5 Days a week Full Body Dumbbell Workouts

Most people don’t know the true power of a set of dumbbells combined with muscular strength exercises when it comes to transforming their bodies. In truth, all you need is time, a pair of dumbbells, and determination. Check out these strength training workouts that you can do anywhere, anytime!

1-Standing Dumbbell Curl:

This dumbbell workout is good for the muscles of the upper and lower are (biceps, brachialis, and brachioradialis respectively).

1. Begin in a standing position with feet shoulder-width apart. Grab a pair of dumbbells you feel comfortable doing at least 10 reps with and stand straight with your back and neck in a neutral position.
2. Make sure your palms are facing in an upwards position.
3. To prevent injury, put a slight bend in your knees and put tension in your bicep muscles.
4. Keeping your elbows in toward your body, slowly bring the dumbbells up in a 95-degree movement.
5. Be sure to squeeze your biceps while doing this motion, and then slowly lower the dumbbells back down to the starting position.
6. Repeat for 10-12 reps.

2-Dumbbell Core Reach:

If you’re looking for dumbbell core exercises, this next workout is for you. These movements will strengthen your obliques while in a standing position.

1. Begin in a standing position with feet shoulder-width apart. Grab a pair of dumbbells you feel comfortable doing at least 10 reps with as this workout is for the obliques muscles.
2. Stand straight up with one dumbbell in each of your hands, and palms facing in toward your body.
3. Be sure to keep your feet planted on the floor.
4. While keeping your back straight and your eyes facing forward, bend down to the right as far as you can, then back up again while engaging your core.
5. Without pausing at the top, bend down to the left in the same motion as you did before to complete this ab workout with dumbbells.
6. Repeat for 10-12 reps.

(Tip: This workout can be done with no weights as a bodyweight workout)

3-Dumbbell Squat:

This workout will activate your glutes as well as your quadriceps so you’ll be working out the front as well as the back of your legs.

1. Set up for the exercise by choosing a pair of dumbbells that you feel comfortable doing 10-12 reps with.
2. Hold the dumbbells down to your sides without letting them touch your body.
3. Stand with your knees slightly bent and your feet should be shoulder-width apart. Keep your head facing forward and your back as neutrally straight as you can. This will be your starting position for our leg dumbbell workout.
4. Make sure to keep your eyes facing forward and then slowly lower your body down making sure your knees are parallel to your toes. Pretend you are sitting on a chair and coming back up while engaging your core and breathing out every time you go down.
5. From here, slowly raise your body back up by pushing through your heels and breathing in.
6. It is very important that you do not lock your knees out when you stand up to prevent injury.
7. Repeat for 10-12 reps.

(Tip: This workout can be done with no weights as a bodyweight workout)

4-Dumbbell Lunge:

This workout will build your quads, hips, hamstrings and gluteus maximus.

1. Be sure to have your feet shoulder-width length apart and a dumbbell you’re comfortable with doing multiple reps with in each of your hands.
2. Bring one leg forward like you are stepping out and bend both your legs, (this will take some balance!)
3. Come down until your back knee comes in contact with the floor.
4. Push through your front foot and extend your knee as you stand up straight and return to the starting position for this beginner dumbbell workout.
5. Repeat all steps above on your opposite leg.
6. Repeat for 10-12 reps (can do without dumbbells to increase reps).

(Tip: This workout can be done with no weights as a bodyweight workout)

5-Russian Twists:

Here is another great dumbbell exercise for abs but you’ll position your body on the floor instead of standing up.

1. Sit on the ground or mat with your knees bent loosely in front of you and your heels touching the floor.
2. (You’ll only need one dumbbell for this workout!) Hold the dumbbell closely in front of your chest, and lean your midsection back until you can feel your core muscles begin to engage.
3. In a smooth controlled motion, slowly twist your torso from the right to the left. Remember to breathe while keeping your core as tight and engaged as possible.
4. Repeat for 10 reps.

(Tip: This workout can be done with no weights as a bodyweight workout)

A quick variation of this workout is to stay on the floor and perform crunches with dumbbells but one at a time. You can achieve this by holding the ends of a dumbbell in each hand and perform the exercise as usual.

You can take all of these and combine them into a full-body dumbbell workout and create progressions of each workout also. The easiest way to do this is to use a heavier set of dumbbells, and increase your reps (but don’t workout to failure!). You can split the days you do each workout so that you do arm and ab dumbbell workouts on one day and leg dumbbell workouts on another. This will help with soreness and also make sure you’re working out each muscle group to the full extent without injury.