The beauty of strength training is that there are several ways of going about it. All you need is a bit of creativity, and it won’t matter whether you’re an advanced or novice trainee. You’ll get the work done. The bonus? You get to build muscle mass and lose weight simultaneously. The 5-day dumbell workout split is one of the most effective strength training strategies for building muscles out there. Sure, it’ll take a lot of commitment and dedication, but the results will be worth it. Here’s everything you need to know about this workout plan.
Is A Daily Dumbbell Workout Plan Good For You?
You’re looking for one of these much-hyped 5-day workout plans women and men do, however, don’t quite get the idea behind them. To help you understand why the 5-day dumbbell workout routine is effective, we first have to look at some of the basics.
You see, split workouts are different from full-body workouts because they target specific muscle groups at a time. It then follows a 5-day split routine that targets specific muscle groups five days a week. You then get two days to rest, then repeat the cycle for a set period, say a month or two.
This kind of schedule is what makes these routines excellent choices for building muscle mass. So is a daily workout plan good for you? Well, technically, yes. Just make sure you get enough time for muscle recovery and don’t overtrain.
Now, all you’re left with is getting the perfect strength exercises, and you’ll be ripped up in no time. This is where the dumbbell workout plans come in.
Read More: Dumbbell Arm Workout: Adding Some Weights Might Just Be The Game-Changer You Need!
Below are some of the benefits of dumbbell strength exercises:
Identifying And Correcting Strength Imbalances
Working out using dumbbells ideally means training one side of your body at any given time. This kind of sequence can be particularly useful in identifying and correcting any strength imbalances of either side. How? You can never over-compensate when you’re using dumbbells. Therefore, one side can never be stronger than the other.
Dumbbells Promote Muscle Growth
Using dumbbells creates two types of overloads – metabolic and mechanical. The latter is caused by the damage brought about by muscular contractions during the workout. This triggers a repair process that ultimately increases the size and strength of your muscles.
Metabolic overload happens when your muscles are worked to fatigue. As a result, your muscles start storing more glycogen as an adaptation mechanism resulting in large muscles. Heavier dumbbells will stimulate mechanical overload. However, moderate-weight dumbbells combined with high reps to fatigue can result in metabolic overload.
Improved Joint Mobility And Muscle Activation
Strength training routines involving dumbbells usually require a greater range of motion compared to using barbells. Essentially, this will require greater stabilization, thus activating more muscle fibers. This will then create a domino of improved increased joint mobility (2).
Improved Muscular Coordination
When you’re using dumbbells, you have two weights that you have to control, which can significantly improve your coordination. Here’s how that happens. First off, there are two types of muscular coordination in your body – intra and intermuscular.
Intermuscular coordination is when different muscles work together to stabilize and produce joint motion. Intramuscular coordination, however, is the number of muscle fibers connected to motor units that are activated within a specific muscle.
When you use light dumbbells in compound or multiplanar movement patterns, you improve your intermuscular coordination. Heavier dumbbells, on the other hand, increase the amount of muscle fiber activation with specific muscles.
Finally, dumbbells are also considered by most trainees to be more joint-friendly. For instance, dumbbells may relieve shoulder pains that are sometimes caused by barbells (1).
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Dumbbells Can Be Scaled For All Fitness Levels
Unlike barbells, dumbbells are more flexible for use by trainees of all fitness levels. It doesn’t matter whether you’re an expert or a beginner. The key lies in picking weights that challenge you and permit you to move efficiently and safely (1).
Dumbbells Are Affordable, Easily Accessible, And Space Saving
Perhaps one of the best perks of dumbbells is their cost. Depending on the weights you start with, a pair costs about $40-$110. Dumbbells are also very convenient and easy to use at home. That’s because they require very little space for storage and use, unlike barbells.
Finally, dumbbells are probably the most accessible strength training equipment out there. You can find them in most, especially, global and hotel gyms. So it doesn’t matter where you go. Chances are you’ll always find dumbbells.
When it comes to safety, dumbbells may be the preferred alternative, especially during pressing exercises. A failed bench press could result in severe injuries if the barbell crashes on your chest or neck. On the other hand, if you’re using dumbbells, all you need to do is drop the weights on the floor. Therefore if you prefer training solo, then dumbbells should be your equipment of choice.
The Best 5-Day Dumbbell Workout Routine
You’ve made your decision. You want to give the 5-day per week dumbbell workout routine a shot. The only question left is how to choose the best at-home workout program to build your lean muscle mass. You’re now wondering which 5-day workout plans with minimal equipment women and men can use at home.
Well, next, we look at one of the best 5-day dumbbell workout routines and how you can go about it.
Warming Up
Jumping straight into workouts is never a good idea. Doing that can result in injuries that’ll ultimately interfere with your performance. Besides, the exercises in this program can get quite intense. If your body is unprepared, the first few rounds may be harder than they need to be, reducing your strength and size gains.
Whenever warming up is brought up, we tend to think about jogging on the spot for a few minutes. While this may increase your heart rate, it will not do much to prepare your muscles for what is to come. Remember, this is a split-workout routine, and as such, it targets specific muscle groups at a time. Your warm-up should be focused on the muscles you’re about to use.
You could start with a few dynamic stretches to activate your whole body. Next, move to more specific warm-ups that’ll target individual muscle groups. All this should take only a few minutes then you’ll have a better workout session. Worth it, right?
Read More: 2-Day Full Body Workout: Hit All Of Your Major Muscle Groups In One Sweat Sesh
5-Day Dumbbell Workout Split
5 days splits can be done in several ways, with the most popular being training 1-2 muscle groups per workout. Some people, however, prefer training each muscle group once weekly. Working on each muscle group twice per week seems to yield better results for most people.
