How To Have A Challenging Workout Using Light Dumbbells At Home

There is a way of achieving muscle fatigue if all you have are a pair of light dumbbells kicking around in your spare room. As long as you stick to some guidelines you will be able to feel the burn with all your workouts.

Here are the rules:

#1 Choose isolation exercisesrn#2 Perform high repetitionsrn#3 Use a short rest between each set

If you have a pair of adjustable dumbbells, ones where you are able to make one heavy dumbbell from the two opt for single limb exercises to achieve more intensity when possible.

Example exercises using dumbbells:

Legs
Squats, progress to split squat or lunges. Advanced option is to squat, curl and overhead press or squat holding the dumbbells overhead.

Chestr
Dumbbell Chest fly - with back on the floor.
Press ups – no weights required.

Backr
Bent over rowing holding the body in static bent over position and bringing the dumbbells to the side of the chest.
Upright rowing – row the dumbbells as high as the collarbone.

Shouldersr
Side raises followed by overhead pressing.
Bent over side raise.

Bicepsr
Curls and hammer curls.

Tricepsr
Triceps extension - with back on the floor.
Close grip press ups. No weights required.

Absr
Seated reverse wood chops.
Abdominal crunches holding the dumbbells with straight arms directly above the chest.

Repetition range:
Don't be afraid to try anything up to 50 repetitions per exercise. Just because you are lifting light dumbbells doesn't mean you can rush the set. Never sacrifice proper training technique no matter what the circumstances are. A strict training technique makes the targeted muscle group work harder and brings quicker results.

Recommended sets and rest:
If you choose to work on one exercise at a time and you are doing over 15 repetitions because of the light dumbbells it is recommended to rest no more than 60 seconds before you repeat the set. Depending on how difficult the next sets are will determine if you can afford to shave seconds from your rest time in between sets.

For best results at least 2-3 sets per exercises is required to create a training response.

An example legs, chest and abs workout using light dumbbells:

50 bodyweight squatsr
No rest and immediately followed by
25 dumbbell squatsr
Up to 60 seconds rest and repeat until 2-4 rounds are completed.

25-50 Chest flies
No rest and immediately followed byr
Press-ups to failurer
Up to 60 seconds rest and repeat until 2-4 rounds are completed.

Seated reverse wood chops – up to 30 each sider
No rest and immediately followed byr
Up to 30 abdominal crunches holding the dumbbells with straight arms directly above the chestr
Up to 60 seconds rest and repeat until 2-4 rounds are completed.

(c) Copyright - Anthony Chapman, All Rights Reserved Worldwide.