Guide To Buying Dumbbells

The dumbbell weight you choose depends on several factors: your body weight, body type, your fitness goal- building muscle, strength training, cardio, etc., type of exercise you intend to do, and whether you’ve used dumbbells before.

• Go for lighter dumbbells if you’re using them for the first time. Women should start with 5-10 pound weights, and men should start with 10-20 pound weights. If you’re going for building muscle, get those dumbbells that you can comfortably do four sets of 6-15 reps with.
• If you’re unsure of the weight, buy adjustable dumbbells so that you can test out your strength and do different exercises with different weights.

Dumbbells usually come in the following materials:

Solid Metal: They come with a silver metallic rod and silver discs at the end. These are most commonly available in the market. You must be careful when using them, as accidentally dropping them may lead to injury or damage.

Rubber Dumbbells: The weight plates in rubber dumbbells are coated with a layer of rubber, which protects them from scratches and rust. Rubber dumbbells don’t cause as much damage as steel dumbbells when dropped accidentally. One disadvantage is that rubber has a strong smell, especially when the dumbbells are new.

Vinyl-coated dumbbells: These dumbbells are generally made of cast iron and have a vinyl coating. They come in different colors for different weights, which helps in identifying them.

Dumbbells isolate your muscles more than barbells, while barbells allow you to lift heavier loads. Progressive overloading is possible with barbells, not with dumbbells. However, dumbbells are better in the following ways:

• They activate muscles more than barbells.
• They provide a better range of motion than barbells.
• They are effective at minimizing strength imbalances between your limbs.
• Dumbbells are safer to use than barbells.

You shouldn’t replace one workout completely with the other. You should incorporate both barbells and dumbbells into your workout for getting the best gains.

Adjustable dumbbells come either as standard adjustable dumbbells or as sectorized adjustable dumbbells.

Adjustable dumbbells allow you to add or remove plates from the dumbbells to change the weight.

Sectorized dumbbells are a more advanced version of the adjustable dumbbells. They have special locking mechanisms that allow you to easily add or remove weight plates, even when they’re sitting on the rack. You can stack a much heavier weight on them than the standard adjustable dumbbells.

You must get a dumbbell rack if you have multiple dumbbells of various sizes. Obviously, the rack doesn’t make sense if you have just one or two pairs. But if you have many, you should invest in a rack to store them properly. A rack will ensure that your dumbbells are not just lying around and tripping you up when you accidentally walk over them. A rack also helps you pick up and stack the dumbbells easily before and after a workout.

Dumbbells can help you target several muscles in both the upper and lower body.

• Lifting exercises will help target your biceps, triceps, and shoulders.
• Pressing exercises will work your pecs and shoulders.
• Rowing exercises will work your back.
• Squats and lunges will help you build your glutes, quads, hamstrings, and calves.

Do these exercises to target your chest, triceps, and shoulders:

• Chest: Bench press (flat, incline, decline), fly (lying and incline), straight-arm and bent-arm pullover
• Triceps: Triceps extension (single arm and two-arms), kickback, lying triceps extension, triceps bench press
• Shoulder: Shoulder press, lateral raise, front row, upright row, deltoid raise, shrugs

These exercises are great at building your back and biceps:

• Biceps: Biceps curl, hammer curl, concentration curl, preacher curl
• Back: One arm row, bent over row, deadlift, back fly, wide row

This is how you can use dumbbells to work your legs and abdominals:

• Legs: Squats, lunges, side lunge, goblet squat, toe raise
• Abs: Weighted crunch, dumbbell side bend, weighted leg raise

You can try the following workouts that help in burning fat and weight loss:

• Goblet Squats
• Renegade rows
• Dumbbell step-ups
• Squat thruster
• Plank to upright row
• Dumbbell cleans
• Deadlifts

1. Stand with your feet at least shoulder-width apart. Hold both dumbbells with an overhand grip so that your palms are facing your body.
2. Now hinge your body forward by slightly bending your hips.
3. Lower the dumbbells to the ground while making sure that your back doesn’t curve.
4. Brace your core and lift the dumbbells back to the original position.