25 Best Dumbbell Exercises & Workouts You Don't Need A Gym To Master

If you don't have access to a gym every day, or you’re wondering how to get the most out of your dumbbell exercises, you’ve come to the right place. Not only are dumbbell workouts great for staying in shape, but they are also a very useful tool in any fitness program to build the kind of physique you want.

While there are a ton of dumbbell workouts you can use for building muscle groups in your arms, chest, and back – dumbbells are also a great way to grow your leg muscles with healthy and functional movements. A full-body dumbbell workout can target key muscles you want to build and shape your physical appearance, but it can do so much more than that.

In addition to the confidence you’re likely to gain from working out, a regular full-body dumbbell workout will also lower your risk of cardiovascular and other lifestyle diseases (1). It's a no-brainer really, so let's get into it.

RELATED: 12 Best Shoulder Workouts & Exercises For Men

As a little refresher on our anatomy, dumbbell exercises can help build almost every muscle in our body. However, using the exercises in the following list, you can expect to find workouts that focus on the main muscle groups such as:

But which are the best dumbbell exercises for men to achieve fast gains, build body strength and add value to one's fitness? Read on as we highlight the 25 best dumbbell exercises and workouts for men.

The following dumbbell workouts and free weight exercises can help you tone up and see muscle gains.

Difficulty: Beginner

Target muscles: Biceps, forearms

Equipment needed: Two dumbbells

Sets: 4

Reps: 8-12

Rest: 60 seconds

Benefits: Everyone knows about the dumbbell bicep curl and there's a reason it's one of the best dumbbell exercises there is. As the name suggests, this exercise is ideal for building your bicep muscles and is also beneficial to your forearms. The best way to do this exercise is by doing the following steps:

Difficulty: Intermediate

Target muscles: Delts, pecs, glutes, quads

Equipment needed: Two dumbbells

Sets: 2-3

Reps: 8-12

Rest: 60 seconds

Considered one of the most important shoulder workouts, the dumbbell push press helps exercise one's deltoids, trapezius, glutes, quads, and core. It's a simple move to learn, which is why we definitely recommend it if you’re new to weight training. Here is a step-by-step guide on how to do this exercise:

Difficulty: Intermediate

Target muscles: Pecs, triceps, deltoids

Equipment needed: Two dumbbells, a flat bench

Sets: 2-3

Reps: 8-12

Rest: 60 seconds

A classic exercise for your upper arms and chest, the dumbbell bench press is a great one if you want to have a solid upper body. The bench press is one of the best chest exercises because it helps stretch the muscles a bit more when lifting. Here's how to do this exercise effectively:

Difficulty: Intermediate

Target muscles: Shoulders, biceps, triceps, and forearm

Equipment needed: Two dumbbells, a bench

Sets: 2-3

Reps: 8-12

Rest: 60 seconds

The Arnold press is a variation of the classic shoulder press and a great dumbbell exercise that targets key upper body muscles, like the shoulders and the upper back. You can do this dumbbell workout while standing up or sitting on a bench if you don't have access to one. Follow the steps below:

Difficulty: Beginner

Target muscles: Forearm, biceps, and brachialis

Equipment needed: Two dumbbells

Sets: 2-3

Reps: 8-12

Rest: 60 seconds

Targeting the muscles in your upper arms and forearms, the cross-body hammer curl is an easy exercise, no matter if you’re doing your dumbbell workouts at the gym or at home. The cross-body hammer curl is usually executed following these steps:

Difficulty: Beginner

Target muscles: Trapezius muscles, spinal erectors, and biceps brachii

Equipment needed: One dumbbell and a bench

Sets: 2-3

Reps: 8-12

Rest: 60 seconds

One of the more popular dumbbell exercises, the bent-over row, helps work your back, shoulders and triceps. While you don't necessarily need a bench, you can do the exercise properly if you have something between knee and hip height to brace yourself against. Here's how to go about doing this exercise:

Difficulty: Intermediate

Target muscles: Shoulders, chest, and biceps

Equipment needed: Two dumbbells, a bench

Sets: 2-3

Reps: 8-12

Rest: 60 seconds

The lying dumbbell fly exercise is quite similar to the bench press in terms of action. However, the main difference is that the lying dumbbell fly uses a different motion pattern that targets the muscles in your shoulder joint. This is a step-by-step guide for doing this high-muscle growth exercise:

Difficulty: Beginner

Target muscles: Glutes, abs, and quads

Equipment needed: One dumbbell

Sets: 2-3

Reps: 12-15

Rest: 60 seconds

The Goblet squat is one of the best dumbbell workout options if you are looking for an ab workout that also targets your legs. The exercise can also help work out various muscle groups in the lower body region, such as calves, quadriceps and glutes. You can perform the goblet squat by following these steps:

