To lose a pound of fat, you must burn 3,500 more calories than you consume. While aerobic exercise burns calories during workouts, strength training helps you develop muscle, which helps you burn calories long after your workout. Implement a dumbbell strength-training regimen to target every major muscle group in your body and boost your metabolism.
Benefit of Dumbbells
Dumbbells are relatively small hand weights that are portable and allow you to perform numerous strength-training exercises at home or in the gym. In addition to convenience, dumbbells are designed to target primary and secondary muscles. Strength-training machines localize muscle development, while dumbbells require secondary stabilizing muscles to complete movements, giving you a more beneficial muscle-building workout.
Upper Body Strength Training
Dumbbells are used to perform multiple exercises for every major muscle group. A few upper body strength training exercises include dumbbell curls and hammer curls for biceps, triceps extensions and kickbacks, military presses and front raises for shoulders, dumbbell bench presses and flyes for the chest and bent-over rows and shrugs for your back. Dumbbells can also help develop muscle in your abdomen. Hold a dumbbell to your chest while performing crunches to add resistance to the exercise.
Lower Body Training
Dumbbells also add resistance to body weight resistance exercises for your lower body. Perform squats, lunges and calf raises while holding a dumbbell in each hand at your sides to help strengthen your glutes, hips, quadriceps, hamstrings and calves.
Use dumbbells to mimic certain lower body strength training machines as well. Sit on the edge of a chair with your legs bent, feet raised slightly off the floor, holding a dumbbell between your feet. Extend your legs out in front of you until your legs are parallel with the floor. Or lie on your abdomen with a dumbbell between your feet to perform lying leg curls. Bend your knees to bring the dumbbell toward your buttocks, then lower the weight toward the floor by straightening your legs.
Dumbbells with Aerobic Exercise
Many forms of aerobic exercise burn hundreds of calories per hour. Combine dumbbells with your aerobic workouts to burn even more calories. Hold a dumbbell at your sides while going for a brisk walk, or hold them at your hips while jogging. Be creative and find ways to incorporate dumbbells into your aerobic workouts.
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