells. A slight complication of the race in the form of additional burdens will make you stronger and more enduring. Of course, we are talking about low weight. You cannot run with large weights - there is even a special exercise based on running with fairly serious weights. This exercise is called "Farmer's Walk", but instead of heavy baskets with the crop in hand - heavy dumbbells, weights or barbells. As a rule, men use this type of training as one of the basic exercises for developing muscle strength. For women, exercise at home with dumbbells, whose weight is not more than 1-2 kg, will not be so effective. Or “Farmer's Walk” should become “Farmer's Jog” - it makes no sense to carry a small weight at a slow speed, unless at the very beginning of training.