How to exercise with dumbbells for home fitness

To practice dumbbells at home, you don’t need to save dozens of sets of tricks, buy a whole set of dumbbells of different weights, and a pair of adjustable weight dumbbells. First, you have to understand the three basic movement modes of squatting, pushing, and pulling. The daily needs of muscle gain, fat loss, and shaping can basically be covered.

Last year, I helped arrange a training plan for a friend who rented a small 30-square-meter studio. She had been practicing dumbbell arm swings and wrist rotations to reduce muscle mass for three months following Internet celebrity videos. Her arms were not thin and her joints were sprained from throwing her shoulders randomly. Later, I changed her to three times a week, with four movements each time: cup squats, dumbbell chest presses, and Romani. Sub-deadlift, bent-over dumbbell rowing, each movement was done in 4 groups of 12 times. The whole process only took more than 20 minutes. She didn’t even need to lay a yoga mat. She could do it while standing on the carpet beside the bed. In two months, she lost 2 points of body fat. Her shoulders and neck, which had always hurt before, became much more comfortable. When wearing a sling, her back line became much smoother.

There are a lot of controversies on the Internet about dumbbell training at home. One group says that you must use heavy weights, otherwise the muscles will not be stimulated and the training will be in vain. The other group says that you must not use heavy weights at home without supervision. If you are not careful, you will injure your waist and shoulders. I have actually experienced this pitfall myself. After just two months of training, I rushed to adjust the dumbbell to 20 pounds to do shoulder presses. The movement was not stable and the shoulder peak impinged. The pain lasted for almost three weeks and I even struggled to tie my own hair. Later, I asked a friend who is a coach and found out that novices should focus on honing their movement patterns in the first two months and choose the weight that can be used. Just complete the standard 12 times and reach exhaustion. For example, when pressing the chest, keep your shoulders down instead of shrugging your shoulders upwards. When doing a deadlift, bend your hips first and then lower your body, don't bend your back. Wait until the movement is engraved in the muscle memory before adding more weight. The efficiency is much higher than rushing to press the weight, and you won't get injured easily.

Don’t underestimate these basic movements. Take the Romanian deadlift as an example. Slide the dumbbell down your thighs and stop when you feel the hamstring muscles are stretched. You don’t have to squat hard to the end. It’s better than doing 100 clam shells to train your buttocks. There are many girls around me who are afraid of hurting their waists with deadlifts. After practicing with the right weight for a month, their hip line is half a centimeter higher when wearing jeans. If you are so tired from work that day that you don’t want to move your whole body, you can also take 10 minutes to do targeted exercises. For example, if you want to lose weight before wearing a sling in the summer, just find a chair and do neck and arm flexion and extension in a sitting position. The weight should be about 5 pounds. Slow down and go up slowly. You can clearly feel the soreness and swelling of the triceps. Last year, I did a surprise training for a week before a photo shoot, and my arms were really slimmer visually. If you want to train your core but are afraid of doing abdominal crunches that will hurt your waist and coccyx, adjust the dumbbells to the maximum weight you can hold steadily, do farmer's walks, pace back and forth in the living room at home, keep your core tight and don't collapse your waist the whole time. Walking for 5 minutes will be more stimulating than doing abdominal crunches for half an hour.

Oh, by the way, don’t believe the nonsense about “seven days of dumbbell training to get a waistcoat line.” I practiced hard for almost a year before I got clear lines. But I did it three times a week for more than 20 minutes each time. I changed into clothes that fit into a smaller size and carried 20 kilograms of rice up to the 6th floor without losing breath. The investment was worth it.