Of course, workouts with dumbbells can also help increase one’s strength and even tone or reshape the body. As certain muscle groups become stronger, their pull on different bones becomes more stable. This difference in muscle tension results in a change in the way bones are held together, resulting in a reshaped body.

Compared to exercise using weight machines, workouts with dumbbells do not follow a fixed motion path. Your own muscles dictate the path that the dumbbells have to follow when you execute one exercise after another. This means that your muscles don’t only have to be strong to execute dumbbell exercises properly; they also have to control the movement, provide stability, and coordinate the movement. Coordination requires fine motor skills, not brute force, which means that even the small groups of muscle in your body need to exert effort. Recruiting these muscles would otherwise not have been possible if you were to use exercise machines because the movement is restricted and dictated by the machine.

Workouts with dumbbells also have the advantage of specificity. This means that with dumbbells, you can target one specific muscle group using several exercises. Since more than one exercise can target one muscle group at a time, you can increase the versatility of your workout and ensure that your muscles do not adapt to the workout. This further increases the effort of muscles to work, ensuring that they continue to grow stronger instead of reaching a plateau.

Because of free weights, your body also has to exert more effort to keep you balanced. With weight machines, you don’t have to worry about dumbbells falling from your hands or losing your balance. But with dumbbells, you have to rely on your core muscles for you not to tip over or lose your balance. In other words, workouts with dumbbells are actually exercises that also target your core muscles.

If your right arm is weaker than your left arm, you can use dumbbells to even out this discrepancy. With fixed weight machines, your right and left arms have to work together, allowing the right arm to compensate for the weakness of the left arm. But with dumbbells, your right arm and left arm do the lifting independent of each other.

Try alternating your exercises if you want the most out of your workouts with dumbbells. You don’t want your body to be adjusting easily to the exercises, otherwise your muscles will find a way to perform the exercises without exerting too much effort and, as a result, the muscles will not become stronger nor will they increase in size effectively. You can focus on different body parts per day to maximize your workout.

Tricep dumbbell exercises, unlike triceps exercises using fixed weights, allow your triceps to control the direction of movement. This is important if you want to recruit the smaller muscle fascicles of the triceps, instead of the usually dominant muscles of the triceps. Fixed weight machines restrict your movement to what the machine allows. But for exercises using free weights, such as dumbbell exercises, you must use your muscles to control and coordinate your movements.

For instance, some muscle fibers act to provide force. Others act to provide coordination and stability. In fixed weight machines, the muscle fibers that provide force are the ones being exercised, while the muscle fibers used for providing coordination and stability stay unused because they are not needed. However, when you use dumbbells, you need to coordinate your movement so that your dumbbells don’t fall on your toes or on your head. Because of this, the muscles responsible for coordinating and stabilizing your movements are also utilized, giving you a complete and thorough workout.

Dumbbells can provide weight training in many ways. If you want bulkier arms and triceps, or if you want to improve tricep muscle strength or even endurance, tricep dumbbell exercises can achieve all these.

If your right triceps are much stronger than your left triceps, weight machines found at your gym may not be very useful in solving this issue. After all, weight machines allow both your arms to do the work, giving your right arm the chance to compensate for the lack of strength displayed by your left triceps. But with tricep dumbbell exercises, you allow one arm at a time to do the exercises using just one dumbbell weight. Eventually, your left triceps will catch up with the strength of your right triceps.

One of the tricep dumbbell exercises you can perform is the overhead extensions. To perform this exercise, stand straight with your feet about two feet apart. Using one arm, hold a dumbbell above your head. Make sure that your arm is extended fully. If you can not maintain this starting position, try to stabilize your elbow with your other hand. Then, gradually lower the dumbbell behind your head, letting your arm bend at the elbow. Next, gradually lift the dumbbell back to your starting position. Do a few repetitions, then do the same for your other arm.

Make sure that before you perform tricep dumbbell exercises, you have done adequate warm up exercises to avoid muscle strain and other injuries.