The following workout plan involves an upper/lower body split and push-pull-legs split. This ensures every muscle group is trained twice weekly for maximum muscle growth and better exercise variety.
Here’s how it’ll look like:
Monday: Upper Body
On this day, the workouts will aim to train all the muscles in your upper body. For maximum impact, try to reach failure in each set. Finally, all muscles will be trained equally since the workout involves pushing and pulling. Also, allow a recovery period of between 60-90 seconds between each rep.
Here’s what you’ll need to do:
- Dumbbell bench press: 5 sets and 8-10 reps
- Dumbbell tricep kickback: 4 sets and 8-12 reps
- Dumbbell biceps curl: 4 sets and 8-10 reps
- Seated dumbbell shoulder press: 4 sets and 8-12 reps
- Incline dumbbell bench press: 4 sets and 8-10 reps
- Dumbbell floor press: 3 sets and 8-12 reps
- Dumbbell lateral raise: 3 sets and 8-10 reps
Tuesday: Lower Body
Your legs and core are crucial for building a muscular, strong, and functional body. These dumbbell workout routines will help you do just that. For these workouts, the recovery period will be between 60-90 seconds.
Here’s what you’ll need to do:
- Dumbbell leg extension: 5 sets and 8-10 reps
- Dumbbell Romanian deadlift: 4 sets and 8-10 reps
- Single-leg standing calf raise: 4 sets and 8-12 reps per leg
- Dumbbell rear lunge: 4 sets and 8-10 reps per leg
- Dumbbell frog squat: 3 sets and 8-12 reps
- Weighted crunch: 3 sets and 20 reps
- Dumbbell goblet squat: 4 sets and 8-10 reps
- Split squat: 4 sets and 6-12 reps per leg
Wednesday: Rest
Engage in active recovery or just rest to give your muscles time for recovery.
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Thursday: Push
The workouts on this day will primarily target your triceps, chest, and shoulder muscles. Due to the quantity of muscle-building volume in these exercises, you should expect some delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) on completion. Also, you’ll need a recovery period of between 60-90 seconds after each rep.
Here’s what you’ll need to do:
- Dumbbell flye: 4 sets and 8-10 reps
- Dumbbell overhead triceps extension: 4 sets and 8-12 reps
- Dumbbell bench press: 5 sets and 8-10 reps
- Dumbbell floor press: 3 sets and 8-10 reps
- Lateral raise: 4 sets and 8-12 reps
- Incline dumbbell bench press: 4 sets and 8-10 reps
- Dumbbell kickback: 4 sets and 8-10 reps per arm
- Dumbbell pushup: 4 sets and as many reps as possible
Friday: Pull
The workouts on this day will primarily target your traps, back, and biceps. For these workouts, you’ll need a recovery period of between 60-90 seconds after each rep.
Here’s what you’ll need to do:
- Bent-over dumbbell row: 5 sets and 8-10 reps
- Dumbbell armpit row: 4 sets and 8-10 reps
- Dumbbell shrug: 4 sets and 8-12 reps
- Dumbbell preacher curl: 4 sets and 8-12 reps per arm
- Weighted pull-ups: 3 sets and as many reps as possible
- Renegade row: 3 sets and 8-12 reps per arm
- Concentration curl: 3 sets and 8-12 reps per arm
Saturday: Legs And Abs
On this day, you’ll work on your leg muscles, again, in addition to your abs. For these workouts, you’ll need a recovery of between 60-90 seconds after each rep.
Here’s what you’ll need to do:
- Dumbbell side bend: 4 sets and 8-10 reps per side
- Dumbbell leg curl: 4 sets and 8-10 reps
- Dumbbell sumo squat: 4 sets and 8-10 reps
- Dumbbell side bend: 5 sets and 8-12 reps
- Seated dumbbell calf raise: 5 sets and 8-12 reps
- Single-leg Romanian deadlift: 5 sets and 8-12 reps per leg
- Dumbbell hip thrust: 4 sets and 10-15 reps
- Bulgarian split squat: 5 sets and 8-12 reps per leg
Sunday: Rest
Engage in active recovery or just rest to give your muscles time for recovery.
These workouts are just a guideline to help you through the 5-day dumbbell workout routine. However, you should feel free to make adjustments that best suit your fitness goals. Also, our bodies are masters of adaptation.
Over time, chances are you’ll get used to these workouts and hit a plateau. Therefore, progressively increase the weight of dumbbells if you want more strength. Also, you can consider turning your plan into a 5-day workout split dumbbell barbell combination to achieve more strength gains.
If extra endurance is your goal, then light weights and high reps should do the trick. Finally, there are several 5-day dumbbell workout plans with minimal equipment women and men could try out. So feel free to try out different combinations until you find one that best suits you.
Conclusion
Strength training is not always the easiest thing to do. However, in contrast, it’s perhaps the most beneficial type of workout out there. When done correctly, you can build more muscle mass and burn fat simultaneously. The problem comes when you try to rush through it in a disorganized way. That will most likely result in injuries.
On the other hand, carefully planned 5-day split workout routines like this. It will get you ripped up safely in no time. All you need is some discipline, commitment, and a healthy diet. In the end, it’ll be worth all the trouble.
DISCLAIMER:
This article is intended for general informational purposes only and does not address individual circumstances. It is not a substitute for professional advice or help and should not be relied on to make decisions of any kind. Any action you take upon the information presented in this article is strictly at your own risk and responsibility!
SOURCES:
- Relationship of Barbell and Dumbbell Repetitions With One Repetition Maximum Bench Press in College Football Players (2021, journals.lww.com)
- Maximal Strength Performance and Muscle Activation for the Bench Press and Triceps Extension Exercises Adopting Dumbbell, Barbell, and Machine Modalities Over Multiple Sets (2016, researchgate.net)
