The Best Dumbbell Exercises for Every Body Part

With so many pieces of gym equipment and even more exercises to choose from during any given workout, it can be hard to narrow down what exactly you should do during your movement session.

Dumbbells are a great training tool for building strength, muscle and endurance. They're one of the most effective pieces of equipment you can use at the gym. There are many benefits to dumbbell training:

• ‌They're ubiquitous.‌ You can find dumbbells at nearly every gym, including hotel gyms.
• ‌They're versatile.‌ You can train every muscle in your body using dumbbells.
• ‌They're joint friendly.‌ Dumbbells allow for more freedom of motion at your joints. For this reason, many people find their knees, shoulders, elbows and wrists feel better using dumbbells over barbells.
• ‌They build grip strength.‌ Training with dumbbells — especially heavy dumbbells — can be challenging on your grip. This is a good thing, because according to an August 2019 article in ‌Clinical Interventions in Aging,‌ a stronger grip is correlated with better overall health as an older adult.
• ‌You can scale to your ability level.‌ Many dumbbell exercises are easy to learn, which makes them ideal for weight room beginners. Intermediate and advanced exercisers can use heavier dumbbells and harder exercises to continue making gains for years to come.

To take the guess work out of your weight-lifting sessions, we share how to use dumbbells to strengthen every major muscle group and our favorite dumbbell exercises for every body part and ability level below. We've broken down the exercises into beginner, intermediate and advanced categories.

If you're new to the weight room, start with the beginner exercises. Focus on adding reps and weight first before using harder exercises.

If you've been training a while, you can still benefit from doing the beginner or intermediate exercises. Focus on improving your form and continue adding reps and weight when possible. You can also try some of the advanced exercises for an added challenge.

Choose movements that feel good on your joints, allow you to use a full range of motion and are appropriate for your skill level. Then, use the chart below to determine how many sets and reps you should perform for your unique goals. Choose weights that feel challenging (without compromising form) within the given rep range.

The chest-supported row removes your lower body and core from the equation, which allows you to focus exclusively on your back.

You're only working one arm at a time with the 3-point stance dumbbell row, but this move requires core strength to resist trunk rotation as you pull the weight.

Bent-over rows are an advanced exercise because you need a strong core and strong legs to maintain the proper body position during your set.

Not all trainees will be able to press weights overhead at first. Use an incline bench to bridge the gap and practice pressing at a more shoulder-friendly angle.

When you're ready to introduce some vertical pressing, use half-kneeling single-arm presses. Pressing with one arm at a time requires much less upper body mobility. The half-kneeling position makes it harder to excessively arch your low back. Together, both of these make it easier to press with good form.

Experienced lifters can use this exercise if they have a strong core and good upper-body mobility. You must be able to fully extend both arms overhead with your biceps in line with your ears without arching your lower back.

Floor presses use less range of motion than bench presses, which lets you build pressing strength with less demand on your shoulders.

Once you feel confident with floor presses, you can move to an exercise bench to increase the range of motion and more effectively target your chest.

It might seem like single-arm dumbbell bench pressing is easier because you're using less overall weight, but don't be fooled. This variation is deceptively difficult, and it increases the demands on your core muscles in addition to targeting your chest.

Hammer curls are easier on your elbow and shoulder joints because they're performed with both palms facing in.

This is a powerful exercise for building triceps strength and size, and it requires core strength to keep your back flat on the bench.

Performing curls on an incline bench increases the stretch on your biceps, which makes the movement more challenging.

This exercise trains you to use your core to connect your hips and upper body, which is the main way your core functions in daily life. This is a good choice for people who aren't able to comfortably lie down on the floor.

This move helps you build anti-extension core strength, which refers to your ability to move your arms and legs without arching your lower back or flaring your ribs. This type of core strength will improve your ability to perform other exercises such as squats, deadlifts and overhead presses.

This combination movement works your core while also targeting your shoulders. It's best to hold off on trying this exercise until you can hold a standard side plank for at least 30 seconds per side.

Goblet squats are a foundational exercise that every new exerciser should learn. They make it easy to practice good squat form because they automatically turn on your core muscles.

Once you feel comfortable with squats, it's time to introduce single-leg movements to your workouts. Reverse lunges are a great place to start because they are more knee-friendly than other single-leg exercises.

Bulgarian split squats are one of the gold standard exercises for building strong, muscular legs. This exercise requires a good deal of balance, coordination and strength to perform.

Romanian deadlifts (RDLs for short) are another staple exercise that everyone should add to their workout routine. Beginners will have a much easier time learning how to hip hinge using the top-down position of RDLs as opposed to trying to deadlift a weight off the floor.

Moving to a kickstand position increases instability while shifting the emphasis more to your front leg. This is a great stepping stone between traditional RDLs and single-leg RDLs.

You need a strong core, legs and feet, good control of your pelvis and lots of balance to perform single-leg RDLs. It's worth it to try to work your way up to these if you can because they have tremendous carryover to sports and daily life.

You may have noticed that we didn't include any glute-specific exercises on this list. It's difficult to comfortably perform movements like glute bridges and hip thrusts using dumbbells.

However, fret not if growing bigger, stronger glutes is important to you. Exercises like squats, lunges, split squats and Romanian deadlifts all heavily target your glutes along with your quads or hamstrings.