All bodybuilders and weight lifters know that seated dumbbell curls are a great workout to give your biceps more strength and to shape your arms. They bulk up the biceps effectively, giving you more muscle mass, especially when executed properly.

To execute seated dumbbell curls, sit on a comfortable chair with a back rest. Make sure that your back lies flat on the back rest. Your feet should be touching the floor and should be flat on the ground. Then, grab one dumbbell in each hand. Your palms should be facing forward. As you sit up straight, make sure that your abdominal muscles are tense to support your upper body. Avoid using the other muscles of your arms by making sure that the elbows do not jut out – they should be tucked in, staying as near to your body as possible. Slowly lift the dumbbells to the level of your shoulders till your elbows are fully flexed. As the dumbbells reach your shoulders, try rotating your wrists so that your palms still face forward. This way, the brachioradialis muscles can not compensate for the lifting – and it is solely up to the biceps to do all the work.

If you use weight training machines, your left and right biceps share the load, allowing your stronger arm to compensate for your weaker arm. But with free weights like your dumbbells, you allow each arm to do the lifting without any help from your stronger muscles. This way, any discrepancy in strength between your left and your right biceps are duly addressed, giving you a complete workout that gives you equal strength for both your left and right muscles.

Although the seated dumbbell curls are the preferred variation of this exercise, they may also be performed while standing or while using an incline weight bench. When you want to do this standing up, your back and abdominal muscles might share some of the weight lifting, and you might not get the most out of your workout. To avoid this from happening, make sure your torso does not bend backward as you try to lift the dumbbells. If this keeps happening and you find it difficult to stay stable, you can try standing with your back pressed to the wall. This should keep you from bending backward.

While lifting the dumbbells to your shoulders, do it gradually. Avoid cheating yourself by throwing your dumbbells up to complete the dumbbell curls. Instead, make sure you lift the dumbbells slowly.

The incline dumbbell press is an exercise that helps strengthen the pectoralis major muscles of the chest. Before you execute an incline dumbbell press, do warm up exercises for a few minutes to increase blood flow to your chest muscles. Do some stretching exercises to promote muscle contraction and to prevent muscle injuries, such as strain and cramps.

To perform an incline dumbbell press, use two dumbbells of a comfortable weight. Do not rush yourself; start with dumbbells that you can manage to lift. You will need to use a stable weight bench. With one dumbbell in each hand, sit down at the edge of the weight bench. Place your dumbbells on the thigh area. Slowly lie down on the weight bench until your back is flat on the weight bench. Your feet should still be touching the floor. Maintain your feet flat on the ground during the exercise.

To start the incline dumbbell press, slowly lift the dumbbells until they are right above your face. Rotate your wrists to make sure that your palms are facing forward. Then, slowly lower your dumbbells in the direction of your chest. Make sure you are exercising your chest muscles, not only your upper extremities. Feel your pectoralis major muscles contract and do the work. Pause for a few seconds then lift your dumbbells back to how you started the exercise.

Do several repetitions of the incline dumbbell press every two days. If you want to bulk up, you might want to try about six to eight repetitions. Expect the last few reps to be difficult, but they are necessary if you want to increase your muscle mass. However, do not go overboard; eight reps per workout is more than enough. If you simply want toned muscles, use lighter dumbbells but do more reps.

To make sure that your workout is effective, try not to lock the elbows when you lift the dumbbells. Yes, this may stabilize the dumbbells temporarily, but it defeats the purpose of allowing your chest muscles to do the work. Besides, it will put undue strain on the elbows and may cause injury.

Avoid using the muscles of your back and your abdomen to compensate for the lifting. In other words, if you find yourself arching your back, then your other muscles are actually compensating and your chest muscles are not receiving the brunt of the work load. If you can not help but arch your back, perhaps it is better for you to use lighter dumbbells in the meantime. You should progress to the next weight range only when you are ready.

