Dumbbell Exercises For Building Muscle And Strength

The following dumbell routine is a 5 day split. You will train chest on day one, back on day two, shoulders on day three, arms on day four and legs on day five. You will rest days six and seven and repeat the program.

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Here is the workout and dumbbell exercises:

Day 1

Chest

Day 2

Back

Day 3

Shoulders

Day 4

Arms

Day 5

Legs

Day 6

Rest

Day 7

Rest

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Chest

The movements for the chest that go well with dumbells are presses and flyes. For pressing movements, you have three differently angled dumbell exercises (incline, flat, and decline) that each hit different parts of the chest (upper, middle, and lower) for complete pec stimulation. Here are the dumbell exercises:

Flat dumbell press

4 sets of 10 repetitions

Incline Dumbell Press

4 sets of 8 repetitions

Incline Dumbell Fly

4 sets of 12 repetitions

Decline Dumbell Press

3 sets of 12 repetitions

Back

There are many mass building exercises that can be performed with dumbells. As with barbells, you can perform bent over rowing, deadlifts, shrugs, and pull overs. Here are the dumbell exercises.

Dumbell Deadlift

3 sets of 10 repetitions

Bent over dumbell rowing

3 sets of 12 repetitions

One arm dumbell row

3 sets of 10 repetitions

Dumbell pull over

3 sets of 8 repetitions

Dumbell shrug

3 sets of 10 repetitions

Shoulders

As with chest, dumbbells work best with pressing movements and lateral movements. Basic exercises like the shoulder press, dumbell laterals, front raises and rear dumbell laterals will add size and strength to your shoulders. Here are the exercises:

Dumbell side lateral

3 sets of 12 repetitions

Dumbell shoulder press

3 sets of 10 repetitions

Dumbell front raises

3 sets of 10 repetitions

Bent over dumbell laterals

3 sets of 10 repetitions

Arms

Everyone's favourite, arms. Dumbells has all the bases covered when it comes to training arms. You can sit, stand, alternate, or incline with dumbells.

That is, you can do some of the more popular biceps exercises like alternate dumbells curls, dumbell preacher curls, dumbbell hammer curls, seated incline dumbell curls, or seated concentrations curls. For triceps, you can doe overhead dumbell lying french presses (skull crushers), dumbbell overhead extensions, dumbbell kickbacks, and weighted dumbell dips. It's all here for you! Here are the dumbell exercises:

Alternate dumbell curl

3 sets of 10 repetitions

Dumbell preacher curls

(Thanks ShapeFit.com for the image)

3 sets of 10 repetitions

Incline dumbell curl

3 sets of 10 repetitions

Seated dumbell french presses

3 sets of 12 repetitions

Tricep kickbacks

3 sets of 12 repetitions

Legs

Yes, you can build some pretty decent wheels with dumbells. The more popular dumbell exercises for the legs are the dumbell squat, dumbell lunges, dumbell stiff legged deadlifts, lying dumbell leg curls and calf raises (off a wooden block). Here are the dumbell exercises:

Dumbell squats

4 sets of 10 repetitions

Dumbell lunges

3 sets of 10 repetitions

Dumbell stiff leg deadlifts

4 sets of 12 repetitions

Lying dumbell leg curls

3 sets of 12 repetitions

Dumbell standing calf raises(standing on a block, hold dumbell in one hand and hold onto something solid for balance with the other)

4 sets of 15 repetitions

That's it. If your looking for a more detailed plan, try building muscle 101's dumbbell workout routine here.

To see more Dumbbell Exercise Illustrations, please click here.

Nutrition

You must understand that hard training will only be effective if you take in enough nutrients to support optimal growth. Ensure that you are taking in at least 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight and at least 3 to 4 grams of quality complex carbohydrates per pound of body weight. Protein should come from clean sources such as egg whites, chicken, lean beef, turkey, fish and whey.

Carbs should be coming from such sources as oatmeal, rice, potatoes, yams, fibrous veggies (ie: broccoli) and pasta. Remember to take in good fats as oppossed to bad saturated fats such as flaxseed oil, fish oils, almonds, olive oil, and other nuts.

For more information on how to build your nutritional diet, I strongly suggest you give Will Brink's ebook, Body Building Revealed a shot. It will show you exactly how much calories, protein, carbohydrates, and fat you need for optimal growth.

All the best,

Blake