I think I speak for everyone when I say that at some point in your exercise journey, you start thinking about dumbbell workouts. In fact, how can you not? Fitness influencers use 8kg dumbbells for light exercise. And, well, they often have some toned muscles to show for it.
So I launched. If you’ve been following this miniseries in The Weekly, you’re probably well versed in the fact that I’m a training novice in every sense of the word.
So, I wisely armed myself with five-pound weights and looked up beginner workouts to get started.
If you’re a beginner like me, read on to find out which exercises I tried. (And don’t be embarrassed to say you’re a newbie to training; we all start somewhere, right?).
Complete Upper Body Workout (Tone & Sculpt) – 15 min at home by Madfit
When you think of dumbbells, you probably think of a good upper body workout. You have to give those arms some love, after all. Looking for a starting point, I made it a requirement that the instructor focus on proper posture.
I had heard horror stories of people injuring themselves exercising with dumbbells without proper form and I definitely didn’t want that to happen to me.
Difficulty:
In terms of how easy it was to follow, I really enjoyed that Madfit showed the same exercise from both the front and the side. This made it easy to track and adjust my posture appropriately.
Not only that, before each move, she would thoroughly explain how to execute it. Throughout, she also reminded us (or, well, me) to keep our elbows bent, our knees bent, etc.
The exercises shown in the video were also very simple to follow: nothing too complicated was going on; this training video focused more on simple movements that worked the muscles effectively.
How much did it burn:
The first time I tried this exercise, I was surprised at how normal I felt afterwards. I wasn’t sweating, I wasn’t breathing hard, and my arms didn’t hurt the next day.
So I tried again. The second time, I made sure to do each move slowly and intentionally. I focused on engaging the correct muscles instead of just completing each movement.
And that seemed to have been the determining factor.
My arms were definitely sore after the second round. Not too much, but enough to make my muscles ache. However, it is worth noting that I only used two kg dumbbells. If you’re doing this exercise with heavier weights, you’ll probably feel the burn a lot more.
I would recommend it for beginners:
I would definitely recommend this exercise for those just starting out with dumbbells. In fact, I’d say total beginners could give it a try if they feel confident.
This is a slow and easy workout that will allow you to follow along easily.
You won’t feel flustered about not getting the form right, especially since every move is explained slowly and clearly. The 30-second breaks in between also allow you to take a breather and rest before diving into the next move.
20 min standing dumbbell workout | sculpt and strengthen | full body | no repeats by fitbymik
I’ll be honest: I felt pretty good about myself after the previous training. It wasn’t too difficult for me and I was looking for something that would challenge me. So I decided to try a full body workout to really get my heart pumping.
Difficulty:
For this particular workout, I had to rewind the clip to capture the movements. Even though fitbymik did the moves before each one, the exercises often required the entire body.
So to make sure I understood what to do with all my limbs, I had to replay each part just to be sure. But other than that, the moves weren’t too complicated to do.
How much did it burn:
Well, I was looking for something challenging, and I was challenged indeed. I found myself having to pause between a few moves because my legs were wobbly.
Sure, I was used to doing lunges, but I was definitely not used to doing it with an extra eight pounds on my body. I really had to push myself until the end of training.
But at the end of the day, I discovered that my body didn’t hurt as much as I thought.
I would recommend it for beginners:
If you are a complete beginner, I would not recommend this exercise. But if you do any type of exercise regularly and are looking to push yourself, this is a good place to start your dumbbell training journey.
One thing to keep in mind is that the breaks between each activity are only 15 seconds. This can make it difficult to catch your breath and prepare for the next move.
20 minute dumbbell full body workout – no repetition by Caroline Girvan
Even though this workout is also 20 minutes long, it felt much longer than the previous one.
Difficulty:
Most of the moves were fairly simple to execute, but there was one that I had quite a bit of trouble with: the renegade row. I really didn’t know how far apart my legs needed to be because of the camera angle.
The references I looked at online showed her legs hip-width apart, but Caroline seemed to have her legs a little wider than that.
The last move was also very difficult for me to understand. There was so much going on that I couldn’t understand what was going on.
How much did it burn:
I didn’t even have to wait for the end of the workout to feel the burn. Every move left me sweating and my legs and arms ached by the end. The next day, it was difficult for me to walk fast and lift heavy things.
I would recommend it for beginners:
I would say put this exercise aside until you have gained some muscle in your arms. This training was not a joke; when i finished it, i sat in front of the fan and wondered why i put myself to such ‘torture’.
But I will definitely set this video as a benchmark for myself in the future: the day I can get through this without putting my hands on my knees to breathe is the day I will no longer consider myself a beginner in training!
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East Article was first published in The Singapore Women’s Weekly.