To perform the dumbbell squat, stand with both legs about two feet apart. Then, bend down to grab your dumbbells from the floor, but make sure you bend at your knees instead of bending your back. Stand back up, now with your dumbbells close to your body at your sides. Both upper extremities should be straight, with your elbows not flexed.

To avoid further straining your back while doing a dumbbell squat, try using your thighs to pull your body back up instead of using your back muscles. Don’t bend your back to make sure your spine does not carry the brunt of the load. Look straight forward and avoid looking down to keep your back from bending forward. Instead of bending forward, it is allowable to slightly arch your back instead – this helps you get a little leverage without straining your back. In your starting position, your arms should be at your sides, your back slightly arched but not bending forward.

Gradually bend down (again, at your knees, not your back). This is the actual squatting action of the exercise. Bend your knees until your thighs are horizontal. Pause for a second or two then gradually stand back up. Do not “jump” back to your starting position so that you get to exercise your muscles adequately without injuring your joints. Avoid any jerking movements simply to get the dumbbells from starting position to when you finally do your squats. Avoid locking the knees as well to make sure that during your starting position, it is your buttocks and your thigh muscles, instead of your knee joints, that keep you stable.

Remember that while doing a dumbbell squat, you should not bend your back nor look down. Keep your chest out and your feet should also be flat on the ground – do not use your feet for leverage. Always take note of your feet; your weight should be distributed equally from your toes to your heels, instead of being concentrated on just one part of your feet, such as the balls of your feet. Your knees should be stable; to check if your knees are stable while you do dumbbell squats, check if your feet are pointing in one direction as your knees. Also, remember that warmups and stretches before doing dumbbell squats help you perform the exercise better.

To do a dumbbell snatch, you will need one dumbbell and adequate workout space. Start with your feet about two feet apart. Hold the dumbbell in one hand, with your palms facing your body. Then, bend your knees and slightly arch your back, with your dumbbell arm hanging straight between your knees. The dumbbell should then be hanging between your knees as well. Then, try to raise your dumbbell in one fast jumping movement, with the help of your shoulders and the rest of your body. As you pull up your dumbbell, your body should slightly stretch out of its squatting position, and your elbow should point outwards to the side. The moment the dumbbell is about to reach the top of your head, your arm will be outstretched. Before this happens, your jump should be about over, and you should land back on your feet in a squatting position. In other words, the inertia of the upward direction of the dumbbell should stretch your dumbbell arm as your body bends back down to a full squat. From here, allow your dumbbells to fall back down between your knees as you stretch your body back up to its starting position, with your knees just slightly flexed. This brings you back to your starting position.

The dumbbell snatch will seem like a complicated dumbbell exercise based on the above instructions, but try to look for videos to help you execute the exercise effectively.

If you have sustained injuries to your back, knees, and rotator cuff, perhaps it is best not to execute the dumbbell snatch as this puts a lot of strain on these areas. However, this exercise effectively develops your speed and also your capacity to exert force at maximum acceleration. It is also one of the rare dumbbell exercises that involve almost all the muscle groups of the entire body.

It may look familiar to a lot of people because it is a variation of the Olympic lift, commonly performed by weightlifters who try to lift barbells of extremely heavy weights. However, in the dumbbell snatch, only one arm does the lifting, and a dumbbell is used instead of a barbell.

You can use the dumbbell snatch to train for an Olympic lift. Try the dumbbell snatch for one arm, then the other. This should allow you to ease into the Olympic lift, building the strength of one arm at a time.

This exercise requires strong deltoid muscles as it is this muscle group that brings the dumbbell from between your knees all the way above your head in one sudden movement. Do not perform the dumbbell snatch if you have not had the opportunity to strengthen your deltoids first.

To do dumbbell shrugs, all you need are two dumbbells. There is no need for much space as this exercise is relatively easy to execute and requires minimal movement. To start your dumbbell shrugs, hold one dumbbell in each hand. They should hang comfortably at your side in the starting position, with your palms facing your body. Then, shrug your shoulders as high as you can, with the dumbbells serving as counter traction. Then, lower the shoulders back to your starting position. Make sure you do not roll your shoulders to and fro; maintain them in one plane. Do several repetitions per day.

