Strength-training twice a week builds stronger bones, muscles and connective tissue. Free weights like dumbbells increase the benefit of strength training, because your muscles work not just to push the weights but also to stabilize them. Because of this added level of difficulty, you should stick to beginner exercises when you first start using dumbbells. Once you've mastered the basics, you can move on to more difficult exercises.
Dumbbell Press
The dumbbell chest press is the same motion you'd perform with a chest-press machine, or doing a barbell bench press. This exercise works your chest, triceps and shoulders. Although you should start doing this exercise on a flat bench, once you're comfortable with the motion you can also do presses on incline or decline weight benches, to work the upper or lower fibers of your pectoral muscles, respectively.
Lie face-up on the bench. Hold a dumbbell in each hand and extend your arms straight over your chest, palms facing toward your feet. Lower the weights down and out, keeping your hands above your elbows. Stop when your elbows are level with your shoulders, then return to the starting position.
Dumbbell Row
The dumbbell row is one of the simplest and most effective back exercises. It works all the major muscle groups in your back, including your latissimus dorsi, trapezius and erector spinae. But unlike a bent-over row, which positions you hinged forward from the waist, during a dumbbell row you support your body with one knee and one hand on a weight bench. You do dumbbell rows one arm at a time, holding the dumbbell in your free hand.
Keep your back flat, shoulders level. Let the weight hang straight below your shoulder then pull it up and back, leading with your elbow. Stop when your elbow is close against your side, then lower the weight back to the starting position.
Biceps Curls
You can do biceps curls while standing, feet between hip- and shoulder-width apart, or sitting on a bench with an upright back. Hold one weight in each hand, arms straight down by your sides, palms facing forward. Bending your elbows, curling the weights up toward your shoulders, works your biceps, a pulling muscle in the front of your arms. The most common mistakes made during this exercise are swinging your elbows forward, or swinging your shoulders back to help you lift the weight; to combat this, think of sitting or standing up straight and keeping both elbows pinned at your sides.
Triceps Kickbacks
Triceps kickbacks are one of the more beginner-friendly dumbbell exercises for the back of your arm because, as with dumbbell rows, you can support yourself with one hand and one knee on a bench, lifting the weight with your free hand. Keep your back flat and imagine that the elbow of the arm you're lifted with is pinned against your ribs. Then straighten that arm, swinging the weight up toward your hips. Lower the weight back down below your elbow --- still against your side --- and repeat. Make sure not to lock your elbow as you move the weight up, and resist the temptation to swing the weight back and forth with a lot of momentum.
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