Difficulty: Beginner

Target muscles: Glutes, calves, hamstrings, and quads

Equipment needed: Two dumbbells

Sets: 2-3

Reps: 12-15

Rest: 60 seconds

Similar to the goblet squat, lunges using dumbbells mainly target muscles in the lower region of your body. Thus, it may serve as an exercise you can include in a leg workout program. Lunges can help improve core strength and increase your level of stability and hip flexibility. Here's how to do this exercise:

Difficulty: Beginner

Target muscles: Shoulders and trapezius muscles

Equipment needed: Two dumbbells

Sets: 2-3

Reps: 8-12

Rest: 60 seconds

The lateral raise is one of the best dumbbell workouts to build the shoulder muscles, specifically the deltoids. It also works out your upper back muscles around your shoulder blades and upper arm muscles, but start with light weights to avoid injury. Executing the dumbbell lateral raise involves the following steps:

Difficulty: Beginner

Target muscles: Anterior deltoids

Equipment needed: Two dumbbells

Sets: 2-3

Reps: 8-12

Rest: 60 seconds

Just like the lateral raise, the dumbbell front raise works on your deltoids but focuses on your anterior deltoids more than your lateral deltoids. It's a great dumbbell workout to do with adjustable dumbbells if you have them, allowing you to change the load on your shoulders easily. If you don't have adjustable dumbbells, start with light dumbbells and slowly increase the weight over time. Here's how to do this exercise:

Difficulty: Beginner

Target muscles: Abs, core, and the obliques

Equipment needed: Abs, core, and the obliques

Sets: 2-3

Reps: 15-20

Rest: 60 seconds

The Russian twist is one of the best dumbbell workouts to build a bulletproof core and strong muscle fibres. The Russian twist is a very simple resistance exercise to perform, specifically engaging your abdominal muscles to complete any good full-body workout. Here's how you do it:

Difficulty: Beginner

Target muscles: Biceps and forearms

Equipment needed: One dumbbell and a bench

Sets: 2-3

Reps: 8-12

Rest: 60 seconds

Concentration curls are an ideal exercise if you want to give your biceps and forearms a rock-solid dumbbell workout. Prepare to rip some muscle fibres and grow a set of beach-ready arms because this is a good one. Doing concentration curls using dumbbells involves:

Difficulty: Intermediate

Target muscles: Triceps, front deltoids and upper pectorals

Equipment needed: Two dumbbells

Sets: 2-3

Reps: 8-12

Rest: 60 seconds

Also known as the dumbbell lying triceps extension exercise, this is one of the best tricep workouts there is. In addition to being a good exercise for your triceps, it also works on your upper chest and front shoulder muscles. However, because of the position of the weight, it's important that you don't lift too heavy to avoid injury. Here's how you do the dumbbells skull crusher:

Difficulty: Beginner

Target muscles: Quads, forearms, core, hamstrings, and glutes

Equipment needed: Two dumbbells

Sets: 2-3

Reps: 20 seconds

Rest: 60 seconds

The Farmer's Walk is one of the few workouts that can exercise muscles in the upper and lower parts of the body and is great for your overall strength. The exercise can also improve grip strength and make rotator cuffs stronger, which is why it's a favourite of many athletes looking to get stronger. Doing the Farmer's walk is quite simple, just follow the steps below:

Difficulty: Intermediate

Target muscles: Triceps

Equipment needed: Two dumbbells, and a bench

Sets: 2-3

Reps: 8-12

Rest: 60 seconds

Neglecting triceps is a common mistake most of us do, but that only means you need to train them harder when you do your best dumbbell workout. This exercise specifically targets the triceps, and you should start with dumbbells of a lighter weight. Executing this workout involves the following steps:

Difficulty: Intermediate

Target muscles: Forearms, biceps, delts, and rhomboids

Equipment needed: Two dumbbells

Sets: 2-3

Reps: 8-12

Rest: 60 seconds

Renegade rows can help improve your back strength and exercise your abdominal muscles. Another benefit is you can complete them using either dumbbells or kettlebells, so there's never an excuse to miss them. Here's how to execute a renegade row:

Difficulty: Beginner

Target muscles: Calves

Equipment needed: Two dumbbells

Sets: 2-3

Reps: 15-20

Rest: 60 seconds

Much like a regular calf raise, the dumbbell calf raise is essentially the same thing with the additional weight, so you really feel the burn in those smaller muscles in your lower legs. Dumbbell calf raises can help improve your stability and agility, making them a great exercise for anyone who plays sports. You need to do the following to complete a set of calf raises:

Difficulty: Intermediate

Target muscles: Posterior delts and rhomboids

Equipment needed: Two dumbbells and a bench

Sets: 2-3

Reps: 8-12

Rest: 60 seconds

The dumbbell reverse fly is mainly developed to target muscles in the upper body areas, such as the trapezius and rhomboid, building the smaller muscle group in your back. The dumbbell reverse fly is not that easy to execute, but here are some steps to help break it down:

Difficulty: Intermediate

Target muscles: Hamstrings, glutes, core, and lower back

Equipment needed: Two dumbbells

Sets: 2-3

Reps: 8-12

Rest: 60 seconds

The dumbbell Romanian deadlift is another great exercise to work out all of the major muscle group areas in your body, especially in your upper legs and core. With the weight travelling through your entire body, it also improves grip strength and coordination. Here is a simple process for doing the Romanian deadlift:

Difficulty: Beginner

Target muscles: Triceps

Equipment needed: One dumbbell

Sets: 2-3

Reps: 8-12

Rest: 60 seconds

Finish off your workout by trying out some overhead tricep extensions, which are similar to the skull crusher but in a standing position. You can use either one or two dumbbells, depending on your preference. Follow the steps below to execute this exercise:

Difficulty: Intermediate

Target muscles: Deltoids, back muscles

Equipment needed: Two dumbbells

Sets: 2-3

Reps: 8-12

Rest: 60 seconds

The dumbbell scaption is a great way to exercise your front and middle deltoids, with a similar movement to the lateral raises, except your palms are facing forwards instead of inwards. Always make sure you start with a lighter weight for this exercise, as you don't want to risk injury. Here's how to execute the dumbbell scaption exercise:

Difficulty: Beginner

Target muscles: Quads, glutes, core

Equipment needed: Two dumbbells, and raised step or bench

Sets: 2-3

Reps: 20-30

Rest: 60 seconds

Work on your glutes and cardio by doing some dumbbell step-ups. This exercise should help you build your core strength and improve the strength of your hip muscles. As a leg exercise, this step-up exercise can be done the following way:

Difficulty: Intermediate

Target muscles: Glutes, abs, quads

Equipment needed: One dumbbell

Sets: 2-3

Reps: 8-12

Rest: 60 seconds

The dumbbell one-arm swing is an exercise that requires some thought and coordination but is great for building functional muscles in your legs and core. You can either use a dumbbell or a kettlebell and is fairly straightforward to do. Although simple, here's a step-by-step guide on how to do it right:

Difficulty: Intermediate

Target muscles: Triceps, biceps

Equipment needed: Two dumbbells, an incline bench

Sets: 2-3

Reps: 8-12

Rest: 60 seconds

The dumbbell spider curl is another exercise that builds your biceps while keeping your core engaged. By allowing your biceps the full range of motion, it's one of the best dumbbell workouts in the game that focuses on your upper body. Do the following to effectively complete this exercise:

Achieving your ideal of the perfect body is far from an easy process, but with these simple dumbbell workouts, it doesn't have to be complicated. In addition to looking better, you’ll also enjoy better physical and mental health from working out, so if you need any other workout resources to help you in your journey we’re here to assist.

Let's look at some frequently asked questions to help guide your fitness routine.

Yes, dumbbell exercises are a great form of weight training for a couple of reasons. Firstly, you don't need much equipment, so you can train at home if you have a solid set of dumbbells. Secondly, there are dozens of great exercises you can do with them, so you can build strength and muscle in your entire body.

Yes, you can, which is one of the best things about owning your own set of dumbbells.

It's a great way to train because it doesn't take up much space, you can do it from anywhere and you will see serious results if you train consistently and increase your training load.

The more you are likely to use your adjustable dumbbells, the more it's worth it to buy a set. If you’re never going to use them, or prefer going to the gym, then save your money.

There are many effective dumbbell exercises, but one of the most effective dumbbell exercises is the dumbbell bench press and the goblet squat. How effective a dumbbell exercise is depends on a few factors, including the number of muscles it targets and the range of motion required.

The best way to build biceps muscles with dumbbell exercises is by focusing on the most effective dumbbell exercises for bicep muscles. Such exercises include the dumbbell bench press, bicep curls, hammer curl, and incline bicep curl.

3-4 dumbbell exercises every time you train are the best for improving strength and building muscle mass. The number of sets you can do should vary based on your strength, and you can increase the number of reps with time.

2-3 dumbbell exercises per week are the ideal number of workouts for the full body. To make the exercises count, you need to do several sets each time you engage in dumbbell exercises.

Jono Castano is a Sydney-based celebrity personal trainer and certified nutrition coach who specialises in fitness, training, workouts and diet plans. He is the co-founder of the popular Acero fitness brand and fitness app and has become well-known for his extensive work with noted figures like Rebel Wilson, Jessica Mauboy, Lincoln Lewis, Joel Creasy and The Veronica's.

Jono has built a large social media following with over 800,000 subscribers on Instagram. He has also been profiled by publications such as Men's Health and has become one of the most recognisable fitness instructors in Australia.