To make sure that you are performing your dumbbell shrugs effectively, try doing them in front of the mirror. This will ensure that you can check whether or not you are rolling your shoulders whenever you raise and lower them.

If you have incurred injuries to your back or to your shoulder cuffs, it is best to avoid doing dumbbell shrugs as they may injure you further. If you need to strengthen your shoulders desperately, you can always use lighter dumbbells for this kind of exercise. However, the results will not be the same compared to when you use enough resistance.

To coordinate your breathing during dumbbell shrugs, always exhale or breathe out when you start shrugging your shoulders up.  Your arms should be kept stretched; you should not bend your elbows while raising your shoulders. Then, hold this position for a few seconds before lowering your shoulders.

When you lower your shoulders back to your initial position, inhale or breathe in slowly. Pause once more then start raising your shoulders again while you exhale.

Dumbbell shrugs are meant to focus on the muscles of the neck, shoulders, and those of the upper back. These include a major muscle, the trapezius muscle, which stretches from above your neck, down to your back, over to both sides of your shoulders and down across your shoulders to the front. It is the muscle responsible for shaping your shoulders, so it is no wonder that a lot of workouts and exercise regimens advice you to pay attention to routines that strengthen, tone, and reshape your trapezius muscles.

Strong trapezius muscles can help raise the arms a bit, getting rid of slouchy shoulders. Strong shoulders also make you look less timid and more confident, boosting your overall appearance.

Dumbbell shrugs, when done properly, are actually quite easy and can lead to a noticeable change. Make sure that when you raise your shoulders, you do so as much as you can to thoroughly involve all the muscle fibers and fascicles of the trapezius. You may also do this exercise while bent over at a very small angle.

The dumbbell deadlift is also a great exercise if you want to strengthen or increase the muscle mass of your thighs, especially the quadriceps located at the front of your thighs. There is no need for special equipment or weight benches when you want to do a dumbbell deadlift; all you need is enough space to execute the dumbbell deadlift and, of course, a pair of dumbbells.

If you are already familiar with squats using dumbbells, then you will have no difficulty performing the dumbbell deadlift. To do this exercise, stand up straight with one dumbbell on each hand, your hands hanging naturally at your sides. Then, gradually lower your dumbbells to the ground. When you do this, make sure you observe proper body mechanics. Make sure that your torso and back are straight all throughout to avoid back strain. Look straight ahead instead of lowering your gaze while executing the dumbbell deadlift to ensure that your back remains straight.

While lowering the dumbbells close to the ground, make sure your elbows are not jutting out to the sides and that your arms are close to your body. Your arms should not swing forward as well to avoid undue strain on your shoulders.

Your shoulders should not slouch or stoop when you do the dumbbell deadlift. Try pulling your shoulders backward if you find that your shoulders start to stoop when you perform this exercise. Remember to flex your knees only when you have fully flexed your hips and the dumbbells are pretty close to the ground.

Remember that the back muscles are easily strained and the back incurs injury quite easily, so never rush into using heavy dumbbells for this exercise. Start slowly, with light dumbbells which are quite easy for you to lift. Then, progress slowly to heavier weights, using small increments – do not jump to a heavy dumbbell all at once to avoid injury. If you have previous back injuries, it is advisable to keep to light dumbbells as using heavier weights just might aggravate or exacerbate the problem.

Avoid bouncing or jerking when doing this exercise to ensure that your muscles are adequately worked out. Pausing when the dumbbells are about to reach the floor is not necessary. Avoid overstretching the muscles at the back of your thighs; stop lowering the dumbbells when you feel the back of your thighs moderately stretched. You may do this exercise in front of the mirror to check if you are doing it correctly.

