Full Body Dumbbell Exercises For Women
Updated: Jul 28
Dumbbells are an excellent way to build functional strength, muscle mass and to lose weight. Full body dumbbell exercises have an advantage over using a barbell because here are more ways you can increase your functional strength and also help to avoid muscle imbalances. Using this full body dumbbell exercises for women you can efficiently increase your functional strength, fix muscle imbalances, increase muscle mass, and lose weight either at the gym or from the comfort of your own home.
However, building an optimal full body dumbbell exercises for women can be challenging depending on what your goals are. Knowing which exercises to do, in what order, how many reps, sets and rest can all add to the challenge and an inferior workout yields inferior results.
Here I will provide you with a comprehensive guide/routine to help you achieve your goals. There are 6 exercises- 2 for back and biceps, 2 for chest, triceps and shoulders, and 2 for legs. The exercises should follow the order set in order to fully exhaust a muscle group before going onto the next.
Top Tips
So, before we get into the workout it is important that you understand a couple things in order to get the most out of the exercises.
Always squeeze the muscle you are training at the end of the movement for maximum gains
On the way down from the movement always go slowly, this will help with control and muscle contractions to maximise benefits
Build up slowly- you need to build the amount you are doing slowly in order to progress each week. If you set out and try to do the most you can each week you will burn out, not recover and have no way to improve going forward
Always leave at least 48 hours between workouts in order to recover full and get the benefits
Last but no least, invest in an adjustable dumbbell if you are doing this workout from home. These can change the weight you are using which is vital when performing a workout like this. You cannot curl as much as you can squat so don't expect to use the same weight all the way through the workout and get well-rounded benefits
My recommendation for an adjustable dumbbell:
AtivaFit Adjustable Dumbbell (2-20kg) from Amazon: https://amzn.to/3KCI5MF
Full body dumbbell exercises routine for women
Bicep curls
8-12 reps, 2-4 sets and 60 seconds rest
The first exercise in this routine is bicep curls. You can do alternating arms for a total of 16 or do 1 arm 8 times and then switch. This exercise comes first so that you can exhaust the biceps so that on the next exercise you can train your back and your biceps will not be helping you.
Dumbbell bent over row
8-12 reps, 2-4 sets and 60 seconds rest
Next, is the dumbbell bent over row, this is great for training your back, specifically your latissimus dorsi, your middle and lower traps, your rhomboids and the posterior deltoids. As mentioned before this exercise will work better after the bicep curls as the biceps will not be helping you.
Dumbbell shoulder press
8-12 reps, 2-4 sets and 60 seconds rest
Now, we are moving away from the classic 'pull day' exercises and are going for a 'push' exercise. The dumbbell shoulder press will work muscles which we have not trained yet in this routine, obviously mainly the shoulders (deltoids), the upper chest and the triceps.
Overhead tricep extensions
8-12 reps, 2-4 sets and 60 seconds rest
Now, we are going to focus on the triceps for the next exercise. This exercise is one of the best triceps exercises you can do regardless of whether you are in a gym or not.
Goblet squats
8-12 reps, 2-4 sets and 60 seconds rest
Finally, we move onto legs for the last 2 exercises. The reason legs come last is because they incorporate a little bit of the muscles used in the previous 4 exercises and we do not want to fatigue them first. This exercise is one of the best for building up your glutes, hamstrings and quadriceps all in one.
Seated calf raises
8-12 reps, 2-4 sets and 60 seconds rest
Seated calf raise is an exercise which is better for increasing the size of your calves better than any other calf exercise because it takes out the balance factor. This exercise will certainly help you on your way to bigger calves in no-time.
I hope you have found this full body dumbbell routine for women simpler to understand than most of the routines you can find out there, and hopefully this is enjoyable enough to stick to!
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