Working out your shoulders and back with dumbbells can be great fun. The versatility that dumbbells provide allows you to workout multiple ways. By using free weights, you get a chance to do weighted shoulder presses, lateral raises, overhead presses, rowing motions, and much more. If you are looking for a way to work their biceps, triceps, or delts; these exercises are perfect for building up muscle size without the fancy machines.
Below are five shoulder and back workouts you can do with dumbbells:
1. Dumbbell push press
The dumbbell push press is a great basic exercise for developing your pressing muscles. It’s also a compound exercise that works for several different muscle groups. You’ll want to focus on using a full range of motion at the top position on each repetition to target your rhomboids, shoulders, and trapezius in the most effective way possible.
Here is how you do the dumbbell push press:
- Start with a dumbbell in each hand, palms facing each other.
- Bend your knees slightly and dip down low.
- Explosively press the dumbbells up overhead, using the momentum from your dip to help drive the weight up.
- Control the descent of the weights back down to the start position.
When it comes to pressing exercises, dumbbell push presses are one of the best options you have. They hit your shoulders and upper back hard, and they are great for building explosiveness. Because of that, they’re a valuable addition to any workout program.
2. Dumbbell bent-over row
The bent-over row is a great exercise to strengthen your entire back, including the biceps, shoulders, and core muscles. It is also a moderately challenging workout and builds good posture. Bent-over rows are primarily a compound exercise, meaning it works for many muscle groups at once by moving your joints through an arc and rotating your arms towards or away from the body.
Here is how you do this exercise:
- Start by holding a dumbbell in each hand and standing with your feet hip-width apart.
- Bend your knees slightly and hinge at the hips to lower your torso forward until it’s nearly parallel to the floor. Keep your back flat and your head up.
- From this position, row the dumbbells up to your sides, keeping your elbows close to your body.
- Pause for a moment at the top of the move and then lower the weights back to the starting position.
If you want to burn fat, build muscle and improve your overall bodily health, the bent-over row is one of the best exercises you can perform. It strengthens your entire back including the core, lower back muscles, and shoulders. It also raises testosterone, which is why it’s so important for bodybuilders.
3. Single-arm dumbbell row
The single-arm dumbbell row is a great upper body exercise that works your lats and rhomboids. It’s also a challenging exercise because you have to stabilize your entire body while balancing the weight with one arm. Many people fear the single-arm dumbbell row because they don’t know how to perform it properly.
Here is how you do this exercise:
- Start by placing a dumbbell on the floor next to your left foot.
- Bend your left knee and place your left hand on your knee for support.
- Engaged your core, and reach down to grab the dumbbell with your right hand.
- Bend your elbow and row the weight up to your side, keeping your elbow close to your body.
- Squeeze your back at the top of the movement, and then lower the weight back to the starting position.
- Repeat the movement for the desired number of repetitions, and then switch sides and repeat the exercise with your left arm.
There are a few tips for performing the single-arm dumbbell row properly. As you’re performing the exercise, keep your mid-back tight and flat. Also, you should feel your shoulder blades retracting towards one another and squeezing together. If your chest caves forward towards the standing arm, it means that either you’re using a weight that is too heavy for you, or your form isn’t correct. Finally, make sure that you are breathing during the exercise. Before each rep and during the hold, take a breath in as you contract your upper back muscles.
4. Seated dumbbell shoulder press
The seated dumbbell shoulder press is a great upper body exercise. It’s easy to perform and can be done almost anywhere at home. Male and female bodybuilders can use this exercise to build up the shoulders, arms, chest, and back. The seated version will allow you to complete the movement with less stress on your joints and muscles, while still being able to keep a stable base.
Here is how you do this exercise:
- Sit on a bench with your back straight and feet flat on the floor.
- Hold a dumbbell in each hand at shoulder level, with your palms facing forwards.
- Keeping your abdominal muscles tight, press the dumbbells upwards until your arms are straight.
- Lower the dumbbells back to the starting position and repeat.
This exercise is one of the best ways to tone and gain muscle on your shoulders because it targets all major muscle groups. Your shoulders, chest, and arms will develop quickly if you practice this exercise regularly. You don’t need weight lifting equipment, light dumbbells work just as well.
5. Seated rear-delt flies
Seated rear-delt flies exercise is one of the most effective exercises to strengthen the rear delt muscles and to build up your back muscles, thus helping you to increase your overall body strength. The seated back-delt fly superset is a great exercise for building up each of the individual muscles within your back and shoulders, making them much stronger than before.
To do seated rear-delt flies:
- Sit on a bench with a weight in each hand, palms facing each other.
- Bend your elbows and bring the weights to shoulder level with your palms facing each other.
- From here, open your arms out to the side and back, maintaining the bend in your elbows.
- Return to the starting position and repeat.
The seated rear-delt flies exercise can help you strengthen your shoulders and improve your shape. How these muscles are exercised has a major effect on the shoulders’ overall fitness as well. The larger and stronger these muscles are, the better overall posture you will have and the more complete your shoulder profile will be.
Conclusion
Hopefully, we have been able to show you some of the best dumbbell exercises for building muscle fast. The following workouts provide a broad array of choices that can be used to target the shoulders and back, increasing your strength and muscle size along the way. If you are not tired of working out with them, then you will love the results that dumbbells offer. So now it is all up to you in cooperating with these workouts, eat healthy and get plenty of sleep while following them daily, and see how much your muscles grow.