Remember, however, that the dumbbell deadlift should be done with caution. If done incorrectly, it can cause serious back injuries, such as lumbar disc herniation, which may necessitate surgery if severe enough.

When doing dumbbell chest exercises, always take into consideration your reason for working out. Are you trying to bulk up, or are you simply trying to tone your body? If you want more muscle mass, aim for heavier dumbbells and less repetitions. To tone your body, you do not need heavy dumbbells; instead, enough repetitions are the key.

One example of dumbbell chest exercises is the bench press. Done lying down, it imitates the movements of push ups, but done on your back while lying on a bench instead of on your hands while on the floor. Just like the flat press, the inclined press can also help reshape your torso and give you a bigger chest. This means that you can fake having a smaller waist by doing bench presses. The flat press is done lying down on a horizontal plane, while the inclined version of the dumbbell press is done at an angle of forty-five degrees.

Another example of dumbbell chest exercises is the chest fly. The movement arc of this dumbbell exercise requires your muscles to balance and maintain position, making it an ideal exercise for recruiting almost all the muscles of the chest, including the small, almost unused ones. Since it can prove difficult, always start light and use dumbbells of a weight that you know you will be comfortable with. Once you have successfully gauged the difficulty of chest flys, you can then progress gradually to heavier dumbbells. To execute dumbbell flys, lie on your back, and start with both dumbbells raised straight up, your arms fully extended. Then, slowly lower the dumbbells to the side, keeping your arms extended. Make sure you use your chest muscles to maintain balance while doing this exercise; do not cheat your way through it by using your locked elbows as a stabilizing factor. Do not use locked elbows to maintain position as this may also injure your elbow joints. When your dumbbells reach the same level as your body, pause for a few seconds. Do not go any lower than the level of your body as this may injure the shoulder area, especially when you are using very heavy dumbbells.

The above chest flys are one of the dumbbell chest exercises that can also be executed on an inclined plane, at an angle of forty-five degrees. This helps exercise the deltoids as well as your chest muscles; the deltoids help keep the dumbbells from falling to your sides. This would not have been possible when you do the flat version, while lying down on a horizontal weight bench.

Before you settle for cheap fitness equipment you find online, remember that there are some machines that are best bought brand new, while some equipment, such as dumbbells, may be much less expensive when bought second hand – without affecting the quality of the purchase too much. Machines come with warranties, most of which will no longer be available when you purchase the machine from a second hand store.

There are many places to look for cheap fitness equipment. For instance, online store can offer you highly competitive prices. Because of the many options available online, many stores try to encourage buyers to stick to their products by offering them in irresistible packages and throwing in freebies. They also slash their prices and offer great discounts, even on brand new fitness equipment. Take note, however, that not all freebies are actually worth it. Before you decide on buying cheap fitness equipment simply because it has tons of freebies, remember that most freebies are actually quite cheap and are there to entice you to seal the deal. You might end up spending money on cheap fitness equipment you barely need just because you feel like having the freebies that come with it – and that is something to watch out for.

Garage sales are another venue to look for cheap fitness equipment. Usually, second hand barbells, weights, and dumbbells are still in such great condition even when they are sold second hand because they are made of durable materials like chrome or solid cast iron. They may have signs of wear and tear, but you can still use those dumbbells and barbells for a long time and, given how much cheaper they are when they are second hand, they should be worth it.

The newspaper is another thing to check out if you are trying to find cheap fitness equipment. A lot of people hold garage sales, especially during spring cleaning. However, you may miss out on these garage sales, unless you go around your neighbourhood frequently – or if you check the newspaper.

When buying cheap fitness equipment from yard sales, remember to buy spare parts as well. Spare parts for dumbbells would come at really hefty prices when bought from their original stores. For instance, and adjustable dumbbell may have selector pins and locks made of plastic. If you misplace these from the original set, buying replacements from the store may cost you a lot of money, if they are being sold at all. Instead of finding yourself shelling out money for a mere selector pin, try looking for used equipment in yard sales and purchase spare parts at a fraction of their original price.