If looking to build your home gym or just want to do a little exercise at home or outside then a must have buy is a set of dumbbells. For a small investment you can get a set of Dumbbells that you can basically use to work your whole body yet they take up no room and can be used anywhere in the home or taken outside.
For those of you who haven’t been introduced to Dumbbells they typically come in various forms. Most have a small bar with a static weight on either end. Some are one-piece moulded plastic or foam. Others have discs or varying weights that can be swapped out, added to and so on.
Generally the moulded and static weight sets costs less and on the whole are sturdy and safe to use. However you can end up buying several pairs of varying weight as your training progresses, which can offset the savings, made initially plus you have more equipment to store and move around. As you progress with your training the adjustable dumbbell sets will give you more flexibility because you can keep adding weight as you need it. The single drawback is having to swap the weight around when you finish each exercise.
From a safety perspective always make sure the weights are securely fastened before performing any exercise as the last thing you want is a 5kg weight flying off the bar as you perform a bicep curl or overhead press. If training at home don’t forget to wear appropriate footwear because you definately don’t want a dumbbell landing on your bear foot. When you first start to use free weights I would advise to select a light pair of dumbbels. This allows you to control the weights confidently when performing the exercises. Training with dumbbells does take your body some time to adjust when first starting to use them. Don’t be suprised to find your arms shaking as you perfom certain exercises especially a pressing movement such as dumbbell bench press. After a few weeks of consistenty using the dumbbell you should find you can handle them with more ease and control. As a final note if your not sure how to perform any exercise please consider investing in some professional fitness adviser to teach you correct technique
The main reason I recommend getting a set of dumbbells is that from a training perspective they offer you so much flexibility and variation. You can train every single muscle in the body with a pair of dumbbells with literally hundreds of different dumbell workouts for you to choose from. It doesn’t matter if you are complete novice or have been training for years everybody can have a effective and safe workout using dumbbells.
Because a dumbbell is free weight the range of motion you can apply to your exercises allows you to work your muscles far more effectively than say a weight machine. Also by training with free weights such as dumbbells you use so many more muscles during the session meaning that burn up loads of calories while at the same time improve your body’s coordination and functionality.
If you’re a complete beginner I would recommend to start with a small set of dumbbells that range from 2kg –5kg. For those who are more experienced and have a bigger budget there are some great dumbbell sets available. A popular adjustable dumbell set is from Bowflex. The weight range of each dumbbell is from 2kg-21kg. The beauty of it is that you don’t have tons of different weights to keep adding and taking, everything is done with the turn of dial. This obviously saves you lots of messing about, keep storage to a minimum and will allow you to train without further purchases in equipment for a long time. Again I would only look at these if you are serious about your training and are committed to getting the most from your investment.
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