“Arm Dumbbell Workout”Welcome to building muscle 101's dumbbell arm workout.
Let me tell you straight, there’s nothing wrong with using dumbbells to build your arms. Using dumbbells is a great way to workout. You don’t need to go to a gym, you don’t need a whole lot of space, you really don’t need any fancy equipment, and you can use dumbbells anywhere in the house. I personally love to train with dumbbells and I strongly believe that they can offer benefits that you that you simply can’t get with a barbell. For example, since dumbbell forces muscle groups to work independently of one another, you can work your right and left side muscle groups evenly. Have you ever noticed how one arm is always stronger than the other? If you answered yes to this question, your going to have to start using dumbbells in your training routine. I vividly remember how my left arm was always stronger than the right. Since I primarily used barbells and machines, (at that time) for most of my exercises, my left arm got most of the benefit. The balance is set up on the barbells and machines in favour of your stronger muscle groups. This in turn, throws you muscle balance off because your stronger body part will most always grow bigger than it’s weaker counterpart. Anyways, after some guidance, I started all my workouts with dumbbells. After about three months, my right arm caught up with my left. In fact, today, my right arm is a little stronger than my left. I’ll tell you this though, dumbbells don’t lie and 50 pounds is 50 pounds. With barbells and machines, you can get away with moving a certain amount of weight because your stronger muscle group compensates for the weaker muscle group. With dumbbells, you can’t do that. Each side has to pull it’s own weight, so to speak. Another great thing about working out with dumbbells is the fact that they provide a different plane of motion than barbells. Take the seated dumbbell curl for example. With a barbell, the weight comes up and goes down. However, with a slight twist of the wrist, you can greatly enhance the exercise using dumbbells. Take a look at this page here: With that in mind, I want to pass on a dumbbell arm workout that will help strengthen and build your arms. You will train biceps first, and than train the triceps. The biceps routine has three exercises while the triceps routine has 2. I suggest performing this dumbbell arm workout routine once per week, twice at the most.
Also, I suggest you start the workout with a 5 minute, light aerobic exercise such as the elliptical trainer, treadmill, or exercise bike. If you don’t have any aerobic equipment, try running on the spot for 3 to 5 minutes. It is very important to the blood flowing throughout the body before exercising. Let’ take a look at the exercises for the dumbbell arm routine: Biceps Exercises: 1) The Standing Dumbbell Curl; Triceps Exercises: 1) Seated Single Dumbbell Extensions; The workout is as follows: Biceps Dumbbell Arm Workout Exercise #1 - The Standing Dumbbell Curl  Warm up: 1 x 15 repetitions Dumbbell Arm Workout Exercise #2 - The Incline Dumbbell Curl  3 sets of 10 repetitions Dumbbell Arm Workout Exercise #3 - The Dumbbell Concentration Curl  2 sets of 12 repetitions Triceps Dumbbell Arm Workout Exercise #4 - Seated Single Dumbbell Extensions  Warm up: 1 x 15 repetitions 3 sets of 12 repetitions Dumbbell Arm Workout Exercise #5 - The Triceps Kick Back  3 sets of 12 repetitions Here are some important tips on improving your dumbbell arm workout routine: Tip #1 - Drink a lot of water I recommend you drink a minimum 8 to 12 cups of water per day and even more to replace the fluid you lose during exercise. Depending on your size and perspiration rate, you lose about four cups of water per hour of exercise. If you are working out in a mild climate, you are probably losing about 4 to 8 cups of water through perspiration. If you are working out in a hot climate, you can easily lose a lot more and therefore, dehydrate very quickly. If you don’t replenish your fluid loss during exercise, you will tire very quickly and your performance will be poor. Before exercise Drink at least 2 cups of water two to three hours before exercise and 1 cup of water immediately before exercise. In very hot or cold temperatures, you will need even more water, usually 2 cups immediately before exercise. During exercise Drink one cup of water for every 15 minutes of exercise and more in extreme temperatures. Make regular water breaks a part of your training. After exercise Drink 2 to 3 cups of water within two hours after exercise. Continue to drink and additional 30 to 50 percent more fluid for the next 3 to 4 hours. Tip #2 - Get enough rest I suggest you aim for 7 to 9 hours of rest each night. Don’t be afraid to take a nap in the afternoon or after work to add a little energy to your workouts. Getting the proper amounts of rest is absolutely vital to building muscle. Tip #3 - Supplements Use weight lifting supplements that work in conjunction with a well balanced weight lifting diet and training program. I suggest you include creatine monohydrate, glutamine, multi-vitamin complex and protein powder into your upper arm exercise routine. For more information on putting together an effective weight lifting supplement schedule, please see Building-muscle101's weight training supplement page. Tip #4 - Warm up Remember to warm up prior to each weight lifting session. I recommend that you warm up with anaerobic exercise such as the exercise bike, elliptical trainer, treadmill, or any otheraerobic activity that you enjoy. It is very important that you incorporate some sort of aerobicexercise into your upper arm exercise routine. Tip #5 - Monitor Your Progress It is very important that you monitor and evaluate your program on an ongoing basis. By evaluating and monitoring your muscle building program, you can update or make any adjustments that may be needed to fine tune your program. I suggest you evaluate your progress on a weekly or bi-weekly basis. By evaluating your program on a weekly or bi weekly basis, you can decide whether your training program needs to be adjusted or whether you need to add or cut down on calories. I suggest you take a day out of your week and evaluate your body composition, body weight and body measurements. Decide whether or not you need to adjust your weight lifting routine and nutrition program based on your evaluation. Tip #6 - Keep a log Remember to always use a weight lifting log and diet log to record all meals and training numbers. There you have it, a simple dumbbell arm workout routine that you can perform at the gym or at home. It’s a very basic dumbbell routine but an effective one. If you feel that the weight is getting light, you might want to add some more weight to the dumbbell. For a great resource on more dumbbell routines and exercises, I suggest Mike Westerdal’s book, Dumbbell Routines. You can find the book here. |
