Dumbbells are an adaptable, user-friendly, and efficient exercise equipment that helps us gain strength, mass, and endurance while allowing us to do a wide range of exercises. However, you can only effectively use such exercises if you have a carefully planned workout plan. Whether the goal is muscle building or weight loss, an exercise plan is necessary to reach a certain fitness level. It enables you to train carefully and helps in achieving your fitness goals. This article mentioned a 5-day dumbbell workout split to maximize strength and build muscle.
Benefits of Dumbbell Strength Exercises
Correcting Strength Imbalances
Dumbbell workouts involve working only one side of your body at a time. This sequence can be particularly useful in finding and solving imbalances in either side’s strength. It is impossible to overcompensate when working with dumbbells. Therefore, one side cannot be stronger than the other.
Dumbbells Improve Muscle Growth
There are two types of overloads created by using dumbells. One is metabolic, and the other is mechanical. The muscle’s damage during the workout and repair during the rest causes the muscles’ growth and development, which can be either metabolic or mechanical.
Muscle Activation and Joint Mobility
Compared to barbells, dumbbells require a high range of motion during strength training. Doing so requires good stability for activating more muscle fibers. So, as a result of a high range of motion, the joints also engage, which improves the mobility of the joints.
Muscular Coordination
While using dumbells, we have to concentrate on two weights, which gradually improves the coordination of the muscles. While doing lightweight dumbells in various movements, intermuscular coordination improves. Heavy dumbells help to activate the maximum number of muscle fibers in specific muscles.
Suitable For All Fitness Levels
It does not matter whether you are a beginner or an expert; you can still use dumbbells for your regular workouts. The main thing to concentrate on is choosing the weights you can handle properly and safely.
Easy to Handle, Save Space and Affordable
Dumbells are accessible and commonly available everywhere you want to stay for leisure. Dumbells can save you space; you can store them wherever you want and work them out at your convenience. They are super affordable, and the price varies depending on the metal and weight of the dumbells. Compared to barbells, dumbells are safe to use in some aspects, like failed reps and joint pains.
Warm Up and Stretching
Warmup and stretching is always a great idea before starting the workout. Warmup prepares the muscles, joints, and nervous system to control the weights and muscles during workouts. The ideal warmup set number ranges from 1-3 sets with medium weight. On the other hand, stretching is not always required because it has very few to no benefits to the workouts and doesn’t prevent injuries in workouts. Stretching is not mandatory. We suggest warmup is far better than stretching to prevent injury and improve lifting performance.
5-Day Dumbbell Workout Split
There are several ways to do a five-day split; most of them include working on 1-2 muscle groups per workout. For beginners, it is advised to train 1 muscle group per week and rest. For advanced lifters, they train one muscle twice a week. In this workout split, we have mentioned upper body, lower body, push, pull, legs, and abs workouts with rests in between, which are useful for every person to improve their strength and muscle condition.
Monday: Upper Body
This workout schedule aims to train the upper body, which involves push and pull movements. Try to reach failure for every workout in each set so that all the muscles will be trained equally. The recovery or rest between the sets should be around 60-90 seconds.
Schedule
- 5 sets of Dumbell bench presses, which have 8-10 reps for each set
- 4 sets of Dumbbell tricep kickbacks with 8-12 reps for each set
- 4 sets of Dumbbell biceps curls with 8-10 reps for each set
- 4 sets of Seated dumbbell shoulder presses with 8-12 reps for each set
- 4 sets of Incline dumbbell bench presses with 8-10 reps for each set
- 3 sets of Dumbbell floor presses with 8-12 reps for each set
- 3 sets of Dumbbell lateral raises with 8-10 reps for each set
Tuesday: Lower Body
In lower body workouts, the legs and Abs are mainly targeted. These muscles are very important for a strong, muscular, and functional body. The rest between each set will be 60-90 seconds.
Schedule
- 5 sets of Dumbbell leg extension with 8-10 reps for each set
- 4 sets of Dumbbell Romanian deadlift with 8-10 reps for each set
- 4 sets of Single-leg standing calf raises with 8-12 reps for each set
- 4 sets of Dumbbell rear lunges with 8-10 reps per leg for every set
- 3 sets of Dumbbell frog squats with 8-12 reps for each set
- 3 sets of Weighted crunches with 20 reps for each set
- 4 sets of Dumbbell goblet squats with 8-10 reps for each set
- 4 sets of Split squats with 6-12 reps per leg for each set
Wednesday: Rest
Provide rest for your muscles at least once or twice a week for a good recovery. Muscles grow when sufficient rest is given to them.
Thursday: Push
Workouts on push day target the chest, shoulder, and triceps muscles. You will experience Delayed onset muscle soreness upon completing this workout due to the quantity of muscle building. The rest between sets should be between 60-90 seconds.
Schedule
- 4 sets of Dumbbell flys with 8-10 reps for each set
- 4 sets of Dumbbell overhead triceps extension with 8-12 reps for each set
- 5 sets of Dumbbell bench presses with 8-10 reps for each set
- 3 sets of Dumbbell floor presses with 8-10 reps for each set
- 4 sets of Lateral raises with 8-12 reps for each set
- 4 sets of Incline dumbbell bench presses with 8-10 reps for each set
- 4 sets of Dumbbell kickbacks with 8-10 reps per arm for each set
- 4 sets of Dumbbell pushups until failure
Friday: Pull
Pull workouts activate the back, biceps, and traps. The rest time between the sets should be 60-90 seconds.
Schedule
- 5 sets of Bent-over dumbbell rows with 8-10 reps for each set
- 4 sets of Dumbbell armpit rows with 8-10 reps for each set
- 4 sets of Dumbbell shrugs with 8-12 reps for each set
- 4 sets of Dumbbell preacher curls with 8-12 reps per arm for every set
- 3 sets of Weighted pull-ups until failure
- 3 sets of Renegade rows with 8-12 reps per arm for each set
- 3 sets of Concentration curls with 8-12 reps per arm for each set
Saturday: Legs And Abs
This is the second time you will engage your legs and abs. You need a rest of 60-90 seconds in between the sets.
Schedule
- 4 sets of Dumbbell side bends with 8-10 reps per side for every set
- 4 sets of Dumbbell leg curls with 8-10 reps for each set
- 4 sets of Dumbbell sumo squats with 8-10 reps for each set
- 5 sets of Dumbbell side bends with 8-12 reps for each set
- 5 sets of Seated dumbbell calf raises with 8-12 reps for each set
- 5 sets of Single-leg Romanian deadlift with 8-12 reps per leg for each set
- 4 sets of Dumbbell hip thrusts with 10-15 reps for each set
- 5 sets of Bulgarian split squats with 8-12 reps per leg for each set
Sunday: Rest
This is the second rest for the week we have given in our split. You can either rest or do some cardio if you are willing to.
Pros of 5-Day Dumbell Workout Split
- More training for every muscle group
- Train the same muscles in different variations
- Burn more calories without any cardio
- Perfect for people who like to work on weekdays
- Balance between training and rest for good muscle development
- A good balance between training and recovery
Cons of 5-Day Dumbell Workout Split
- Missing a day can collapse the split
- Paying more attention to nutrition and rest
- It can be too long for smaller body parts
- Beginners may not adapt easily
- Proper planning required
- No time for cardio
Conclusion
Strength training isn’t always the simplest. On the other hand, it’s the best kind of exercise available. If you do it properly, you can increase your muscle mass and burn fat simultaneously. These carefully planned 5-day dumbbell workout split can quickly get you ripped up safely. All you require is a nutritious diet, discipline, and dedication.
