The Infonian

Dumbbells are probably the most versatile exercise equipment ever invented. They are perfect for anyone and are ideal for working out at home. Even with light weights, dumbbell workouts can tone your muscles and when combined with cardio, dumbbells can really boost your body’s fat-burning capacity. You’ll need to get a set of dumbbells to get started. Stick with lighter weights so you don’t run the risk of injuring yourself. We’ll start off by going over some dumbbell conditioning exercises that can be done indoors year-round. Make sure you’ve got enough clear space around you (and above you too) to be able to safely perform the maneuvers without hitting anything.

Single dumbbell squat: Grasp a dumbbell with both hands, holding it about 8 inches in front of your chest. With your feet about shoulder-width apart, keep your back straight and slowly bend at the knees until your thighs are parallel to the floor-hold for one or two seconds and then return to the starting position. Do 10-12 reps, rest for a moment then repeat;

Side shoulder raise: Stand and hold the dumbbells at your sides with your palms facing inwards. With your elbows slightly bent, raise your arms out and up, bringing the dumbbells up to about ear height. Slowly return to the starting position and repeat. You can also do front raises-with your palms facing towards you, keep your arm more or less straight and bring the dumbbell up and out in front of you up to about ear height;

Overhead press: Grasp the dumbbells with your palms facing forward. Bring the dumbbells up to about ear height (your upper arms parallel to the floor). Raise the dumbbells up over your head until they just about touch-pause and return to the starting position and then repeat;

Bicep curls: Hold the dumbbells at your side palms facing forward and then keeping your elbows near your side, curl your arm up until the dumbbell just about touches your shoulder. Hold for 1-2 seconds, return to the starting position. You can do one arm at a time or both together-whichever you prefer.

Once you’ve got these basic movements down, you can start performing these exercises while walking in place. Start easy but try and get to where you can lift your legs high enough so that your thigh is nearly parallel to the floor. You want to get your heart rate up so that you’ll achieve maximum benefit. Rotate through the exercises. You can even add your own.

Now we’ll discuss a few ways that you can outside or incorporate dumbbells into outdoor activities such as walking:

Jumping jacks with overhead dumbbell press: Begin by standing with your feet about 6-8 inches apart, grasping a dumbbell in each hand and bend your elbows upright (upper arms parallel to the floor) holding the dumbbells about ear height. Jump up spreading your feet out (like you were doing a jumping jack) and as you do so, lift the dumbbells over your head. Jump back to the starting position and as you do, return the dumbbells to the starting position. Repeat 20-30 times;

Walking with dumbbells: Walking is an excellent, low-impact way to get or stay fit-it can be made even better with the addition of a lightweight set of dumbbells. Jumpstart your metabolism by doing bicep curls, overhead presses, or front raises while you’re walking;

Walking dumbbell lunges: Find an area where you can walk about 20 feet and then holding a dumbbell in each hand (arms at your side) place one foot forward as far as you comfortably can, then lower your body until the knee of your rear leg almost touches the ground and your front thigh is almost parallel to the floor. Then, keeping your torso upright, lunge forward with the other leg, repeating the process, alternating lunges 10 times;

What I’ve presented here are just a very few of the many ways to incorporate dumbbells into a conditioning workout. Be creative and come up with some of your own. Be sure to take things slowly at first and gradually build up your capacity and make sure you’ve got the form down right. Starting off too aggressively right out of the gate may result in injury and can really make it difficult to stick with your program. Try and build up to where you can do at least 30 minutes of moderate to vigorous exercise 3-5 times a week.

Author: Mike Westerdal

Follow the three exercises below to achieve victory. These three exercises can make your upper body wider and appear more athletic from any angle. Do three workouts a week – heavy, light and medium – with at least a day off in-between. Complete five sets of five reps of each exercise on the heavy day (rest two minutes between sets), three sets of 13 on the light day (rest 60 seconds in-between) and four sets of eight on the medium day (with 90 seconds of rest).

Wide-Grip Dead Lift

What it does

Works your trapezius muscles, the pair of triangular-shaped upper-back muscles controlling your shoulder blades. The bigger and stronger you make your traps, the wider and thicker your upper back will be.

How to do it

Stand in front of a loaded barbell with your feet shoulder-width apart and the bar close to your shins. Squat and grab the bar with an overhand grip that’s about twice your shoulder width. Your lower back should be flat and your arms straight. Now stand as you pull the bar up the front of your legs. Finish the lift by pulling your shoulder blades together. If you extend the range of motion, you make the exercise harder, giving you the dual benefit of building bigger muscles and increasing fat-burning potential. You can do this simply by using, smaller weight plates. Incline Dumbbell Chest Press

What it does

Works your upper chest and the front part of your deltoid muscles, adding width to your upper body when viewed from the front. As a bonus, it also hits your triceps.

How to do it

Set an adjustable bench to a 45-degree incline. Grab a pair of dumbbells and lie on your back on the bench, holding the dumbbells just above your shoulders with your palms facing out. Then push the dumbbells straight up from your shoulders. For more emphasis on your upper chest and triceps, you can substitute the incline narrow-grip barbell bench press. Set the bench to a lower incline (15 to 30 degrees), and hold the barbell with a shoulder-width grip. (A typical bench-press grip is about one and a half times your shoulder width.) Chin-Up

What it does

Works your lats through a full range of motion while also hitting your biceps. Well-developed lats are, by design, V-shaped – wide in the middle of your back and tapering down to blend into the connective tissue of your lower back.

How to do it

Grab the chin-up bar with an underhand, shoulder-width grip. Hang straight down from the bar with your knees slightly bent and your lower legs crossed behind you. Pull yourself up until your chest touches the bar. There’s really no exercise that improves on the chin-up. However, if you can’t do many, substitute the underhand-grip lat pull-down. But try it while kneeling on the floor instead of sitting on the bench. If you pull the bar to your chest from a kneeling position, you’ll use more muscles to stabilize and balance your body.

Sandra Prior runs her own bodybuilding website at http://bodybuild.rr.nu.