10 Best Dumbbell Exercises Ever (HIT EVERY MUSCLE!)

Choosing the best dumbbell exercises ever can be a tall task, unless you have a solid set of criteria for doing that. Any list of the 10 best dumbbell exercises ever that when combined, hit every muscle, is tough to narrow down but most importantly, I’m including the reasons for their inclusion. Dumbbells are one of the most versatile pieces of workout equipment that you can train with since they can be used at home in small spaces and their ability to be used three dimensionally gives a high degree of carryover for athletes. Dumbbells allow you to workout in all planes of motion and require additional demands of core strength and stability to use them properly. Each of the dumbbell exercises on this list earned their spot for very specific reasons. Here is the list that we will break down one by one: Gorilla Rows Static DB Bench Press DB Reverse Lunges Clean Up and Overs Farmer’s Carries Pullovers Step Ups High Pulls Russian Rows Strict Curls into DB Cheat Curls Each of these exercises require either just a single dumbbell or two dumbbells to perform them. They were chosen based on their ability to work multiple muscle groups in one dumbbell only workout. The ability of the exercise to be versatile and multidimensional was also important. Get Big with Dumbbells - Subscribe to this channel here - For example, the gorilla row can either target the lower lats or the upper back depending on whether you keep the dumbbells tight to your side or allow your elbows to drift up and out as you perform each rep, respectively. You can also make the row more explosive by performing it as a plyometric gorilla row. Next we have the static db bench press. This is a great variation on the typical dumbbell bench press. Here you can either leave one dumbbell extended or bent when it’s the nonmoving arm. This will either engage more core or more chest depending on your choice. Either way, this will force you to have to learn the all important leg drive in order to stabilize your body on the weight bench when doing it. The reverse lunge is another one of those lower body dumbbell exercises that allows you to target different muscles depending on the position of your body in space. When upright, this dumbbell leg exercise is going to hit more of your quads. When leaned forward, the exercise will shift its focus to the glutes and hamstrings more. No athletic training program is complete without some version of this next exercise. We are talking about the farmer’s carry. You are training not only your grip, conditioning and traps but perhaps most importantly, your ability to remain mentally tough during all of your training. It’s key to watch how you step when performing this dumbbell exercise. The dumbbell pullover has been called the upper body squat by some. This can be done in three different ways to hit either the lats, upper chest or the triceps. The dumbbell high pull is one of the greatest dumbbell exercises of all time. It allows you to train not just the middle head of the delts as a substitute for side lateral raises if your list is limited, and allow you to hit your rear delt at the same time. Not only that, but any dumbbell exercise that can be weighted more heavily gives you a chance to provide a new growth stimulus to a rear delt most often trained exclusively with light weights. Weighted ab exercises are another great option for training with dumbbells. The crush grip here used on this Russian row gives you a nice added recruitment of your upper body to the exercise. Finally, the dumbbell curl is an irreplaceable exercise for any total body dumbbell workout. This drop set of strict curl to cheat curl ensures that you take each set to and through failure for maximum biceps growth. Dumbbell only workouts can be incredibly challenging. In fact, some people think that you can’t effectively train your legs with db’s since you aren’t able to load up the weight high enough. That’s not true at all. You can choose exercises that you load with even 100lb dumbbells and perform on a single leg and you are sure to be pushing yourself to your limits. The same can be said for dumbbell chest workouts and dumbbell back and arm workouts. The fact that you aren’t using a barbell does not sacrifice the quality or effectiveness of the training session. That said, you cannot continue to lift light dumbbells and think that you are going to get a great enough workout. Even if you are training at home, aim to lift the heaviest dumbbells that you can lift if you want to build muscle in your workouts. For a complete dumbbell only workout head to via the link above and check out the JACKED program. For more dumbbell workouts and exercises you can do with dumbbells for your chest, arms and shoulders be sure to subscribe to our channel on youtube via the link above and turn on your notifications.